Europa League Bayer Leverkusen loses final against Atalanta Bergamo
Atalanta Bergamo celebrates the goal scorer Ademola Lookman (M.) after the 2-0
© Liam Mcburney/PA Wire / DPA
Bayer Leverkusen’s winning streak was broken against Atalanta Bergamo – in the final of the Europa League, of all places.
The treble is gone, the historic series was broken in the final on the big European stage: Bayer Leverkusen lost the final of the Europa League and suffered their first defeat in the 52nd competitive game of the season. The spoilsport for the German champions in the 0:3 (0:2) against Atalanta Bergamo in Dublin was the outstanding former Leipzig player Ademola Lookman, who scored three goals (12th, 26th and 75th) against an unusually nervous and erratic Bayer team. Minute). In the DFB Cup final on Saturday against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Bayer is playing for the double.
In their third European final after winning the UEFA Cup in 1988 and losing the Champions League in 2002, Leverkusen suffered their second defeat. Bergamo, on the other hand, won their first international title in their first final and are the first Italian winners ever in the Europa League, which was introduced in 2011.
Bayer Leverkusen fell behind early on
The Bayer fans who came along after the championship cup party gave their players an atmospheric reception in the best football weather. In Leverkusen, almost 10,000 people also watched the game during public viewing. But right from the start it didn’t look like another title evening at all. Even before conceding the first goal, Bayer made an unusually large number of simple errors in the build-up to the game and appeared surprised by their attacking opponents.
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Lookman benefited from a mistake by Exequiel Palacios following a corner. Coach Xabi Alonso accepted the goal without much emotion – after all, his team had already come back from deficits so often this season. But only tentative attempts at attack followed. Bergamo goalkeeper Juan Musso easily caught a harmless shot from Josip Stanisic (18th minute). Just a few minutes later, Lookman did much better on the other side: the 26-year-old gave Leverkusen’s cup goalkeeper Matej Kovar no chance with his well-placed shot.
Atalanta Bergamo as a tough opponent
And now? Even a 2-0 defeat in the past few months does not mean that Leverkusen will lose. In the Europa League alone, Bayer had conceded two goals three times and then came back. But Atalanta, who narrowly lost the Italian Cup final last week, proved to be the tough opponents expected. Before the game, even star coach Pep Guardiola warned against the Italian club.
Leverkusen had no more promising chances before half-time and had to be wide awake to avoid conceding a third goal. Alonso had sent 24-year-old Amine Adli into the game as the only striker, but like the rest of the team he had great problems finding his usual form. The coach reacted during the break, but initially only brought on striker Victor Boniface for Stanisic.
Xabi Alonso brings Andrich and Hlozek
Bayer still didn’t play Sturm und Drang at the start of the second half. Atalanta continued to find it easy to take the ball away from Leverkusen and quickly get towards the goal. One of the German champions’ problems was that national player Florian Wirtz, who got fit in time, was unable to provide any impetus.
After just over an hour, the dynamics changed a little, and the final was now played out more often and for longer around Atalanta’s penalty area. But Leverkusen was running out of time, and Alonso brought on midfield leader Robert Andrich and striker Adam Hlozek (68th/69th). Bergamo increasingly retreated with the lead behind them, but remained dangerous: Lookman scored his third goal with a powerful left-foot shot. The final was decided.
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