Xabi Alonso will not let Bayer Leverkusen’s UEFA Europa League final defeat against Atalanta change his pride after their historic 51-match unbeaten run ended on Wednesday.
The Bundesliga champions were looking at an unlikely treble with the DFB-Pokal final coming up this weekend, but those plans fell apart after losing 3-0 to Atalanta.
Ademola Lookman single-handedly guided Gian Piero Gasperini’s side to their first title in 61 years, producing an individual performance for the ages with a decisive hat-trick.
The European heartthrob marked Bayer Leverkusen’s first defeat of the season, with their latest defeat coming against Bochum on the final day of the 2022-23 Bundesliga campaign as Alonso’s side were finally stopped.
Still, the former Liverpool and Bayern Munich midfielder says he can’t take anything away from Leverkusen’s memorable campaign.
“For me, today’s result doesn’t change one bit how I feel about my players or what we did,” the Leverkusen head coach told TNT Sports.
“It hurts because we wanted to lift the trophy, but you can’t have everything. We lifted the Bundesliga and on Saturday we have a chance to lift the DFB-Pokal.”
Bayer Leverkusen are the first team to win the league title but lose the UEFA Cup/Europa League final on the same date since Benfica in 2013-14 and are the first German team to do so since Borussia Dortmund in 2001-02.
“This season and achievements have exceeded all expectations,” continued Alonso.
“I was hoping and preparing to maybe do something big, but this is so much more.
“To achieve what we have for a club like Leverkusen is great. To be in the last week of the season having lifted the Bundesliga and then also the Pokal means a lot.”
“The first year as a coach is going pretty well!”
The monumental event at the Aviva Stadium marked Atalanta’s first-ever major European trophy as they became the 10th other Italian side to do so, second only to teams from England (13).
However, Alonso was not surprised by the excellence of Gasperini and his Atalanta team.
“It’s not something they just did this year, they’ve been doing it for many years,” the Spaniard said, praising the work of 66-year-old Gasperini.
“They’re a special team. Normally we put ourselves in better positions, but we couldn’t do that today.”
“We weren’t able to go back and get it back. It wasn’t meant to be.”
“The unbeaten run is over, but congratulations to Atalanta, they deserve it, so nothing to add.”
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