DUBLIN, Eire — It was supposedly Michael Jordan who as soon as stated, “I’ve by no means misplaced a recreation, I simply ran out of time,” however as a lot as Xabi Alonso and his Bayer Leverkusen gamers may need the identical to be true of their failure to finish an unprecedented unbeaten treble, the fact is that they ran out of concepts lengthy earlier than the clock and Atalanta beat them within the UEFA Europa League ultimate.
Leverkusen had change into the crew that simply does not lose underneath Alonso this season. Unbeaten champions of a 34-game Bundesliga season, DFB-Pokal finalists and in addition within the ultimate of a European competitors — not a single defeat, wherever — they have been making an attempt to change into the primary crew since European membership competitions start in 1955-56 to comb the board with out shedding a recreation.
Till they arrived in Dublin, trying to seal the second leg of an unbeaten treble, that they had performed 51 video games with out defeat in all competitions, a timespan of 361 days stretching again to a 3-0 defeat in opposition to VfL Bochum on Could 27, 2023. However that run got here to a crashing finish with one other 3-0 loss in opposition to Gian Piero Gasperini’s underestimated Atalanta. And the cruel fact for Leverkusen is that it wasn’t even shut.
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From begin to end, Atalanta dominated. Alonso had spoken earlier than the sport of how Gasperini’s crew wish to drop off and play deeper, but when he was anticipating the identical method within the Aviva Stadium, it was an enormous miscalculation as Atalanta pressed incessantly within the ultimate third of the pitch and compelled Leverkusen into mistake after mistake. Half two of Leverkusen’s treble by no means appeared more likely to occur.
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Historical past was made in Dublin, but it surely was Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman, reasonably than Leverkusen, who wrote his place within the document books by changing into the primary participant to attain a hat trick in a Europa League/UEFA Cup ultimate since Jupp Heynckes for Borussia Monchengladbach in 1975.
No participant had scored a hat trick in any European ultimate for an Italian membership since AC Milan’s Pierino Prati achieved it in a 4-1 win in opposition to Ajax within the 1968-69 European Cup/UEFA Champions League ultimate. So Lookman, who left the pitch holding the match ball in addition to his winners’ medal, deserves all of the acclaim he’ll obtain within the coming days.
Atalanta are an excellent crew, brilliantly coached by Gasperini. They’ve convincingly overwhelmed Napoli and Roma in Italy and Sporting CP and Liverpool in Europe this season, have secured Champions League qualification for subsequent season, and have now change into the primary, and solely, crew to beat inflict a defeat on Leverkusen this marketing campaign.
“I feel we wrote historical past, additionally for the best way we received it,” Gasperini stated. “It was simply extraordinary. We defeated Liverpool, Sporting [Lisbon] who received the championship. After we confronted Liverpool, they have been first within the Premier League. And now the German champions. Unimaginable. The boys have been extraordinary, a memorable efficiency.”
However whereas this was Atalanta’s night time, no person outdoors of their dwelling metropolis of Bergamo would actually have anticipated that to be the end result. Leverkusen have been so extremely efficient this season. They went into this ultimate having scored after the ninetieth minute on 17 completely different events, and after they have confronted defeat in latest weeks, they’ve repeatedly pulled themselves out of the fireplace.
Since March, they’ve salvaged attracts with stoppage-time targets in opposition to Roma (97th minute), Stuttgart (96th), Borussia Dortmund (97) and Qarabag (92). They turned defeat into victory in opposition to Hoffenheim with targets within the 88th and 91st minute, whereas within the dwelling leg of their Europa League tie in opposition to Qarabag, they fought again from 2-0 to win 3-2 with targets within the 72nd, 93rd and 98th minute.
So after they trailed 2-0 at half-time following Lookman’s targets within the twelfth and twenty sixth minutes — each have been right down to poor defending triggered by Atalanta’s excessive press — there was no sense of panic among the many gamers or their supporters. In spite of everything, that they had been on this scenario loads of instances earlier than and wriggled out of it.
However whereas there was no panic, there was additionally no urgency. Alonso’s gamers appeared heavy-legged, missing in perception. They barely created an opportunity, regardless of Florian Wirtz doing his greatest to spark his crew into life. Simply as Liverpool have been made to look torpid and one-dimensional by Atalanta of their 3-0 defeat at Anfield within the quarterfinal first leg, Leverkusen fell into the identical lure and ended up wanting very odd.
“It wasn’t misplaced when it comes to perspective, it was a soccer factor,” Alonso stated. “It occurs, it is soccer, as we speak wasn’t meant to be. They have been higher.
“It is our first defeat of the season so will probably be a check as to how we cope with it as a result of we have now a giant recreation on Saturday. Usually it [first defeat] occurs earlier within the season, however when it occurs in such a giant recreation, it hurts. However we have now to make use of this ache in a optimistic manner — it is soccer, the normality is to not lose the primary recreation within the 52nd recreation.
“It is distinctive what we have now performed. Right now is painful, however it’s deserved as properly.”
Regardless of these emotions of ache being skilled by Leverkusen, this season has already been outstanding they usually can nonetheless create historical past by reaching an unbeaten double by beating Kaiserslautern, who completed midtable within the second-tier 2. Bundesliga, within the DFB-Pokal ultimate in Berlin on Saturday.
Being invincible on a home entrance remains to be the stuff of inconceivable goals, but Leverkusen are 90 minutes from realising it. However they have been additionally 90 minutes from glory in opposition to Atalanta and, not like Michael Jordan, they misplaced earlier than they ran out of time.