From the dream of the perfect season!
Bayer Leverkusen went 51 games unbeaten this season – a streak that was snapped everywhere in the Europa League final, failing to achieve the treble.
From the point of view of Xabi Alonso’s team, the defeat was unusually clear with a score of 0:3 (match report). Nevertheless, Leverkusen turned out to be legitimate losers across the board, with players, coaches and club officials unanimous that “Atalanda deserved to win”.
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“Atalanta was great today. We tried a lot but couldn’t play our game,” Alonso said on “RTL”. Granite
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Atalanta took no prisoners and attacked Leverkusen early in front of 50,000 spectators at the Aviva Stadium. Werkself couldn’t find their way into the game.
“We didn’t find our way in our game. They were very aggressive in the duels and gave us little space, so deserved the win,” said Leverkusen captain Jonathan Tha. Disappointment is written on his and his teammates’ faces: “When you’ve come this far, you want a different result.”
“Don’t let us talk too much”
In a moment of great disappointment, most people don’t care that this is their first defeat in 51 games in all competitions.
“It’s not about the series, we didn’t worry about that from the start,” Xhaka clarifies. “It’s about the game. Defeats are part of it. It’s bitter, but that’s football.”
Considering the Werkself’s excellent season, Tah adds: “We cannot allow ourselves to be talked about too much.”
Dublin to Berlin: “We still have an important game ahead of us”
In any case, Leverkusen has continued to gain support from fans. Regardless of the bitter defeat, most German fans stayed in the stadium after the final whistle, applauding the team and chanting “Berlin! Berlin!”
This of course refers to Saturday’s DFB Cup final against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, in which Leverkusen will now be looking to at least do the double. The Leverkusen entourage will fly direct from Dublin to Berlin on Thursday.
For some, the focus was already on the next finals after the final loss against Atlanta.
“It has to go on, we still have a very important game ahead of us. Even if it hurts now. I think you have to allow the pain. But it will continue from tomorrow,” said Tah. “We want to do well on Saturday,” he said.
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