The Invincibles became The Invisibles and, after 51 duels undefeated, finally a chink in the armour of Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen. We just never thought it would be Ademola Lookman, once of Charlton in League One, inflicting the mortal wounds in this Europa League final. Three of them, in fact.
Atalanta may have ruined the fairytale that is Alonso and his treble-chasing Bundesliga champions, but there is no shortage of romance when it comes to the Italian underdogs, either.
They had bark and bite and, in Lookman, a player who epitomised the adventure of Gian Piero Gasperini’s brave and brilliant side. His three goals got better as they went, the last after skinning his man with a scissors before producing a dagger of a shot that nearly ripped the net.
Atalanta went on the attack from the off and, not cowed by the warriors who supposedly lay in wait, it was they who were the gladiators.
The reward for their daring and Lookman’s killer instinct was just the second trophy in the club’s history. The last was a Coppa Italia 61 years ago. This was their fairytale, you see.
Ademola Lookman (second from left) scored a hat-trick as Atalanta beat Bayern Leverkusen 3-0 to win the Europa League
Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso was helpless to stop his side’s unbeaten run come to an abrupt ending
Alonso, meanwhile, once spent a summer in Dublin learning English as a teenager. But he would have been lost for words in any language after watching his favourites fail to show. This does not entirely diminish his wonderful season – far from it – but to remain unbeaten and complete a treble with the German Cup this weekend would have stood alone as truly historic. The last team to win three trophies undefeated in a season was Preston North End in 1889.
Speaking of Preston, that was the level of opponent Lookman was once up against during his early days at Charlton. The winger’s promise took him to Everton but only one Premier League goal in three season followed. To be scoring three on this stage would have been met with astonishment on Merseyside. But how his and his team’s triumph was deserved.
There were fireworks, flame-throwers and flares in the minutes before kick-off yet, to everyone’s surprise, Leverkusen froze. That looked almost literal in the case of Exequiel Palacios, who looked more like one of this city’s many monuments when Lookman stole in on his frozen shoulders to open the scoring in the 12th minute.
It had been coming, too, and the Italians were rewarded for a blistering start as Lookman ran onto Davide Zappacosta’s cross and lifted into the top corner from eight yards. Leverkusen offered close to nothing by way of a response and their first meaningful effort was not until the 35th minute, and even that was a timid lob from Alejandro Grimaldo straight into the arms of Juan Musso.
By then, Leverkusen were trailing by two, Lookman helping himself to a brilliant second on 26 minutes. The Germans tried to be clever in playing out from the goalkeeper but looked stupid when a stray pass found Lookman, who nutmegged Granit Xhaka and swept into the bottom corner from 20 yards.
For all of Leverkusen’s possession – 66 per cent by half-time – it felt like they had been dominated by Atalanta. That remained the same after half-time and Lookman completed his own treble on 76 minutes when ghosting by Edmond Tapsoba and striking horror into the hearts and minds of the Germans who had been so expectant of victory.
And what does this say for next month’s Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund? As a form guide, to borrow horse-racing logic, if the best team in Germany cannot beat the fifth best team in Italy, what chance do the fifth best team in Germany stand of beating the best team in Spain?
Not that Atalanta and Lookman care. This was their night, this was their fairytale.
