Bayer Leverkusen Bayer Leverkusen
Alonso’s self-criticism after the debacle against Atalanta Bergamo
Status: 23.05.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Defeat in Dublin – Leverkusen loses 0:3 against Bergamo
Bayer Leverkusen has not lost 51 games in a row, but now the streak has been broken. In the Europa League final, the German champions suffered a 3-0 defeat against Atalanta Bergamo.
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Bayer Leverkusen had not suffered a defeat in 51 competitive matches this season. In the Europa League, the series ended clearly against outsider Atalanta Bergamo. And at the wrong moment. The frustration is great, including for coach Xabi Alonso.
They would have gladly traded their historic Bundesliga record for this bitter final defeat at Bayer Leverkusen. “It was clear to all of us that the series would have to end at some point,” said national player Jonas Hofmann after the 0:3 (0:2) defeat in the Europa League final against Atalanta Bergamo in Dublin on Wednesday evening. “But if we could swap, we would have preferred to lose another game in the Bundesliga.” Captain Lukas Hradecky added: “I would have gladly suffered the first defeat in a meaningless game.”
At the weekend in Leverkusen they celebrated the record of being the first club to finish a whole Bundesliga season without defeat. But the fact that their incredible series ended in a final in the 52nd game hurt everyone greatly. The treble was over in one fell swoop – and the frustration was deep. “Defeats in finals are not easy to forget,” said coach Xabi Alonso. “Unfortunately our plan didn’t work out.”
Leverkusen failed in front of a large audience; from the Werkself’s perspective, it was a game to forget. An average of 7.82 million people tuned in to RTL for the TV broadcast of the Bayer tragedy. A record figure; the market share was 32.4 percent according to RTL.
“It will be a challenge how we deal with it”
But anyone who supported Leverkusen was disappointed. Just as almost everything had gone in Bayer’s favor up to that point, almost everything went against the Werkself on Wednesday in Ireland. “We had a bad day. But it hurts that it happened in such an important game,” said Alonso. His team “simply lacked a lot.”
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Leverkusen’s coach was visibly upset and made no secret of his disappointment: “We have to accept that Atalanta deserved to win the trophy. We have to transform this pain into positive energy.” It is “not normal to lose for the first time in the 52nd game. It will be a challenge for us to deal with it. But it is deserved.”
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He did not exclude himself as the cause of the failure, and Alonso was self-critical. “We will learn a lot. Especially me. Everyone was not at the best level, including me,” said the 42-year-old Spaniard. The English newspaper “The Guardian” said: “After all the talk about Xabi Alonso’s rise as one of Europe’s most promising young coaches, it was an experienced old hand who reaped the laurels. At 66, Gian Piero Gasperini has achieved his first masterpiece, a tangible success in a career in which he has done some very impressive work away from the spotlight.”
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The opponent beat Bayer with their own means. They took the edge off the favorites with passionate, fast-paced and aggressive play and took their chances with ice-cold precision. Especially in the person of Nigerian Ademola Lookman, who had scored a total of five competitive goals for RB Leipzig in two seasons and now beat Bayer almost single-handedly with a hat-trick (12th, 26th and 75th minute). “He probably played the game of his life,” said Hradecky, sobered.
So 69 hours before kick-off of the DFB Cup final against 1. FC Kaiserslautern on Saturday (8 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker), there was pure disillusionment in Berlin. “We have to honestly admit that Atalanta deserved it,” said national player Robert Andrich. “That might make it easier to forget about it.” Andrich’s conclusion was nevertheless as clear as it was relentless: “It was just a crappy day.”
