Hilfestellungen » while Celtic remained bottom with two points

ROME -- In terms of salaries, Atalanta ranks 15th in Serie A. On the field, however, its been a different story for the provincial club, which has relied on homegrown talent to become the best team in the Italian league over the last seven rounds.After gaining 19 out of a possible 21 points since Sept. 26, Atalanta has rocketed up the standings to fifth place to make qualifying for Europe a distinct possibility.The Bergamo squad has won four straight and achieved three consecutive clean sheets in which it has outscored the opposition 7-0.Were on a fantastic streak but the most important thing has been the way weve been playing and that the squad and players have been improving continuously, Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said.Gasperinis job was at risk when Atalanta lost four of its five opening matches, but club president Antonio Percassis faith in the coach has proved decisive.Atalanta features nine homegrown players on its first team -- the most in Serie A -- and regularly uses them.Players like 22-year-old defenders Mattia Caldara and Andrea Conti, 21-year-old striker Andrea Petagna -- all members of Italys under-21 squad -- and 22-year-old midfielder Roberto Gagliardini, who was given his first call up to Italys senior national team this month after only nine Serie A appearances, are in the team.Then theres 19-year-old Ivory Coast midfielder Franck Kessie, who first spent time on the youth squad after arriving in January 2015. He leads the team with four goals this season.Its a matter of pride for us and for the club, Gagliardini said of the widespread use of homegrown players.Added Caldara: Were friends before were teammates.The youth movement was on full display in Atalantas last match, a 3-0 win at Sassuolo in which Caldara and Conti scored and Gagliardini provided the assist for the opening goal by Alejandro Papu Gomez.The victory over Sassuolo was significant because it gave Atalanta bragging rights as the leagues top provincial squad.Sassuolo set a club record by finishing sixth last season to qualify for the Europa League, an achievement Atalanta would like to emulate.In its 109-year history, Atalanta has spent 56 seasons in Serie A -- more than any other club which has never won the top division.Its only major trophy was the 1963 Italian Cup, besides six Serie B titles. Atalanta also reached the Cup Winners Cup semifinals in 1988 while competing in Serie B -- one of the best performances by a non-first division club in a major UEFA competition.The club has also had its troubles, getting docked six points in 2011-12 for a widespread betting and match-fixing scandal that ended the career of club captain Cristiano Doni, who was arrested.Atalanta was also docked two points the following season but it managed to avoid relegation from Serie A on both occasions.With a population of 120,000, Bergamo is a mid-sized city that is considered part of the wider Milan metropolitan area, which made a 2-1 win over Inter Milan last month especially sweet.Gasperini, in his first season at Atalanta, was hardly given a chance at Inter, where he was fired after five winless matches in September 2011.Bergamo attracts many Milan residents for its airport that is home to low-cost airlines and the club is also a relatively low-cost affair.Atalanta, which pays its players a total of 24 million euros ($26.5 million) per season, is level on points with fourth-place Lazio, which pays its players more than twice as much.In July, Atalanta sold Marten de Roon to Middlesbrough for 14 million euros ($15 million), a year after paying Heerenveen 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) for the Dutch midfielder. That helped Atalanta earn a 6 million euro ($6.5 million) profit in the offseason transfer market.Were enjoying the moment and it provides us with extra motivation to continue along this path, Gasperini said.Having helped launch the careers of players like Roberto Donadoni, Christian Vieri and Filippo Inzaghi -- plus current AC Milan standouts Riccardo Montolivo and Giacomo Bonaventura -- Atalanta has long been a starting spot for players who later achieved greatness.And with coaches like Marcello Lippi, Cesare Prandelli and Antonio Conte making stops in Bergamo, its also been on the road to managerial success.The clubs current fortune will be tested against Roma on Sunday and in games against Juventus and Milan -- the top three teams in the standings -- before the holiday break.Weve got a Tour de Force awaiting us until Christmas but weve got enthusiasm, Gasperini said. So lets see where it takes us.---Andrew Dampf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/asdampf Wholesale Jerseys China .ca NFL Power Rankings, overtaking the Denver Broncos and remaining ahead of NFC competition San Francisco, Carolina and New Orleans. Wholesale Jerseys 2020 . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. https://www.wholesalejerseysaaa.com/ . The injury bothered Bledsoe in the Suns victory over the Clippers on Monday and he sat out the teams home loss to Memphis on Thursday night. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East. Cheap Jerseys From China . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. MOENCHENGLADBACH, Germany -- Celtic fought back to earn a 1-1 draw at Borussia Moenchengladbach through a penalty by Moussa Dembele on Tuesday and keep a slim hope of advancing in the Champions League.Dembele was pulled down by Julian Korb as the Celtic forward was running toward the goal to earn the penalty, while Korb was sent off. Dembele sent goalkeeper Yann Sommer the wrong way to level the score in the 76th but Celtic could not use the man advantage to score the winner.Moenchengladbach had taken the lead through captain Lars Stindl in the 32nd.We had a lot of chances to score and I think we deserved better than a draw, Dembele said. Penalties are a lottery -- sometimes you miss, sometimes you score. Tonight I scored and I am happy, but as I said we deserved better from the game.The draw left Moenchengladbach at four points after four matches in Group C, while Celtic remained bottom with two points. Manchester City beat Barcelona 3-1 in the other match, but Barcelona remained top of the group with nine points. Manchester City has seven.Both Moenchengladbach and Celtic have matches against Barcelona and Manchester City remaining and are likely to fight for a slot in the Europa League by finishing third in the group.It will be difficult to finish second in the group after Manchester Citys victory, but as long as theres mathematically still a chance of a second-place finish, well keep trying, Sommer said..ddddddddddddMoenchengladbach went ahead after Scott Sinclair had hit the post with a curling shot.Maybe we should have come away with a better result. Hopefully we can now take that same kind of performance into the last two games, Sinclair said.The goal was created by Thorgan Hazard, who ran into space on the right and sent back a perfect cross for Stindl to volley home. Hazard was back after three weeks out with a knee injury.Stindl could have doubled the lead in the 53rd when he was fed a through ball by Andre Hahn. But his weak shot was smothered by Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon.Fabian Johnson then had a narrow miss for Moenchengladbach, which was piling up the pressure. Hazards attempt from an acute angle was tipped over by Gordon, before Hahn fired against the crossbar.On the other side, Dembele had a good effort saved by Sommer.Substitute Callum McGregors shot went wide late in the match as Celtic wasted its best chance for a winner.I thought we should have won the game, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said. We were the best team, but I am really proud of the players tonight. I said we needed to play with personality and the personality we showed was outstanding. We were brave on the ball, had speed on the counterattack and we had chances. An outstanding team performance. ' ' '