On Wednesday, May 22, the Europa League final will be played. At the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Atalanta Bergamo and Bayer Leverkusen will face each other for the second most important European club title. Both teams have never won this tournament before.
Atalanta Bergamo
This Italian club was founded in 1907 and plays its home games at the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia in Bergamo. The club hasn’t won many trophies or titles, but it often finishes in the top 10 in the Italian league. This year, they are in 5th place on the penultimate matchday. Their best performance was in 1963 when they won the Italian Cup for the first and only time. This year, they could win an international tournament for the first time. They have already secured a Champions League ticket due to their position in Serie A.
Atalanta first topped Group D in the Europa League. With 14 points after 6 matches, they finished above Sporting CP, Sturm Graz, and Rakow Czestochowa. The Italians advanced to the round of 16, where they faced Sporting CP again. Atalanta prevailed again, with a final score of 3-2. Moving on to the quarterfinals, even the powerhouse Liverpool couldn’t match Atalanta’s streak. After a 3-0 win in the first match, the 0-1 loss in the second was inconsequential. The semifinal was only decided in the second match, as the first ended in a draw. Atalanta ultimately won 4-1.
When we think of Atalanta, we immediately think of Charles De Ketelaere, but he’s not the only talented player there. Under the guidance of coach Gian Piero Gasperini, other notable players include Ademola Lookman, Gianluca Scamacca, and Teun Koopmeiners. They are also the players with the most goals to their names: Koopmeiners has 12, Scamacca has 11, and Lookman has netted 9. De Ketelaere has scored 10 goals so far.
Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer 04 Leverkusen was founded in 1904 but only became officially independent in 1999. Their stadium is the BayArena. Although the club’s honors list is quite sparse, they have won an international cup: Leverkusen won the UEFA Cup in 1988. This year, Leverkusen won the Bundesliga, the German title, for the first time in their history. In 1993, Leverkusen also won the DFB-Pokal, the German Cup. The club will also play the final of that cup on Saturday, May 25, against second-division team Kaiserslautern.
Leverkusen became the first unbeaten German champion ever this year and would like to celebrate with another cup. They also entered the Europa League unbeaten: in the group stage, they defeated everyone and finished with a perfect 18 points, ahead of Qarabag, Molde, and Häcken. The round of 16 suddenly became tense, as Qarabag secured a draw in the first match. The second match had to decide: it ended 3-2, making it 5-4 on aggregate. In the quarterfinals, they first won 2-0 against West Ham at home, and in England, they drew. The semifinal was a rematch of last year’s, with AS Roma as the opponent again. After two matches, the Germans prevailed with a total of 4-2.
At Bayer Leverkusen, Florian Wirtz was named ‘Player of the Season’ by the Bundesliga. This German scored 11 goals for his club and provided as many assists. Coach Xabi Alonso can only be pleased with such a prolific scorer, who wasn’t even the top scorer for Leverkusen. That honor goes to Victor Boniface, who netted 14 goals. Alex Grimaldo and Jeremie Frimpong also scored 10 and 9 goals respectively.
Previous Meeting
Atalanta and Leverkusen have only met once before this final. That was in the round of 16 of the Europa League in the 2021-2022 season. Gian Piero Gasperini was also the coach of the Italian team then, while Leverkusen was still under Gerardo Seoane. Atalanta proved too strong for the Germans back then, winning 3-2 in Bergamo and 1-0 in Leverkusen. This time, it will be less easy for Atalanta to break Leverkusen’s streak of 51 unbeaten matches.
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