Topic: ⚽UEFA Europa League Discussion Thread -- 2022/23 | Group Stages - page 6. (Read 14930 times)

I remember when Sheriff could beat Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu but it's not the same Sheriff now... I'm betting that both teams will score tonight... I hope that Sheriff can score in a home game... I think the same thing will happen in the game Wisla vs Rapid...

FC Sheriff Tiraspol vs. IF Elfsborg – BTTS @1.69  ❌

Sheriff had trouble against a defensive-minded and physical team of Zira, but they got through.

Elfsborg took quite the opposite path, thanks in part to Paphos' two red cards in both matches. The Swedes are a very direct, attacking side which should lead to an end-to-end open game with goals i think. Elfsborg's last 5 matches in all competitions have seen a total of 25 goals, hope that the high-goalscoring trend continues today.

No, I think I haven't saw such thing, can't remember. Anddespite that Tobol scored early goal today, it didn't helped them to make an comeback and game ended 1:0
Made some money for going with over 2.5 in Zira - Sheriff and ElfSborg - Paphos games. Sheriff doesn't looks so good like in previousseasons, they made it to the next round only after penalties. After all, they're not even champions of Moldova.
Interesting thing that Hunedoara, team from 2nd division of Romania continue their journey. In 1st leg away they destroyed Paks 4:0 and now loss 0:2 was enough to reach next round.
Next round we have some big boys joining fight - Ajax, Braga or Trabzonspor

Bump! 

Have you ever seen a team score four goals from corners in one match?

I just finished watching the Ruzomberok vs Tobol 1st leg highlights, and the Slovaks scored four, yes four, goals from corners...this might be the weirdest thing i've ever seen, and it's probably a record as well.

Tobol players seemed completely lost defending these crosses. I'm not saying Ruzomberok will do the same today, but it's not something you can fix within a week, Tobol is certainly vulnerable on set-pieces.

I'm taking BTTS here, not because of ^^^ .....it's hard to erase a three-goal deficit, you have to be on the front foot from the first minute. Expect Ruzomberok to catch them off-guard on a counter, 1.64 odds decent enough for me.

It's really unfortunate he will leave Atalanta, he joined Atalanta since 2016, he already in Atalanta for 8 years. Although he never bring any trophies except this one, but Atalanta isn't a strong team, so with this winning Atalanta's fans will keep remembering Gasperini as one of best coach.

Probably this is a win-win solution for both of them, Atalanta want a fresh new manager and Gasperini can manage other big team...

Actually I would rather see Leverkusen win the UEL trophy than Atalanta, but this is football, there are always surprises that make initial predictions very far from the results achieved on the field. Atalanta success in winning the UEL was because the players' mentality was very strong, their performance was also very good this season. You can see how they played when they beat Liverpool, the Atalanta players' motivation and ambition were very high to win the match.

Atalanta players managed to show the same performance when facing Leverkusen in the final, they also humiliated Leverkusen with a score of 3-0. Atalanta success cannot be separated from the role of Gasperini who always wants to make Atalanta a club to be reckoned with and able to provide competition in the title race. If he really leaves Atalanta to coach Napoli, Atalanta will lose the most influential figure in their squad like when Spalletti left Napoli some time ago.

While like the whole world were favouring Leverkusen for lifting the EL trophy we got a surprising result.    I also thought like maybe we would see these teams weighing each other and there wouldn't be many goals.

But here we are! Atalanta really deserved that trophy 100%. Lookman got all the spotlight on himself by a gigantic effort. Maybe he is the player of critical times? 

Gasperini is speculated to leave Atalanta to join Napoli. It is going to be a nice way of saying goodbye for him with this trophy.

Atalanta was the team that made this year's winner lose, wow, it really wasn't a match as expected. Lookman sealed the match with his goals. I have never seen Bayern Leverkusen so helpless, I'm talking about this season. Xabi Alanso fell victim to wrong game analysis and wrong choices. Atalanta fought throughout the match and did not lose their resistance and tried to play ahead even when they were ahead. Bayern Leverkusen remained at a very low tempo, compared to Atalanta, I think they did not expect Atalanta's constant pressure and they had a mental collapse because they could not play their own game. Bayern Leverkusen fans supported their team until the end of the match, which has another beautiful side.

The moment Lookman bottle brace against Leverkusen, it was all written over Xavi Alonso face that the guy has destroyed what he single handedly carry from the beginning of the season. The guy made it look easy to make history as first player to score hatrick in history of European final, that was crazy. The goal would have been more but some were over the bar. I think man is definitely going to win the next African best player award considering what he has done this season.

I don't know if I should blame entire Leverkusen or just blame only Xavi Alonso, the way the players were running on that field looks like they weren't even ready, they didn't look serious or too focus, the defense was loose because Lookman penetrate it like it was nothing, man was displaying Mbape of Africa yesterday. Xavi would have made substitute for that defenders atleast to prevent further damage immediately the brace but he didn't and they went lose for the third time.

Exactly, the performance is truly stunning. 3 goals from himself, and this was in the UEFA Europe League final, not the domestic league. In the transfer market, he will definitely become one of the new targets for other big clubs and the price will definitely be quite high. Yes, that's because, apart from being a club competition event, a big league like this, especially in the final match, is also an opportunity for each player to show their best abilities. Yes, it just remains to be seen how he will appear in the future.

Ahh, finally, Atalanta really beat Leverkusen this season, broke the unbeaten record of Leverkusen, and took the trophy. Really appreciate Atalanta's performance and intelligence in optimizing their chances, which in fact were quite small, but actually brought big wins. Yes, because if we look at the statistics alone, they are not good enough, especially if we look at ball possession, far below Leverkusen. but in the end, it actually gave them an opportunity for a counter attack that couldn't be resisted.



