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Atalanta won the Europa League, the second most important European competition, beating Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 thanks to a hat-trick from Nigerian striker Ademola Lookman. Atalanta were not considered favourites, but played a very high level match, immediately putting Bayer Leverkusen in difficulty with exceptional intensity. Lookman scored three very nice goals, two in the first half and one in the second. The match was played at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland.
It is the first international trophy that Atalanta has won in its history, the second ever after the 1963 Italian Cup. In this Europa League, Atalanta won the group ahead of Sporting Lisbon, Sturm Graz and Raków, then eliminated in the round of 16 Sporting Lisbon itself, in the quarter-finals Liverpool (with a historic 3-0 away victory) and finally Marseille in the semi-final. Atalanta became the first Italian team to win the Europa League since this competition changed its name in 2009 (previously it was called the UEFA Cup).
The victory in the final against Bayer Leverkusen is even more remarkable if you consider that the Germans reached this Europa League final after the best season in their history. Bayer won the German championship this year (the first in its history) without losing a single match and in total, before the match against Atalanta, they had played 51 matches, winning 42, drawing 9 and never losing.
Since the arrival of Gian Piero Gasperini as coach in 2016, Atalanta has completely changed its dimension, becoming a team capable of competing with the best in Italy and Europe, whereas before the only seasonal objective was usually to try to remain in Serie A. The match against Bayer can be considered a sort of manifesto of the modern, aggressive and spectacular football proposed by Gasperini’s Atalanta in recent years.
– Read also: The Endless Revolution by Gian Piero Gasperini
2024-05-22 20:52:06
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