Atalanta, the Goddess of Europe
(Carlos Passerini, sent to Dublin) Bergamo is high, very high, above everything and everyone. As the Germans say: über alles. She’s not the Champions, of course, but she’s still one night of cups and championsa night that makes history. A dream Atalanta, in a dream matchwhich is the first Europa League of Italian football. We had never brought it home since it was called that: 25 years ago, Parma 1999, it was still the UEFA Cup. Then, the void. An authentic lesson, the one given to the invincibles Bayer Leverkusen, who lost – badly – their first match of the season just last night, under an Irish sky which was the backdrop to the crazy celebration of the Nerazzurri fans, which lasted until the morning , exactly as happened in Bergamo, 1,850 km further south.
The perfect match, a masterpiece by Gasperini, who got everything rightstarting from the initial strategy, which some considered risky: four attackers to try to win it, immediately, without waiting, without fear, so as not to have regrets. A lesson that goes beyond the ball. If it was precisely who broke the quarter-century-long curse Atalantawho plays the most modern, brazen and European football in our leagueit’s not a coincidence at all.
An amazing hat-trick decided it Lookman, English naturalized Nigerian, bought two years ago for 15 million from Leipzig, 15 like his goals of the season: a bargain. In Palosco, among the fields of the Bassa, where in 1978 Ermanno Olmi filmed some scenes of «The Tree of Clogs», two parents named their son after him: Lookman. This says a lot about what the Goddess is for the people of Bergamo, now more than ever. At the end of the game, under the curve of the 8 thousand singing “Io vagabondo”, Gasperini pampers himself and everyone else, together with an excited president Percassi . Because the feat that makes history was collective: team, coach, club, environment. Now, for the coach, the toughest choice: stay or leave as a winner? The next few days will be decisive.
For the night of dreams, the first European final in 117 years, had chosen to rely on the fresh talent and desire for revenge of Scamacca and De Ketelaere, who with him have made the leap in quality. But there are also Lookman and Koopmeiners: the plan is clear, it’s do or break. It’s going, it’s going.
This final is also a preview of what we will see at the European Championship: the star of Aspirin is Wirtz, 21 years old, market value 150 million, the strong point of Germany’s attack. Great player, but in the end he won’t touch the ball. On the 50 thousand seats of the Aviva Stadium, a facility built for rugby and only used for football, the Germans are in the vast majority. Many in Bergamo have denounced the few flights and the overpriced prices, so they have resigned themselves to the big screens. The one between Gasperini and Xabi Alonso is a challenge within a challenge, a chess game, made up of details, moves and countermoves. On the one hand, the all-out pressing of Gasp who has set the example, on the other the new football of the Spaniard who “never plays the same way”, which is the reason why no one has yet figured out how to beat him. Until now.
The unbeaten streak immediately crumbles, because in less than half an hour Atalanta are two goals ahead: Lookman is first good with a masterful insertion into the area behind the defense following a low cross from Zappacosta, then he repeats himself with a wicked right-footed shot. The left foot into the top corner in the second half is the best of the three, magical. Even the German fans stand up to applaud: it’s the final scene of a night we won’t forget.
