Bayer Leverkusen are just two games away from achieving immortality in European football.
The new German champions have two cup finals in four days, starting with Wednesday's Europa League match against Atalanta, ending a previously unthinkable unbeaten season in domestic and continental competitions.
On Saturday, Leverkusen are heavily favored to win the German Cup final against Kaiserslautern, who finished 13th in the second division and are not far from falling into the relegation play-offs.
The biggest challenge left for Xabi Alonso's side will be the 52nd of 53 games against Atalanta, who have finished the season in good form in Dublin.
This feels fitting as the Europa League has been a regular drama for Leverkusen.
In three of the six games in the knockout round, teams went into the second half trailing 2-0 and still going into stoppage time. Both in the round of 16 against Qarabag and in the semi-final return leg against Roma.
Leverkusen looked set to advance on aggregate against West Ham in the quarter-finals, extending their European winning streak, but wing-back Jeremy Frimpong's 89th-minute draw was enough to draw 1-1 and keep them unbeaten. I needed a goal.
“I don't want to wait until the last seconds of the game,” said Patrik Schick, whose three goals in stoppage time were key to a 5-4 aggregate win against Qarabag in March. “We would like to uncover that sooner.”
Unlike Leverkusen, who play in the second division Europa League, there were other excellent teams in European football who added the Elite Champions League to their domestic league title.
Still, Manchester United in 1999, Inter Milan in 2010, Barcelona in 2011 and Manchester City last year were wealthy clubs that could have been successful. They started the season with an established star-studded squad led by coaches Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Josep Guardiola, each of whom have already won multiple domestic and European trophies.
This will be Alonso's first full season as a coach at the top level, with his team in danger of relegation last season and without any superstar transfer deals in the off-season.
“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 very nice and very special. But it would be great to win a title in Europe and I hope I can say that.”
Alonso is an elegant midfielder who won the Champions League twice with Liverpool before joining Real Madrid, where he will face Borussia Dortmund for this season's Champions League title. The June 1 final at Wembley Stadium will be between the two teams involved in the failed 2021 Super League exit. Madrid pushed, and Dortmund declined the invitation.
Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta were hardly the kind of clubs that would have been invited to leave three years ago, but now they represent football projects that are respected by neutral fans across Europe.
Both are based in regional cities and each has a history of over 100 years and has reached an astonishing peak. Until this season, they had only won three trophies: the 1963 Italian Cup with Atalanta, the 1988 UEFA Cup with Leverkusen, the precursor to the Europa League, and the 1993 German Cup.
Leverkusen lost to Madrid in the Champions League final in 2002, and Atalanta also came within minutes of reaching the semi-finals in 2020, but neither feels they are entitled to success in Europe.
The teams' small stadiums in Leverkusen and Bergamo have a combined capacity of around 51,000, which also fits within the venue in Dublin (formerly Lansdowne Road) that will host both teams on Wednesday. The official limit for the European Championship final is 48,000 people.
Leverkusen and Atalanta do not include gross matchday income from ticket and hospitality sales in UEFA's list of the top 50 European clubs by revenue.
Two blue-chip clubs relying on shrewd transfer deals, although taken by pharmaceutical giant Bayer and Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Paliuca respectively, combined last year's total revenue for Manchester City's players. His annual salary reached $500 million. Bill alone.
However, since 2016, Leverkusen and Atalanta have been playing easy-to-read soccer under coach Gian Piero Gasperini with attack and team-first defense.
“They play one-on-one all over the pitch,” