Atalanta made history: having beaten the invincible Bayer, they are the winner of the 2023-2024 Europa League.
Bergamo it is a Lombard municipality of 120,530 inhabitants, capital of the province of the same name. The city’s most important and most followed sports club is Atalanta, founded in 1907, whose club colors are black and blue. It had won only one title in its centuries-old existence, the 1962-1963 Italian Cup, won by beating Torino 3-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Angelo Domenghini. This was at least until 22 May 2024, when at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, in the Europa League final, they dealt the first defeat of the season to German champions Bayer Leverkusen. Atalanta-Bayer Leverkusen is a 3-0 sealed again by a hat-trick, that of an almighty Ademola Olajade Lookmanwhich brought Atalanta, and Bergamo, into the elite of European champion clubs and cities.
A final exciting even for the neutral eye, so much for the phantom aura from the Bergamo fairy tale as much as for the quality, rhythm and enjoyment of a game played without hesitation. There Dea it reigned supreme, beyond any reasonable perspective of the analysts and economic estimate of the bookmakers. Gasperini and his team played a practically perfect match in terms of application, intensity, clarity and confidence in their abilities, hitting Bayer Leverkusen without appeal until this inevitable match. An incredible demonstration of strength and will, from a team and a long-standing project that has finally found its full, definitive fulfillment in an evening destined to remain in the annals of Bergamo football.
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If the match has always been held with a firm hand by Atalanta, it is the first half entirely of the Bergamo brand that has shown the sublimation of Gasperini’s football, which was already well seen in this Europa League against Liverpool. The key to the match would have been given, given the Nerazzurri’s consolidated tactical idea of always playing man to man with great intensity, by Bayer Leverkusen’s ability to manipulate these references: but Palacios’ naivety and Lookman’s deadly breakthrough probably had conditioned beyond measure the capacity of aspirin to implement this. Never seen Bayer in such difficulty this season, victim of Atalanta’s competitive fury and finding themselves unable to use the opponent’s characteristics to their advantage, a quality that until now Xabi Alonso’s team had exploited to prevail against any opponent. Instead, a double blow, almost coldly, stunned the Germans, and the asphyxiating pace of the Goddess prevented Xabi Alonso’s team from getting up, breathing, regaining clarity, without the Spanish coach managing to shake his team. In his facial expressions and body gestures, the former Liverpool Bayern and Real midfielder actually gave the impression of having already seen, several minutes in advance, the final result of the match.
Gasperini responded to the forced absence of captain De Roon with even more unscrupulous choices up front, simultaneously deploying Scamacca, De Ketelaere and Lookman forward with Koopmeiners in the midfield next to Ederson. And all in, an all-or-nothing decision, in what is arguably the most important match in Atalanta’s 107-year history. But Grugliasco’s coach didn’t bluff, he rather asked his players for a unique effort for a single match. It wasn’t obvious to take the risk, it wasn’t obvious that the team would respond, after the blow of the final of the Italian Cup lost and against an opponent with the performance and value of Leverkusen. Atalanta responded, and the stigmas on the handsome but non-winning coach go to the deepest drawer out of shame.
They could dedicate themselves rivers of words about the individual performances of the Bergamo players, from Hein’s response to the blunders against Juve to Ederson’s masterful performance in the midfield pair, to the quantity and quality of Zappacosta and Ruggeri on the outside until the apprehension caused to the German defenders by a Scamacca available to the team. But the last, few, words all go to Lookman, hero of the evening and scorer of all three goals of the match. Few words because his match was perfect, and he doesn’t need too many frills: Ademola Lookman scored a hat-trick in Atalanta-Bayer, a European final. Simply, the most beautiful thing.
2024-05-22 21:34:48
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