A hat-trick from Ademola Lookman allowed Atalanta Bergamo to beat Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final on Wednesday (3-0). The Italians win their first European title and end the German club’s 51-match unbeaten run.
TOPS
Lookman, a hat-trick for history
The Nigerian was in all the good moves this Wednesday evening at the Aviva stadium in Dublin, during the coronation of Atalanta Bergamo in the Europa League at the expense of Bayer Leverkusen (3-0). On the first goal, he comes out of nowhere to finish at the far post following a cross from Zappacosta. The second goal, Lookman owes only to his talent. He recovers the ball at 30 meters, hooks his right inside, a small bridge over the defender, followed by a magnificent strike with his right foot which lodges in Kovar’s small net. A pure marvel, like the hat-trick goal! The Nigerian finds himself one on one. He goes on to pass his leg and strikes with his left, it goes into the goalkeeper’s right corner. An anthology match that will go down in the history books.
Gasperini, the consecration
He is the man who shaped this team, and this title is above all his. Coach of Atalanta since 2016, he has given real DNA to this team. This pressing, this intensity, this tactical consistency. All this in a club which has become accustomed to selling its best players at the end of each season, and which does not have a budget comparable to the European ogres. Against Bayer Leverkusen, Gian Piero Gasperini taught the “young” Xabi Alonso a lesson, and his men mastered the match from A to Z, both tactically and physically. If Atalanta Bergamo is today a European Cup winning club, it is thanks to him.
Physical and tactical domination
Atalanta put this Bayer team through a real ordeal. The Italians’ high pressing and their intensity, from the first to the last second of the match, never allowed Xabi Alonso’s men to get their heads above water. Preventing them from exploiting their offensive quality and reducing players who are usually technically excellent to attackers who redouble their inaccuracies and technical waste. Atalanta owes this observation to its collective strength which swallowed up all the German hopes of success.
FLOPS
Leverkusen missed out
To say that the German players missed their match is an understatement. Late in the duels, technically clumsy, but above all undermined by the tactical system of Gian Piero Gasperini, Xabi Alonso and his players may have regrets for a long time about this final from which they seemed absent for a long time. Is this the issue that made the Germans flinch? Regardless, they come out with a lost final, the end of a 51-match unbeaten run and the dream of a historic treble gone.
Wirtz invisible
He was the man everyone was waiting for. Probably the most scrutinized individuality in pre-match. It is also the one that disappointed the most. Invisible throughout the time he spent on the pitch, the young German number 10 was never able to impact the game. In difficulty in the duels and technically clumsy, he was like his team: disappointing. Replaced by his coach before the end of regulation time, he will probably have regrets about this match in which he never really entered.
