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In the same space on the Lansdowne road where spherical or oval balls barely touched the ground for 135 years, a glassy and futuristic stadium now stands where Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen will meet this Wednesday. At stake is a Europa League final for very coffee lovers. Dublin hosts (9:00 p.m., MovistarLC) two of the squads that set trends in contemporary football with their mark, two signature teams: Xabi Alonso against Gian Piero Gasperini.
Two Cinderella stories appear in the fray, of clubs that yearn for glory and, at the best moment in their history, want to fill showcases. In a competition whose victory grants a place in the next Champions League, Italians and Germans have already reached that goal through their domestic competitions, a prize that almost seems smaller compared to what it means to win a final that grants a passport to eternity. .
It is likely that Bayer, who at least won the UEFA Cup in 1988 after an agonizing outcome against Espanyol, are already feeling in heaven. Last weekend he raised the salad bowl that identifies him as Bundesliga champion and he did so after remaining undefeated in 34 games in the competition. They only gave up six draws in a campaign in which they also extended their unbeaten streak both in the Cup (on Saturday they play the final against Kaiserslautern) and in Europe. There are already 51 games without defeats so far this season.
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“I like to play good football,” Alonso reflected after the contented celebration of the league epilogue. And immediately clarify that “good football” is not synonymous with “showy football.” “What I understand to be things about good football is making good passes, running, and defending well. “Those are the keys,” he stressed. The challenge of facing Atalanta requires exposing all of these principles. “It’s a visit to the dentist,” Pep Guardiola defined them when he met them in the Champions League. “They are very uncomfortable and very well coached,” said Jürgen Klopp after taking a tumble (0-3 at Anfield) a little over a month ago in the quarterfinals.
Atalanta is a classic of Italian football, the dea (goddess) because it takes the name of the heroic huntress of Hellenic mythology, the team that represents a town that is not the provincial capital that accumulates the most presences (63) in the Series A. Only once, and 61 years ago, did the emblem of Bergamo win a Cup final, a Lombard city the size of León that lives overshadowed by the nearby Milanese glow, but in which football has been piloting a battle for eight years. small rebellion. It was in 2016 when Gasperini, a volcanic and stubborn coach in the defense of a football of pressure, attack and man-marking, arrived at the team. But he is missing the icing on the cake of a title. They reached the quarterfinals in the Champions League and were a Cup finalist three times in the last six seasons, the last of which was last week against Juventus. In all those seasons they barely dropped below fifth place in the League once. He has established himself in the elite with some hallmarks that Klopp compared in his day, for the individual pursuits without the ball and the construction of the game from a defense of three centre-backs, with the influence of Marcelo Bielsa, but which also draws from the sources of the German for the pressure and verticality after recovering the ball.
Both Atalanta and Bayer are built in width with long-range laterals and great impact not only in the game, but in front of the rival goal. It is in this section where Alonso uses Grimaldo and Frimpong, who between them have contributed a huge contribution of 26 goals and 31 assists this season. In the Italian squad, the work on the wings is aimed more at generating spaces between the full-back and the centre-back so that the midfielders can shine, such as the Dutchman Koopmeiners, who has already scored 15 times this season and has given 7 assists on goal. , or the Belgian De Ketelaere, who has 14 goals and 9 assists in his statistics. In addition, there is the contribution of Scamacca and Lookman, forwards who are now joined by Bilal Touré, who arrived from Almería last summer for 30 million euros and has spent more than half the season out. However, Gasperini will miss his captain, midfielder or defender Marten De Roon, who after seven years at the club will miss the most important match after being injured last week in the Cup final. Some fans left on the morning of this Tuesday a gigantic banner in front of his house. “Commitment, sacrifice and the always sweaty shirt. De Roon, you have already conquered your Cup”, he read.
Gasperini also follows that line when defining his team’s epic. “Overcoming one’s limits is already being a winner.” But, approaching 67 years old, he feels that it is time to lift a trophy. In front, Xabi Alonso already knows that path: “We are not going to change anything. The atmosphere after the celebrations on Saturday is great and we want to end the season making history.”
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2024-05-22 03:15:00
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