Afghan Voice Agency AVA a) - Sports service: The case of the 50th edition of the second-tier UEFA club football tournament was closed with the first European championship of the Italian Atalanta football team.
The final match of the 2023-24 European League season was held last night (Wednesday) at 11:30 Kabul time in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, between Atalanta of Italy and Bayer Leverkusen of Germany. It ended 3-0.
Atalanta made a dream start with the goal of their Nigerian striker, Ademola Lookman in the 12th minute. Lookman made his brilliant night even brighter by scoring the second goal in the 26th minute with a long-range shot, but he was not satisfied with the double and scored his third goal to record a dream hat-trick by scoring a more beautiful goal than the previous two goals in the 75th minute. Xabi destroyed Alonso and his team and made them miss the triple championship.
With this victory, Gasperini's hard-working men won a European championship for the first time in their 116-year history, an honor that will be rewarded with a place among the top groups in the group stage of the Champions League next season. They have already qualified for the Champions League from Serie A, but winning the Europa League will boost Bergamo's chances of an easier draw.
Atalanta is the first Italian champion of the Europa League since Parma won the 1998-99 season, in which year the competition was known as the UEFA Cup.
Atalanta's title now gives Italy's Serie A the chance to set a historic record and next season become the first league to have six Champions League representatives in one season. This will happen with Atalanta staying in their current position in the table (fifth). Gasperini's students have two more games in the Italian first division this season.
Leverkusen will face Kaiserslautern in the final next Saturday in order to win the double and add the FA Cup to the Bundesliga championship. The German representative had not lost any of his official matches since the beginning of the season and thus his unbeaten streak ended.