Luca Percassi Vice President of Atalanta (Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)
Atalanta Director Luca Percassi said he was “proud and satisfied” to see the Gewiss Stadium, which will host Arsenal in the Champions League, finally completed and recalled his surprising debut with Chelsea.
It starts at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).
You can follow all the construction and action as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.
In May, the club won their first European trophy, the Europa League, beating favourites Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 in the final in Dublin.
Now they are back in the Champions League and can finally play in a full stadium, as reconstruction work was completed last week, reopened for the 3-2 win over Fiorentina on Sunday.
Percassi’s unexpected link with Arsenal
“We are very happy, because we finally have a completely renovated stadium. It is a project that required a lot of work, but we are very proud and satisfied to see it finished,” Percassi told Sky Sport Italia.
Percassi was a player before becoming a manager and made his Chelsea debut against Arsenal under player-manager Gianluca Vialli.
“It was a fantastic night. I was very young, but it was a great opportunity to play in that stadium and I will always be grateful to Gianluca Vialli.”
The new Champions League format sees the top eight teams advance directly to the round of 16, with the bottom eight eliminated and the teams in the middle facing off in the play-offs.
“We hope to finish in that middle phase, but we know how competitive the Champions League is and how many teams there are now.
“Tonight we face one of the best teams in the world, with a young coach and great ideas. It will be a very difficult match, as it should be at this level.”