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Bayer Leverkusen's two steps from soccer immortality start in Europa League final against Atalanta

12h ago
Soccer News (AP)

Bayer Leverkusen is two games from European soccer immortality.

The new champion of Germany has two cup finals in four days - starting Wednesday in the Europa League against Atalanta - to complete a previously unthinkable unbeaten season in domestic and continental competition.

On Saturday, Leverkusen will be heavily favored to win the German cup final against a Kaiserslautern team that finished 13th in the second division, not so far from falling into relegation playoffs.

And so the biggest remaining challenge for coach Xabi Alonso's team is game No. 52 of 53, in Dublin against an Atalanta that is finishing the season strong.

It feels fitting because the Europa League has been a regular drama for Leverkusen.

Three times in six games in the knockout rounds the team was 2-0 down deep into the second half and still behind entering stoppage time: In both round of 16 games against Qarabag and in the semifinals return leg against Roma.

In another streak-saving Europa game, at West Ham in the quarterfinals, Leverkusen was set to advance on aggregate score yet needed an 89th-minute goal by wing-back Jeremie Frimpong to draw 1-1 and stay unbeaten.

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"We don't want to wait until the last seconds of the game," said Patrick Schick, whose three stoppage-time goals against Qarabag in March were key to advancing 5-4 on aggregate. "We would like to make it clear, really, earlier."

There have been other stellar teams in European soccer who added the elite Champions League to their domestic league title, unlike Leverkusen playing in the second-tier Europa League.

Still, Manchester United in 1999, Inter Milan in 2010, Barcelona in 2011 and Manchester City last year were wealthy clubs whose success could have been expected. Each started their season with established, star-packed teams led by coaches - Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola - who'd already won multiple domestic and European trophies.

This is Alonso's first full season coaching at the top level. His team was in relegation trouble last season. There was no superstar transfer signing in the offseason.

"For me it's very special," the 42-year-old Alonso said last week. "My first title as a coach was the Bundesliga. It was super, it was very special. But a title in Europe would be wonderful and hopefully we will be able to say that."

Alonso twice won the Champions League as an elegant midfielder, with Liverpool and then Real Madrid, who will play Borussia Dortmund for this season's Champions League title. That June 1 final at Wembley Stadium is between two teams involved in the failed Super League breakaway in 2021 - Madrid driving it forward, Dortmund declining its invitation.

Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta were nowhere close to being invited to the breakaway three years ago and today represent soccer projects that won respect from neutral fans across Europe.

Both are based in provincial cities, each with more than 100 years of history, reaching surprise peaks. Before this season, they had only ever won three trophies: Atalanta's Italian cup in 1963 and Leverkusen's 1988 UEFA Cup - the forerunner of the Europa League - and Germany cup in 1993.

While Leverkusen once lost a Champions League final, to Madrid in 2002, and Atalanta was minutes away from a semifinals place in 2020, neither has felt entitled to European success.

Their modest stadiums in Leverkusen and Bergamo add up to a combined capacity of about 51,000 that could fit into the Dublin venue, formerly Lansdowne Road, that will host them Wednesday. For a showpiece European final, the official limit is 48,000.

Leverkusen and Atalanta do not figure in UEFA research of the top-50 earnings list of European clubs for total matchday income from ticket and hospitality sales.

Two well-run clubs, relying on smart transfer dealings - albeit underwritten, respectively, by pharmaceutical giant Bayer and Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca - had combined total revenues last year that added up to about the same $500 million as Manchester City's player wage bill alone.

Yet both Leverkusen and Atalanta, under coach Gian Piero Gasperini since 2016, play easy-on-the-eye soccer in attack and team-first defense.

"They play one against one on the whole pitch," Schick said of Atalanta. "Wherever you move, you have one defender behind you so they don't leave you the space to breathe."

Atalanta has been a refreshing force under Gasperini and already has a place in the Champions League next season. In any normal year they would be popular first-time European title winners.

What Leverkusen has done is not normal, though, and a legend could be just days from being created.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

GRAHAM DUNBAR Dunbar is an Associated Press sports news reporter in Geneva, Switzerland. He focuses on the governing bodies, institutions and politics of international sports. twitter mailto "

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