Lookman Ademola become into the 1st player to score a hat-trick in a UEFA Europa League final, as Atalanta BC staggered Bayer Leverkusen with a 3-0 win, decisively ending the Bundesliga champions’ 51-match unbeaten in all competitions.
This was a final match-up that maybe few would have predict toward the beginning of the season, with an all-vanquishing Leverkusen side consummation a 22-year stand by to contend in an European final against an Atalanta team making their very first appearance in a mainland show-stopper match. It was the Serie A side that struck first in a brilliantly created goal politeness of Lookman, who ghosted into the case totally plain and terminated a clinical, first-half strike past Matěj Kovář following some magnificent connection up play including Teun Koopmeiners and Davide Zappacosta.
Lookman Ademola put an end to Leverkusen unbeaten
La Dea’s press was persistently causing issues for Xabi Alonso’s side, and Lookman made the Bundesliga champions pay again for some more strangely messy play by releasing a relentless right-footed strike into the base corner to double Atalanta’s lead. Leverkusen nearly had a startling life saver when Florian Wirtz chose Álex Grimaldo, however the Spaniard failed to execute the hurl and shot directly at Juan Musso, with the Argentine standing way outside his goal. Alonso’s men had failed to get rolling in this opening 45 minutes, while the strategically sharp Gian Piero Gasperini had seen his approach happen as expected in Dublin.
Pass on Werkself emerged after the break with more prominent power, and Jeremie Frimpong terminated an admonition sign for the Bergamo outfit as he lashed a left-footed volley over the bar from Amine Adli’s ball across the case. Alonso’s men frantically required another rebound which typified their season, yet were inadequate with regards to their typical edge against La Dea, who had their cards immovably checked. At last, Lookman quenched any expectations of Leverkusen fashioning a way back into this challenge with a brutal calculated finish from the left-hand side in the wake of being teed up by Gianluca Scamacca.
A night will go down in Atalanta legends in the wake of guaranteeing their very first European honours, and one which will be recollected everlastingly by Gasperini, who wins his most memorable significant trophy of an as of now broadly regarded managerial career. In the mean time, it is an instance of so close, yet such a long ways for a Leverkusen side that has enchanted and taken pleasure in equivalent measure, however fell two games shy of finishing an extraordinary unbeaten high pitch.
