To win trophies at the highest level, you need to blend collective harmony and individual brilliance. Under Gian Piero Gasperini, Atalanta have always had the former. But did they still have the latter?
In previous years, they were able to call upon the likes of Papu Gomez, Josip Ilicic and Duvan Zapata, three players who sometimes seemed like superstars. Their current iteration of attackers are talented, certainly, but perhaps more “on his day…” players.
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Happily for Atalanta, Wednesday was very much Ademola Lookman’s day. His remarkable hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen to win them the Europa League final featured the poaching instincts of Zapata, the right foot of Gomez and the left of Ilicic. Its second goal featured a nutmeg, the third a stepover. Lookman was unstoppable in his individual duels against the usually unflappable Edmond Tapsoba.
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This match was a battle of systems, but the battle of systems meant it was also a battle of individuals.
Both managers used a rough 3-4-3 system, albeit with different interpretations of that shape. But it meant there were one-against-one battles everywhere. Wing-backs marked wing-backs. Central midfielders faced central midfielders. Centre-backs pushed up and got tight to centre-forwards.
Here’s the situation — Atalanta’s three press Leverkusen’s three, then Atalanta’s four press Leverkusen’s four.
And while it seems like Florian Wirtz is free higher up, he is being tracked by Berat Djimsiti, who has moved over from the right of Atalanta’s back three to mark him.
Atalanta were collectively superior, and their pressing was the game’s main feature. When Atalanta encouraged Leverkusen to pass across their defence in one direction, the near-side wing-back pushed forward and the far-side one dropped back.
Here’s Leverkusen passing across their defence to the right. Lookman encourages the other forwards across to compress the space.
He and left wing-back Matteo Ruggeri are boxing in Leverkusen, who uncharacteristically resort to a long ball, and concede possession.
The midfielders, too, stuck very tight. Here, Leverkusen play a ball in to Granit Xhaka, who is shut down by the outstanding Ederson.
Xhaka passes sideways to his central midfield colleague Exequiel Palacios, but he is shut down by Teun Koopmeiners, so plays the ball on to Wirtz, who is in turn shut down by Djimsiti. Wirtz tries a ball around the corner hopefully towards Amine Adli…
…but the pass is misplaced, and Isak Hien intercepts.
Atalanta constantly won possession in the opposition third. Their high-risk man-marking system rarely failed, even if the centre-backs sometimes resorted to fouls. The only serious scare came when Alex Grimaldo played the ball forward to Wirtz, realised Hien was going to get tight to the Leverkusen playmaker, so burst into the space created.
This was a classic ‘up, back and through’ move that showed how Atalanta can be vulnerable, because they have no spare man at the back.
Indeed, their spare man is goalkeeper Juan Musso, who becomes a sweeper here and seemingly gives Grimaldo the simple task of lobbing the ball home. He badly underhits his attempt, though.
Leverkusen, it must be said, were wretched. That was partly because of Atalanta’s press, but it was more than that. They constantly misplaced passes in midfield under little pressure.
Xhaka, magnificent throughout their previously-unbeaten season, was absolutely dreadful — see this baffling pass, straight to the opposition centre-forward…
…or this underhit one that forces Grimaldo into committing a foul.
Even when it came to set pieces, Leverkusen’s players seemed flummoxed by Atalanta’s deep defending and sent in woeful, underhit deliveries. Both Grimaldo and Wirtz, probably the best players at their positions in all of Europe this season, were guilty of this. It’s difficult not to conclude that Leverkusen got stage fright in a high-profile final.
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Coach Xabi Alonso will come under criticism for his initial approach to the match, electing to play without a centre-forward. But that made sense against a defence focused on man-marking — why stick someone right up against them, when you could drag them around with players between the lines and width? The surprise was that Wirtz played as an inside-left, rather than in a central role as he did effectively against Roma in the semi-final.
But that detail doesn’t explain their underperformance.
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The only bright moments before the break came from the directness of Jeremie Frimpong, who was pushed forward from his usual role to the right of the attack, but otherwise it was perhaps the worst first-half performance in a European final since a Liverpool side containing Alonso went 3-0 down to AC Milan in 2005’s Champions League version. If only Alonso had Dietmar Hamann to bring on at half-time…
With the ball, Atalanta have long played a system that should probably be considered in terms different from usual formations.
It’s always been a 3-4-1-2 or 3-4-2-1, but it’s more like two diamonds down either flank, plus a centre-back and a permanent central forward. The relationships between wide centre-back, wing-back, central midfielder and inside-forward are more crucial than the relationships between, say, the forwards. Their passing network showed that particularly nicely down the left, where Lookman effectively spearheaded the diamond on that flank.
But his three goals were largely about individualism. For the first, in the aftermath of a set piece, he caught Palacios sleeping at the far post and nipped in ahead of him to convert.
The second was a good microcosm of the first half — Atalanta pressing high, Leverkusen going long…
…and then conceding possession with a terrible error. OK, it’s difficult to execute a cushioned header from a 50-yard pass, but it’s remarkable that Abdi nodded it straight to Lookman…
…who collected the ball in his ideal inside-left position…
…then nutmegged Xhaka to cut inside, and curled a shot home before Tapsoba could close him down.
And after Tapsoba witnessed Lookman cutting onto his right foot and scoring, he probably overcompensated for the hat-trick goal, clearly showing him down the outside, and being thrown off-balance by a stepover.
But Lookman was happy to go with his left foot, and crashed in a superb goal to complete a sensational hat-trick.
It’s worth outlining that both sides had figures of less than one in the expected goals stakes (0.68 for Atalanta, 0.85 for Leverkusen). Lookman turned half-chances into a hat-trick.
For the neutrals, this was a glorious fixture for a European final — two upwardly-mobile, relatively small clubs who have punched above their weight with an attacking system that has felt genuinely innovative. It almost felt a shame that one of them had to lose.
But Leverkusen have already had their glory, and their unbeaten Bundesliga season will go down in history anyway. This was Atalanta’s night, and a deserved reward for Gasperini, one of the most daring and inventive tacticians of the last decade.
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