By Graham Dunbar
Dublin: Spoiler alert.
Atalanta winger Ademola Lookman was unstoppable and Bayer Leverkusen’s impossible dream of completing an entire season unbeaten with a hat-trick of titles proved to be just that.
Instead, Lookman was the hat-trick hero in Atalanta’s 3-0 win over Leverkusen in the Europa League final on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).
It was a beating few saw coming for the new German champions, whose European record unbeaten run stopped at 51 games.
Lookman, the London-born Nigeria international, was ruthless punishing big errors by Leverkusen players to score twice in the first 26 minutes of a game where the favourites never looked at ease. He capped his solo show with an arrowing shot in the 75th.
In any normal season, or a typical European final, Atalanta and their veteran coach Gian Piero Gasperini would be the feelgood story.
Berat Djimsiti hoists hat-trick hero Ademola Lookman after Atalanta’s Europa League final win over heavy favourites Bayer Leverkusen.Credit: Getty
What is not to love for neutral fans in the big-money Super League era? A well-run club from a small provincial city playing attractive football on a modest budget for a loyal coach to lift a first top-level trophy for 61 years.
Instead, it fell to Atalanta to play the bad guy and stop Leverkusen’s shot at European immortality.
Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso must now lift his players for the German Cup final on Saturday. They will start as heavy favourites to beat second-tier Kaiserslautern at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.
AP
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