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Atalanta crushed Bayer Leverkusen to win the 2024 Europa League ultimate on Wednesday evening, with winger Ademola Lookman in devastating kind on the AVIVA Stadium in Dublin.
Not solely was it a primary ever European trophy for Atalanta, it spectacularly ended Leverkusen’s unbeaten season. The newly topped German champions had gone 51 video games with out shedding in all competitors previous to arriving within the Irish capital, however Xabi Alonso’s facet discovered themselves utterly suffocated by the tactical energy of Gian Piero Gasperini.
Leverkusen weren’t dangerous by any stretch of the creativeness, however Atalanta had been simply higher in each approach.
Lookman, as soon as of Everton, Fulham and Leicester Metropolis, has seen his beforehand stop-start profession take off since shifting to Bergamo in 2022. His breathtaking hat-trick was of the very best high quality.
The primary objective, simply 11 minutes in, was the simplest of the three, ghosting in entrance of his marker within the penalty to clinically flip a low ball throughout the field into the web.
The following, halfway by means of the primary half, was made potential by a cheeky nutmeg on Granit Xhaka earlier than lashing the ball into the far backside nook from the sting of the field.
The Nigerian worldwide was a person stuffed with confidence and saved arguably his finest for final. Leverkusen defender Edmond Tapsoba was hesitant about participating him, for apparent cause when an electrifying stepover pushed the ball ahead as Lookman viciously discovered the highest nook.
For Atalanta, it caps off their unimaginable rise underneath Gasperini’s management since 2016. They had been a Serie B membership as lately as 2011 and had by no means completed greater than fifth in Serie A – which they achieved within the Nineteen Forties – till cracking the highest 4 within the 2016/17 season. They’ve certified for the Champions League a number of occasions since then, with this Europa League triumph securing their return to the continent’s elite competitors for subsequent season.
Leverkusen’s season is just not over. They’ll nonetheless contest the DFB Pokal ultimate towards Cologne on Saturday, with the possibility to complete an unimaginable marketing campaign with a home double.
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