Former Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi isn't surprised by Serie A's failure in the Champions League this season.
However, he insists Atalanta can leave the competition with heads held high after their defeat to Real Madrid.
Sacchi wrote for Gazzetta dello Sport: "La Dea is the Italian team closest to international football. It was not a defeat, but a confirmation of the goodness of the work undertaken by Gasperini and his boys.
"The way is that of innovation. The Italian way of understanding this sport is ancient and the son of a cultural refusal to change. So you don't get close to the future, but to the past.
"The international results of the last eleven years have been disheartening and condemn us."
