In the early morning of May 23, Beijing time, the Europa League final of this season officially started, with Atlanta playing Leverkusen. In the end, Atlanta came out of the blue. Relying on Lukman's hat trick, it won Leverkusen 3-0 and won the first Europa League championship in the history of the team. It was also the first European championship. This night made history.
Compared with Leverkusen, Atlanta reached the European final for the first time in its history. If it wins the championship, it will make history again. As the league has locked in the top five, Atlanta has locked in its qualification for the Champions League next season in advance. Even if it fails to win the Europa League, it will not affect its participation.
Before the game, Atlanta was generally not favored. The main reason was that Leverkusen had won 51 unbeaten games in various competitions and remained unbeaten so far in the season, which also eased the pressure on Atlanta players.
After the opening game, the Atlanta players relied on the tactics of aggressive high-pressure pressing, which made Leverkusen make mistakes in succession and achieved great success.
In the 12th minute, Lukman easily pushed and shot after receiving the cross from his teammate, and Atlanta got a dream start 1-0.
In the 26th minute, Lukman completed a shot to break the goal after passing in the front court and defending against many people. Atlanta expanded the score 2-0.
In the second half, in the face of Leverkusen's crazy counter attack, Atalanta tried hard to keep the goal, and ended the suspense of the game ahead of time by relying on Lukman's another goal, giving Xabi Alonso his first defeat of the season.
Looking back at the Europa League this season, Atlanta is worthy of being a dark horse and has won the knockout rounds one after another Portugal Sports, Liverpool, Marseille, Leverkusen , including the Portuguese Premier League, the English Premier League, the French League and the German League.
In addition, this victory has created a great miracle for Atlanta, which won the first championship trophy since the team took part in the European War, and also the first European Union Cup champion. The last time the Italian team won the championship was Parma in 1999, 25 years ago.
From joining the Champions League for the first time in the 2019-20 season to reaching the top eight, to winning the Europa League championship for the first time in the 2023-24 season, Atlanta has created miracles in just four consecutive years, and also let this small city with only 130000 people fall into the carnival again.
As Atlanta wins the Europa League, it will participate in the draw of the Champions League as the first place next season. Since the team has already won the Champions League qualification through the domestic league, the extra places will be extended to the sixth place in Serie A, provided that Atlanta is not in the top four.
In the latest league table of Serie A, Atlanta is 2 points behind Juventus, the fourth place in a short round, and is expected to rise to the top four. In this way, the sixth place team will not be able to advance to the Champions League next season.
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