The dea, the goddess of Bergamo, the Lombardy provincial team, always in the shadow of Inter and Milan, stopped Bayer Leverkusen’s extraordinary gallop in its tracks and won its first European title with a great game yesterday in Dublin. From end to end, Atalanta gave their rival no respite. The majestic Ederson prevailed over Xhaka in the unequal midfield battle and Ademola Lookman, a football nomad who migrated through England, Germany and Italy, blew up the final with three goals. The blow paralyzed Leverkusen. The Bundesliga champion lost its first match after going 51 unbeaten. A record with a bitter ending.
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Juan Musso, Djimsiti, Isak Hien, Kolasinac (Giorgio Scalvini, min. 45), Matteo Ruggeri (Rafael Tolói, min. 91), Zappacosta (Hans Hateboer, min. 83), Éderson Silv, Teun Koopmeiners, Charles De Ketelaere (Pasalic , min. 56), Ademola Lookman and Gianluca Scamacca (El Bilal Toure, min. 83)
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Matej Kovar, Edmond Faycial Tapsoba, Piero Hincapie Reyna, Jonathan Tah, Exequiel Palacios (Robert Andrich, min. 68), Josip Stanisic (Victor Okoh Boniface, min. 45), Xhaka, Grimaldo (Adam Hlozek, min. 68), Jeremie Frimpong (Nathan Tella, min. 80), Amine Adli and Florian Wirtz (Schick, min. 80)
Goals 1-0 min. 12: Ademola Lookman. 2-0 min. 25: Ademola Lookman. 3-0 min. 75: Ademola Lookman.
Referee István Kovács
Yellow cards Djimsiti (min. 22), Florian Wirtz (min. 34), Gianluca Scamacca (min. 35), Zappacosta (min. 59), Edmond Faycial Tapsoba (min. 67), Teun Koopmeiners (min. 70) and Robert Andrich (min. min. 73)
“Gasperini has supported me by giving me minutes and playing attacking football,” said the hero of the night, who at 26 years old barely played minutes at Everton, Leicester, Leipzig and Fulham, before arriving in Bergamo. “In every conversation the coach showed me that he could play a totally different kind of football. He taught me to think differently and took me to a new level.”
Gian Piero Gasperini, one of the most iconoclastic foxes on the European benches, moved the pieces to positions that took Leverkusen to an unknown stage. The forward pressure, on the man, without quarter, constant, exhaustive, forced Leverkusen to play the ball with its extensive roster of center backs. Xabi Alonso used up to four: Tah, Hincapié and Tapsoba in the middle of the defense, and Stanisic on the right side. This cast, which in defense is a bunker and is surprising in quick transitions, was disconcerted by the obligation to find passing lines blindly. The harassment of Lookman, Scamacca, De Keteleare, Ruggeri, Koopmeiners and Ederson, disconnected Leverkusen. A crisis arose and when Wirtz, Xhaka and Palacios came to provide support, they found themselves overwhelmed by a rival who had more players capable of handling themselves in small spaces. The flyers beat the defenders.
Put to make decisions in 360 degrees at the maximum possible speed to get out of the quagmires that formed in front of their area, the Leverkusen centre-backs found themselves in an unnatural situation. Subjected to the stress of performing so close to their goal with rivals harassing their areas, their shortcomings emerged. Leverkusen’s excess of centre-backs stopped being an advantage and became an organizational impediment that infected all lines. The defenders trembled with the ball, insecurity stunned them when they had to act without it, and this affected the midfielders. Forced to come to help, Xhaka and Palacios ended up becoming overwhelmed because they felt that any effort would be insufficient against an opponent who had players better equipped to manage the ball in small spaces. Lookman, De Keteleare, Ruggeri and Zappacosta may not be from the midfielder family, but at the very least they are first cousins. His harmony with Ederson and Koopmeiners was perfect.
In the midst of the German team’s confusion, Zappacosta and De Keteleare appeared on the right flank. The winger put in a cross and Lookman intercepted it at the far post without Palacios being able to react to his unmarking. The goal plunged Leverkusen into despair. It became evident that Alonso’s plan required a major revision. Only 12 minutes had passed. But the coach preferred to wait for the break. Let’s see if Wirtz, Grimaldo or Frimpong showed up.
Wirtz runs out of legs
It was Florian Wirtz’s time. The fashionable German player, a prodigy of imagination only 21 years old, became more necessary than ever for his teammates. Until now he had shone like ten, well protected by nine teammates who ran piecemeal for him in a scheme tailored to him: 5-2-1-2. Given the evidence that Bayer could not leave their field, Wirtz imposed an exercise of responsibility and abandoned his creative positions in the final third to go down to ask for the ball. Only in this way did light come to light among his troops, especially among the suffocated Xhaka and Palacios. But the clarity was short-lived. Wirtz was pursued by Ederson and Hien. The relays of the Atalanta players to link up with the little helmsman were amazingly coordinated. Wirtz felt the effects very soon. From running 70 meters up and down, he ended up losing his legs. He noticed his wrong choices and his increasingly spaced interventions. Wirtz was never known for being a long-distance runner. He was paid by his team when he needed everyone to deploy to Gasperini’s ambush.
Leverkusen did not leave the tunnel when in the 25th minute their goalkeeper took a long shot to avoid pressure, Adli headed down for Wirtz, who did not arrive, and Lookman kept the ball. The Nigerian advanced down the left, dribbled past Xhaka, and to the astonishment of Tapsoba and Tah who took a long time to close, he defined the far post with a whiplash. Alonso’s team did not overcome the blow. Not even the changes after the break revived him. Lookman, in a counterattack led by Scamacca, ended the final with a hat trick that the city of Bergamo celebrates as a divine gift.
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