Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini on Saturday said he never intended to offend Ademola Lookman by saying the striker is "one of the worst penalty takers he has ever seen" after their home Champions League defeat by Club Brugge.
Belgian side Club Brugge stunned Atalanta 3-1 in the second leg of their playoff tie to dump the Italian side out with a 5-2 aggregate win and reach the last 16.
Lookman, Atalanta's hero last season when they won the Europa League, pulled back one goal for the Italian side when they were 3-0 down.
But the Nigerian, who has scored 15 times this season, had a penalty saved, which Gasperini said Lookman was not supposed to take with offensive midfielder Charles De Ketelaere and striker Mateo Retegui on the pitch.
In a post on Instagram, Lookman said Gasperini's comments singling him out were "deeply disrespectful" and hurtful.
Gasperini brushed off the quarrel while addressing a press conference on Saturday, pointing out similarities to an incident in Udinese's 1-0 Serie A win over Lecce on Friday where Lorenzo Lucca scored a penalty despite not being the designated taker.
"It had an extraordinary impact, everything that came afterwards... mine was not meant to be an offensive sentence," Gasperini said.
"Yesterday in Udinese-Lecce we had what could have been a drama, luckily there were guys who let it go. I would have liked a strong player like Lookman to have made a gesture towards De Ketelaere saying 'come on keep the ball, put it in'.
"He can become a penalty taker, that would be an additional goal-scoring ability... I always speak in front of the whole team, it has never touched the club. He felt offended, I didn't want to offend anyone."
Atalanta, third in Serie A with 51 points from 25 matches, travel to relegation-threatened Empoli on Sunday.
"Empoli come from a streak of difficult results, all the games I've seen they've performed very well," Gasperini said.
"They are a good team, with a good quality of play, with an excellent coach, who are playing for salvation. I remember the first game, I expect a balanced, difficult match. We only have one goal, we have to do our best."
HE WILL NOT RENEW CONTRACT
Gasperini does not intend to renew his contract with the Serie A club, he said on Saturday, adding that he would still explore the option of extending his current deal until 2026.
Gasperini, appointed Atalanta coach in 2016, has turned around the club's fortunes in his nine-year spell, transforming them from a mid-table side to Champions League regulars.
Under the 67-year-old, Atalanta won the Europa League trophy last season with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the final.
Gasperini is under contract until June 2025 with an option to extend it by a year.
Asked if Atalanta, who are third in Serie A with 51 points from 25 matches, could secure qualification for the Champions League this season, Gasperini told reporters: "I have little time to do this, maybe it's the last one.
"Rightly so, as has been said there is a beginning and an end, we'll see at the end of the year whether to go for expiry or to stop, certainly there will be no continuity. There will be no further renewal and continuity."
Gasperini, who started his coaching career with Juventus' youth team, joined Atalanta after ending a second spell in charge of Genoa.
Under Gasperini's guidance, Genoa were promoted to Serie A in 2007 following a 12-year absence from the top flight. He has also had coaching spells with Inter Milan and Palermo.