Xabi Alonso admits will probably be a problem to take care of the painful finish of Bayer Leverkusen’s 51-match unbeaten run.
Atalanta’s 3-0 win within the Europa League remaining in Dublin means Leverkusen’s 36-year look forward to European silverware goes on, although they’ve already sealed their first Bundesliga title and have the prospect to finish the double after they face Kaiserslautern within the German Cup Closing on Saturday.
Alonso praised Atalanta as a ‘particular crew’ and informed TNT Sports activities: “We weren’t planning to have a foul day at this time. We couldn’t cope. It was not meant to be, the unbeaten run has come to an finish, however they deserve it.
“It was not about ways, they had been higher. Now we have one other remaining on Saturday and can attempt to study. The outcome doesn’t change a bit how proud I’m of my gamers.
“We had been lifting the Bundesliga on Saturday and have the prospect to win the German Cup on Saturday once more.
“This season has handed all expectations. My first yr as a coach, it’s going fairly nicely. For positive I’ll study from at this time.”
He added to uefa.com: “It hurts, for positive, however we have to use this ache in a constructive means. It’s fairly distinctive what now we have achieved and now we have to be proud. We’ll study. We had a giant likelihood and we put all the things towards at this time, but it surely didn’t go as deliberate.
“We weren’t at our greatest stage: everybody, myself included. So we are going to study from at this time. It’s going to be a problem, how we reply to defeat and take care of the ache.”
Will Xabi Alonso and Leverkusen discover a means again? 🤔#UELfinal pic.twitter.com/6u26qmlaPe
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) Might 22, 2024
The potential for an unbeaten 53 recreation invincible season had been the speak of European soccer for weeks however Leverkusen’s Granit Xhaka informed RTL: “Truthfully, we’re not within the unbeaten document. We didn’t care about that from the beginning. It’s in regards to the recreation and sadly we misplaced a remaining at this time. That’s soccer. We stated yesterday that it will be a troublesome recreation. Compliments to Atalanta.
“It’s a disgrace it didn’t work out within the remaining. We regarded so good up till this recreation and the truth that we didn’t handle to do what we often accomplish that nicely within the remaining is part of the sport. Now we have to just accept that.”
His teammate Robert Andrich, informed RTL: “I might have most popular it to have been some unimportant recreation. It’s extraordinarily powerful to take however now we have to be trustworthy with ourselves. It was deserved at this time, so now we have to exit with our heads held excessive and congratulate Atalanta. They undoubtedly deserved it greater than us at this time.”
Jonathan Tah, Leverkusen captain, added to RTL: “It’s an enormous disappointment, after all. Once you’ve acquired this far, you desire a totally different outcome. That’s the way of thinking proper now. However, now we have to maintain going. We nonetheless have a really, crucial recreation forward of us. Even when it hurts proper now, you need to enable the ache. We transfer on from tomorrow.
“They completely deserved to win at this time. We didn’t discover our means into our recreation. They had been extra aggressive within the duels, left us little or no area and subsequently deserved to win in opposition to us at this time.”
