Atalanta forward Josip Ilicic has donated the ball with which he scored four goals in the Champions League last week to a hospital in Bergamo, at the centre of Italy's coronavirus drama.

Ilicic scored four times in a 4-3 win over Valencia to power the Champions League newcomers into the quarter-finals, a welcome boost back home in the north of Italy. "We too are by your side, our angels, to win the most important match of all," said Ilicic, who gifted the ball to the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in the city. Coach Gian Piero Gasperini has appealed for funds for the hospital to purchase medical equipment.