Football news - Atalanta squad reportedly awoken by fire alarms before Champions League clash with Manchester United
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Updated 20/10/2021 at 16:19 GMT+1
Reports suggest that Atalanta were repeatedly awoken in the early hours at their Manchester hotel. The Italian club are staying at The Ewardian hotel ahead of their encounter with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side, and currently lead Group F by a single point from their hosts and Swiss champions Young Boys.
Josip Ilicic of Atalanta BC in action during the Serie A match between Empoli FC and Atalanta BC at Stadio Carlo Castellani on October 17, 2021
Image credit: Getty Images
Atalanta have reportedly endured a disrupted night of sleep at their hotel ahead of their Champions League visit to Manchester United.
Reports suggest that Gian Piero Gasperini's staff and players were disturbed by fire alarms as many as six times between 04:51 and 07:13 on the morning of their encounter at Old Trafford.
The wife of Ruslan Malinovskiy, Roksana, accused Mancunians of deliberately setting off the fire alarms and suggested a similar fate may now befall Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team when they visit Lombardy.
"Hellish night in Manchester," Malinovskiy wrote on Instagram. "Throughout the night in the hotel the fire alarm was turned on at full power 5 times.
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"It happened just when the team arrived, and only at night! Do you think this is an accident? I don't. From such a "warm" welcome from the local population, it becomes terrible in the heart.
"I hope that our fans will support the team in our home game, and maybe the same thing will suddenly happen in an Italian hotel."
Atalanta top Group F by a point from Young Boys and Manchester United.
They will hope to further pile pressure on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, whose side were beaten by Leicester City in their last Premier League outing.
A fellow guest at The Edwardian hotel said that she was "furious" having been awoken by the fire alarms.
She Tweeted: "When you stay in the same hotel as the [Manchester United] opposition the night before a big game of course you are rudely woken by 04:51, 05:00, 05:36 and 06:11 Fire Alarms!"
It would not be the first occasion a sporting side has been targeted by such tomfoolery.
In January 2017 a man in his mid-twenties from Boston was arrested after the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) were roused by fire alarms in the early hours of the morning on the day they were beaten by the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game.
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