An infection almost kills him and now he's scoring for fun at Atalanta

Atalanta are living a dream in the last 16 of the Champions League. Against all the odds, the men from Bergamo qualified after a terrible start to the season and this Wednesday, they host Valencia at the San Siro. 

Josip Ilicic is at the helm, the main attacking man together with Papu Gomez's Atalanta. He has 15 goals this season, 14 of them in Serie A. The Slovenian striker who is 1.90 metres tall is shining after suffering a bacterial infection in his neck in summer 2018. 

"It was a difficult moment, sometimes I thought I wouldn't get over it. Every day it was worse. I was settling for just being able to carry out a normal life even if I didn't play football again," he explained in an interview with 'Ekipa'. 

"I was frightened of sleeping in case I didn't wake up. Fortunately, I overcame it, but I had to start from scratch: learn to work, to run... as if I were a kid," Ilicic continued. 

Slightly more than a year and a half later, he faces Valencia in the Champions League. "I don't usually analyse opponents. It's better for me to play regardless of the opponent and how they play, I discovered that a while back," he said about Valencia. 

The Slovenian is very confident: "We aren't afraid of anyone, we can play against anyone, but we don't usually think "this will not be too difficult. We aren't the favourites against anyone. We believe in our strenghts, but at the same time, it's important for us to be realistic."

"We are keeping our feet on the ground. I'm not telling anyone it will be easy for us, neither against Valencia nor against any other side in Italy or Europe. But I maintain that will be difficult for everyone to play against us because we never give up and we fight until the end," he continued. 

Lastly, Ilicic referred to that dynamic at the beginning of the Champions League. After missing the first three group matches, his team qualified against the odds: "It was difficult for us and it was even more difficult for the people at the club and the people in the city, for our fans."

"In Italy a climate of mocking and ridicule was created: 'Atalanta simply went to watch the Champions League', they said after the 4-0 loss in Zagreb. That spurred us on. In any case, we wanted to show that what happened in Zagreb was a one off and we were capable of qualifying. And this is part of the mentality of our team. When it seems like we are down, even on the floor, we bounce back quickly and come back up," he concluded.