Record streak is about to break
Bayer’s monster run gives Atalanta the “extra boost”
May 22, 2024, 11:44 a.m
Bayer Leverkusen “seems unbeatable,” they say at Atalanta Bergamo. And yet in the evening they want to end the German champions’ tremendous streak – and be crowned European Cup winners. Bayer’s monster run provides extra motivation.
There was once a saying that the great football philosopher Gary Lineker established, according to which the Germans always win in the end. This certainty has long since been overtaken by time, but it has been replaced by the mantra: “… and in the end Bayer Leverkusen doesn’t lose.” The Bundesliga club has now been undefeated in 51 games, in the championship, the cup and the European Cup. They score early and if necessary they score very, very late, but in any case their efforts are always enough to at least get a draw. Xabi Alonso’s team is already champions and they have long since clinched the record for the longest unbeaten streak in top football.
In the evening there will be the final of the Europa League against Atalanta Bergamo (9 p.m./RTL, RTL+ and in the live ticker on ntv.de) for Bayer Leverkusen it’s about continuing the great series – and above all about the club’s first European title since winning the UEFA Cup in 1988. But the Italians are keen to prevent that. And the unbeatable Bundesliga team’s monster run doesn’t cause fear – but rather extra motivation.
“Finals are special games”
Midfielder Marten de Roon, who will miss the evening due to an injury, knows: “You seem invincible at the moment.” But the chance to be the first team in 51 games to beat the German champions, who became the first Bundesliga team to go through an entire season without defeat, gave his team one “Extra push,” said defender Berat Djimsiti. “The numbers speak for themselves. We know the great results that they fully deserved,” said Bergamo coach Gian Piero Gasperini.
At Atalanta, who are still fighting for third place in Serie A, they are playing against a series of their own: the black and blue “goddess” has been waiting for a title for 61 years. Back then they won the Italian Cup. A triumph that they were never able to repeat – even though Gasperini has led his team to the final three times in the last six years. Now they finally want to break two series: their own final trauma and Leverkusen’s monster run. “Finals are special games,” said striker Gianluca Scamacca.
By the way, the team still has to prove that Alonso’s super version of Bayer Leverkusen, the former vice-president, can reach finals: they lost the cup finals in 2002, 2009 and 2020, and in 2002 they suffered a bitter defeat in the final of the Champions League against Real Madrid. The unofficial final against Spvgg Unterhaching for the German championship, just a few days before the premier class final against the Royals, caused a trauma that could only recently be healed.