Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini hailed their character after victory over Sporting CP.
The 2-1 win sees Atalanta reach the Europa League quarterfinals with Ademola Lookman and Gianluca Scamacca scoring.
“It is great joy for the team and for all of Bergamo to be in the quarter-finals again. It was tough against a side that is dominating the domestic league in Portugal, so it was a great achievement and we are really satisfied," Gasperini told Sky Italia.
“We had a very good second half, but undoubtedly there was some fatigue late on and perhaps we will learn from this in the future. We absolutely should not have allowed space behind our shoulders, as we no longer had the same fresh legs as earlier.
“It was our sixth game in 18 days, of which four were away matches, facing the likes of Sporting, Milan, Inter and Bologna, all quality teams. I can only be thankful to the players for their efforts. Sead Kolasinac was a wreck at the end."
He added, “This team has an incredible ability to react and recover. I am also pleased with the fact I can rotate the squad, but we always have the same motivation. We felt disappointed at half-time, as we were trailing and felt that we could've done better, but also confident that we could score after the break.
“Scoring straight away gave us the energy and adrenaline we needed to go on and win."
