Italian club Atalanta BC has made history! In their history of 116 years, Atalanta had won only one trophy – Coppa Italia in 1963. However, they have ended their 61 years of trophyless run by defeating Bayer Leverkusen!
Bayer Leverkusen have had an unbelievable season this year, winning their first-ever Bundesliga trophy without losing a single match. Additionally, they were unbeaten for 51 games when they came to play against Atalanta last night. But Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta ended Bayer Levekusen’s unbeaten run as they outplayed the German champions in the Europa League final.
Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman scored a brilliant hattrick in the final to secure Atalanta’s first-ever Europa League trophy in Dublin. Additionally, Ademola Lookman has also become the first player to score a hat-trick in the Europa League final!
Match Report
Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen faced off last night against each other in Dublin to play the Europa League final. Both Gian Piero Gasperini and Xabi Alonso played their teams in an aggressive 3-4-2-1 formation, using three CBs with two wing-backs.
But this formation didn’t work out for Bayer Leverkusen as they conceded a goal at the beginning of the match. In the 12th minute, Atalanta’s Zappacosta broke Leverkusen’s defense and entered into their box. He wisely passed the ball towards Ademola Lookman, who was unmarked inside the box! However, Lookman didn’t miss the chance and scored with one touch.
The winger showed his skills in his second goal a few moments later. Lookman fooled Granit Xhaka and took a powerful shot outside from the box, which beat Leverkusen’s goalkeeper to find the net in the 26th minute.
There was still hope for the new German champions, as they had fallen two goals behind four times this season and come back every time. But last night’s game against Atalanta was really difficult for Alonso boys and couldn’t make a dramatic comeback.
Besides, Ademola Lookman hammered a last nail into Leverkusen’s coffin when he completed his hattrick in the 75th minute. Leverkusen, however, tried their best to make a good impact in the remaining minutes but failed to score a goal. As a result, Atalanta won the match by a 3-0 margin and won their first-ever Europa League trophy.
Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso shared his thoughts on losing the match. “We were not planning to have a bad day today, but for sure we had one. It was not meant to be, we could not cope with many difficult situations.” Xabi said to TNT Sports.
Xabi Alonso believes Atalanta was better than them and the Italian side deserved the trophy. Xabi said, “The unbeaten run has come to an end but congratulations to Atalanta, they deserved it, so nothing more to say. It was not about tactics, individually they were better and as a team as well.”
