Happy for an hour. That was Marten de Roon’s recollection of Atalanta’s victory in Valencia two weeks ago. A fleeting joy, a passing elation, before players and staff renewed acquaintance with grim, inescapable reality.
De Roon, who played a single season with Middlesbrough in the Premier League, said that having qualified for the Champions League quarter-finals, there would normally have been a few thousand supporters waiting at Orio al Serio airport for the returning heroes. Instead, the message had got out that attendance could be fatal, and the area was empty.
Bergamo, Atalanta’s home, is the epicentre of Italy’s coronavirus crisis.