DUBLIN, Ireland – It was supposedly Michael Jordan who once said: “I never lost a game, I just ran out of time,” but as much as Xabi Alonso and his Bayer Leverkusen players would like the same to happen after failing to complete a unprecedented unbeaten treble, the reality is that they ran out of ideas long before the clock ran out and Atalanta beat them in the UEFA Europa League final.
Leverkusen had become the team that simply does not lose under Alonso this season. Undefeated champions of a 34-game Bundesliga season, finalists of the DFB-Pokal and also in the final of a European competition (not a single defeat anywhere), they were trying to become the first team since the European competitions of clubs in 1955-56. to sweep the board without losing a game.
Until they arrived in Dublin, looking to seal the second leg of an unbeaten treble, they had gone 51 games without losing in all competitions, a span of 361 days stretching back to a 3-0 defeat against VfL Bochum on 27 May 2023. But that run came to an end with another 3-0 defeat against Gian Piero Gasperini's underrated Atalanta. And the hard truth for Leverkusen is that it wasn't even close.
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From start to finish, Atalanta dominated. Alonso had spoken before the match about how Gasperini's team likes to drop and play deeper, but if he was expecting the same approach at the Aviva Stadium, it was a huge miscalculation as Atalanta pressed relentlessly in the final third of the pitch. and forced Leverkusen. in error after error. The second part of Leverkusen's treble never looked likely to come to fruition.
History was made in Dublin, but it was Atalanta's Ademola Lookman, not Leverkusen, who wrote his place in the record books by becoming the first player to score a hat-trick in a Europa League/UEFA Cup final since Jupp Heynckes with Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1975.
No player had scored a hat-trick in a European final for an Italian club since AC Milan's Pierino Prati achieved it in the 4-1 win against Ajax in the 1968 European Cup/UEFA Champions League final. 69. So Lookman, who left the field with the ball and the winner's medal, deserves all the praise he will receive in the coming days.
Atalanta is an exceptional team, brilliantly coached by Gasperini. They have convincingly beaten Napoli and Roma in Italy and Sporting CP and Liverpool in Europe this season, secured qualification for the Champions League for next season and have now become the first and only team to defeat Leverkusen this season.
“I think we wrote history, also because of the way we won it,” Gasperini said. “It was simply extraordinary. We beat Liverpool, Sporting [Lisbon] who won the championship. When we faced Liverpool, they were first in the Premier League. And now the German champions. Incredible. “The boys were extraordinary, a memorable performance.”
But while this was Atalanta's night, no one outside their hometown of Bergamo would have really expected that to be the result. Leverkusen have been incredibly effective this season. They reached this final having scored after the 90th minute on 17 different occasions, and when faced with defeat in recent weeks, they repeatedly saved themselves from the fire.
Since March, they have rescued draws with goals in added time against Roma (97th minute), Stuttgart (96th), Borussia Dortmund (97th) and Qarabag (92nd). They turned defeat into victory against Hoffenheim with goals in the 88th and 91st minutes, while in the first leg of the Europa League against Qarabag they came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 with goals in the 72nd, 93rd and 98th minutes. . minute.
So when they were down 2-0 at half-time following Lookman's goals in the 12th and 26th minutes (both due to poor defending caused by Atalanta's high pressing) there was no sense of panic among the players or their supporters. . After all, they had been in this situation many times before and gotten out of it.
But while there was no panic, there was no urgency either. Alonso's players seemed heavy-legged and lacking confidence. They barely created a chance, despite Florian Wirtz doing everything he could to give life to his team. Just as Atalanta made Liverpool look lethargic and one-dimensional in their 3-0 defeat at Anfield in the first leg of their quarter-final, Leverkusen fell into the same trap and ended up looking very average.
“It wasn't lost in terms of attitude, it was a matter of football,” Alonso said. “It happens, it's football, today was not meant to be like this. They were better.
“It's our first loss of the season, so it will be a test of how we will deal with it, because we have an important game on Saturday. Normally, [first defeat] This happens early in the season, but when it happens in such an important game, it hurts. But we have to use this pain in a positive way: it is football, normality is not losing the first game in the 52nd game.
“What we have done is exceptional. Today is painful, but it is also deserved.”
Despite those feelings of pain that Leverkusen is experiencing, this season has already been remarkable and they can still make history by achieving an unbeaten double by beating Kaiserslautern, who finished in the middle of the table in the second division of the Bundesliga, in the DFB Cup final in Berlin on Saturday.
Being invincible at national level remains an impossible dream, but Leverkusen is 90 minutes away from achieving it. But they were also 90 minutes away from glory against Atalanta and, unlike Michael Jordan, lost before time ran out.
