Atalanta Bergamo won the Europa League at the expense of Bayer Leverkusen this Wednesday evening after a one-sided final (3-0).
Undefeated German champion this season, soon to be a finalist in the German Cup (on May 25 against Kaiserslautern), Bayer should logically take on the role of favorite in this Europa League final against an equally surprising Atalanta Bergamo, it is true. Weary for Xabi Alonso’s men, the Dea decided otherwise. And one man in particular…
Ademola Lookman, 26-year-old Nigerian striker, became the hero of the evening by scoring a historic hat-trick – only the sixth in all European finals played so far, and when no African player had ever scored more of a goal in a final European Cup meeting.
The second trophy in the history of the Dea
Opportunistic in the first quarter of an hour (1-0, 12e), the former Leipzig and Leicester scorer doubled the lead with a superb strike before the half-hour mark (2-0, 26e), before sealing the score himself at the start of the last quarter, with an even more spectacular cannon shot (3-0, 75e). A capital soloist score, for a new scenario this season.
Leverkusen concedes its first defeat in this 2023-2024 financial year, without having been able to really defend its chances. Unrecognizable and dominated in envy by their transalpine counterparts, the representatives of the Bundesliga thus let their dream of a treble slip away. Atalanta, for its part, can enjoy the second trophy in its history after an Italian Cup won in 1963. With the added bonus for the executioners of OM in the half a ticket already validated for the next edition of the Champions League.
