The UEFA Europa League final between Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen will play place at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin tonight. Leverkusen is targeting a second trophy after winning the Bundesliga this season. Meanwhile, Atalanta, having won their last six Serie A matches and qualify for in the final by defeating Marseille in the semi-finals, has recent form on their side. Interestingly, these teams previously met in the 2021-22 Europa League round of 16, with Atalanta winning 4-2 on aggregate. Despite Leverkusen being the favorite, Atalanta’s recent achievements are remarkable.
Atalanta's starting XI against Bayer Leverkusen: Musso, Djimsiti, Hien, Kolasinac, Zappacosta, Ederson, Koopmeiners, Ruggeri, De Ketelaere, Lookman, Scamacca.
Bayer Leverkusen's starting XI against Atalanta: Kovar, Stanisic, Tah, Tapsoba, Frimpong, Xhaka, Palacios, Hincapie, Grimaldo, Wirtz, Adli.
There are many things that have changed in Leverkusen from that period to this period. They are undefeated this year and they did it in the Bundesliga and UEL. This final is their only defeat this season. I don't know if Atalanta will achieve this in this final match. In a few hours, the final match will end and we will see if the great record will continue for Leverkusen. This will be one of the most important matches of the year for Xabi.
This particular encounter between Bayern Leverkusen and Atalanta is actually going to be a fascinating encounter no doubt, and I think it's really going to be a tight contested affair between them in my own point of view, but I think Bayern Leverkusen are the clear favourite for this particular encounter here, because of how good they are, and how tactical sound they are, but nothing is being ruled out completely, because Atalanta is a very dangerous team if being underated, so the biggest downfall of Bayern Leverkusen is if they think it's going to be an easy game, then I think that their will be a major surprise, but if they gave no room for complacency, then I believe that they have what it takes to deliver the desired result against this Atalanta side.
Lastly, if this Bayern Leverkusen side can avoid defeat today, then I believe that they are definitely going to be rank as the best team that have ever kept the unbeaten run, due to the higher numbers of games that they have stayed unbeaten.