Just look at the statistics, Atalanta only had 33% ball possession, and what's more, they didn't pass much. However, if you look at their attacks, shots and shots on target, it is actually the opposite, much more. So indeed this time, Atalanta was really impressive, because they were able to optimize this opportunity to provide significant attacks with quite a bit of ball possession. The effectiveness of their attacks is very good and accurate here.

Yeah 10/1 odds after the second goal had me really, really tempted. They've been behind 2 goals 7 or 8 times this season and always came back -- only problem was, those comebacks usually result in draws and 4/1 just didn't interest me at all.

Call it inexperience on the big stage. Or the treble/quadruple dream that kills all but the most experienced sides. Liverpool knows how that feels like...

Seems that most of us were waiting for Bayer comeback after they were down 2:0. After similar things already happened many times this season. They were in even more complicated situation, like against Qarabag (you can see full long list of their late goals there https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1cf1502/bayer_leverkusens_90_minute_goals_this_season/?rdt=64309). But this time it didn't happened.
It wasn't same Bayer as we saw all season long. Wouldn't say that Atalanta played phenomenal game, Lookman simply used every moment that he had, Atalanta fully deserved to win this trophy. Gasperini turned mediacore team into big force and finally his efforts were rewarded with a trophy.

Kudos to Atlanta it has not been easy for them, and to Bayern Leverkusen as well for having a good performance today. Even if Bayern Leverkusen did not win the Europa cup they have won the Bundesliga and that's enough to celebrate for a season well played. Meanwhile Lookman has had his first ever hat trick in a final competition not just that but a hattrick  in the Europa competition. He has represented his club well today and he has also represent his country's Nigeria. Soo enough we will be hearing news of interest in buying the talented player.

You're not the only one to think about this. I also assume there is something wrong with the starting lineup of Leverkusen. They don't have Boniface as their main striker there, Boniface is on the bench. This is something no sense for me. Why Xabi Alonso sends their best striker on the bench? He also doesn't use Patrik Schick as their second best striker.

Atalanta is an Italian team, all Italian teams have strong defenders. It is just annoying to see Leverkusen playing with no sharp strikers. Ideally, Xabi Alonso must play with 2 strong strikers (both Boniface and Patrik Schick). If he used both the strikers, this will make Leverkusen playing more offensive and create many opportunities.

I think Wirtz has no problem with his performance. He has no good partners in the attacking line, Adli isn't a typical player who has great attacking as Boniface and Patrik Schick.

I don't want to say Xabi Alonso a bit underestimates Atalanta but it is what I see from the starting lineup. Leverkusen played perfectly before this match, I think it make them to be overconfident. This must be a big lesson for Xabi Alonso and the players.

I was still considering the possibility for a comeback even while it was 2-0. Because I remember their comeback against Roma by scoring 2 goals in last 10 minutes. But Lookman just closed the door to them.    It was absolutely a huge performance by him. Atalanta really managed to counter Leverkusen by a big victory. By the way Xabi Alonso's choices made me surprised. He didn't start with his main goalkeeper and strikers. I wonder what he was thinking. 

51 game without been defected is insane for Leverkusen. They have  been tremendous this season in all competition I really applaud the team and the manager Xabi Alonso it has not been easy. Though I never believed they will loss to Atalanta tonight talk more of lossing 3 zero against Atalanta, Nigeria forward Ademola Lookman scoring all goal taking a ball home as a reward for a hatric scored. Despite been 2 goals down at first half I thought they will do magic as usual but unfortunately it didn't work out as I thought, all thesame Congratulations to Atalanta the new UEFA Europa league Champion.

Sincerely speaking Ademola lookman has been incredible, I never really knew much about him not until the African Nations cup where I first saw him please for the Nigerian national team, the young man is a bunch of talent that is firing from all cylinders, keeping a record of being the first player to score a hat-trick in the Europa league final, that's huge.
I never even thought for a second that Atalanta will beat Bayern Leverkusen, I thought that leverkusen where the big boys who had the show and Atalanta where the underdogs, but now the underdogs that i thought are now the champions.

When I first looked at Leverkusen's starting eleven, I was afraid that they might lose a game for the first time in this season, but I didn't want to believe that Xabi Alonso would make a mistake. Firstly, Boniface was missing - why? Atalanta's defence is physically very strong and Adli was lost in it - after Boniface was substituted on, you could see that he was able to put the defence under more pressure. Then there was another big mistake in defence: Lookman had an easy game - he should have been covered by a faster defender. And another problem was Wirtz's form: unfortunately he came back from an injury and simply wasn't ready for the starting eleven - it would have been more effective to bring him on in the second half.

It's a shame that Leverkusen couldn't win the EL, but they played an incredibly good season and only had one bad game.

After the African Cup of Nations where Ademola Lookman put up a classy performance, I never heard much about him anymore. Today he has emerged as the hero of Atalanta and a curse to Bayer Leverkusen. His three goals were so wonderful that Bayer's goalkeeper had no chance to save them. The wonderful season that Bayer had enjoyed before now has been dashed by the Nigerian. Xabi Alonso knows that it is all over and he should focus on winning a second trophy through the German Cup. Congratulations to Atalanta because many people including me predicted that they would never win this game.

Comeback never arrived. They weren't playing particularly badly but Lookman took his shots so well, it's really hard to begrudge Atalanta this win. Comprehensive, hattrick hero, this was definitely worth throwing Serie A away, expect them to flop badly in their remaining games ha!

It's a familiar Liverpool theme, Alonso, you might take a page out of their history book to ensure you don't make that mistake next season.

Good final, overall, see you gentlemen next season?