Gomez: 'Fate brought us through'

By Football Italia staff

Papu Gomez feared he wouldn't play at his old home ground, but in the end managed to help Atalanta overcome Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League.

The Dea qualified with a 3-0 win against the Ukrainian side and the captain Papu said he needed acupuncture to participate in the important game in his old stadium at Metalist Kharkiv.

When Atalanta prepare to play Valencia in the knockout stages, but Gomez revealed that he had hoped to already play in the prestigious tournament when he first went to Kharkiv in 2013.

“I thought I wouldn’t be able to play that game,” he told Sky Sport Italia. “My leg was terribly bad. I talked to the doctor and said I couldn’t do it.

“I couldn’t move, I couldn’t run, I started working with a physiotherapist and only with acupuncture I managed to do it.”

“I made an assist, I managed in the best possible way and fate wanted us to go through. Sometimes it plays games with you, I went to Kharkiv to play in the Champions League with Metalist and I didn’t succeed.

“I left because of the war and six years later I qualified with Atalanta.”

On February 19, Los Che arrive in Italy for the first leg in the last 16.

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