Fifty-one and done: Atalanta stun Leverkusen in Europa League final

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.

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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

Watch the finals of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa Conference League on Stan Sport. All the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand, with select matches in 4K UHD.

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