2023-24 UEFA Europa League

Alonso found out. A nothing manager😝

Will probably mean even more to Atalanta

They looked very ordinary in the second leg against Weat Ham, which was the only time I'd watched them for a full 90 mins.

It really is..

I don't think an unbeaten league season is hype tbf

They deserved so much more than Liverpool's B-side in that first leg alright - in hindsight, nothing but the full first team would've been enough in that game.

I have to say I heard lots about how good Leverkusen were...don't watch much Bundesliga...but on tonight's performance Liverpool dodged a bullet with Alonso...

Unbeaten all season and they dodged a bullet because of 1 match you watched.

Klopp lost a few finals too.

Tough one for Leverkusen, should pick up a gong Saturday in the German cup final (my favourite looking trophy fwiw)

Atalanta incredible tonight, well worthy winners.

There's a lot of clubs could do with a DM like him… Bayern, Man Utd, and Liverpool for sure.

Unfortunate for Bayer but can't be anything other than happy for Atalanta. Particularly after losing a cup final last week.

The work they've done and the team they've turned into in recent years is underestimated. Should have won 2 Seria A titles in recent years, going through phases and runs off battering anyone in their way

It could be argued at one point in time not so long ago, they became one of the best teams in the world, was it against PSG in the Champions League one year they got robbed? Probably would of won it only for that.

They've regressed a little in the last 2 years or so, but still punching way above where they were for most of their history. Very well deserved. A great team and great to watch

Must be the 19-20 season I'm really thinking off. Would I be right in saying they started slow but ate the ground up but just left it too late?

That didn't take long. Twitter slagging off the Aviva Stadium, saying how bizarre it looks. One end looks like a training ground they said. I kind of agree with them. They should have made it uniform on all four sides. Only in Dublin do they half do things. Same with Croker too.

Don’t mind Twitter. Two fantastic locations for fans within walking distance of city centre with plenty of bars around. Far superior to some fancy new place in the middle of nowhere. The benefit should always be for those who go to matches rather than the selfie brigade and moaners on social media.

Social media rant over..I’ll ask the question I came here for 😊

With Atalanta winning last night and looking good for top five in Serie A is there now a spare Champions’ League spot and if so where does it go?

Great fun yesterday in Dublin, there was a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium from well over an hour and a half before kick-off. We were in amongst the Atalanta fans and they were brilliant. The Leverkusen end looked very impressive also and stayed until after the trophy presentation to their credit.

On the pitch Atalanta were super and fully deserving of their 3-0 win. Lookman was brilliant and his hattrick is the first in a UEFA club final since the 70s I think, his 2nd goal was the pick of the goals just fantastically placed into the bottom corner. Koopmeiners and Ederson were brilliant in midfield and put some much pressure on the Leverkusen midfield that it collapsed essentially. Delighted for them to get the trophy their efforts have deserved in the last few years.

I'd think Alonso set up his team to match Atalanta somewhat and it quite simply didn't work. Boniface not starting really hampered them as you could see that Leverkusen improved somewhat in the 2nd half when he came on as they had someone up front to hold up the ball. Disappointing night for them but they've had a great history making season and will hopefully complete the double on Saturday.

Yeah I was unsuccessful in the ballot too but I got mine from the Atalanta allocation tickets on their website. They had a free sale a few days after they sold to their season ticket holders and members. They only put it up on the Italian language version of their website,so Google translate had to do some work. I'm fairly sure they didn't sell out their allocation, certainly looked a smaller section than the Leverkusen fans.

Thanks - so potentially six Italian clubs.

Excellent event last night. Got a taxi over to Ryans Beggars Bush at about 4.30 and there was virtually no traffic along the way, Ryans was surprisingly quiet at this stage but did start to fill up around 5.30, mainly Irish people though as I'm assuming most of the club fans were in the fan zones. Didn't have to queue at all to enter the ground, for toilets or for food/drink in the ground before the game started. Cracking atmosphere in the stadium and both fans were a credit to themselves, the Atalanta fans had one chant in particular which was probably the loudest noise I've ever heard in the Aviva. Getting out of the stadium afterwards was a breeze too although I didn't hang around for the trophy presentation as I was unsure how hard it would be to get home. Huge credit to all involved in organising it, from my own experience it was a flawless event in terms of organisation. Only slight disappointment for me on a personal level was not getting to see many of the fans from either club up close in the build up.

The game itself was a good one too, Atalanta full credit for their 3-0 win and were brilliant in how they pressed and didn't allow Leverkusen to build up at all. Very similar to how they played against Liverpool in the first leg.

I'm a regular at LOI and Ireland games but it was great to be able to attend a football match like that in your own city, will definitely be trying to get my hands on tickets for as many games as I can at Euro 2028 regardless of who is playing!

Yeah, there’s a few different permutations that can happen in the last game week for that to happen.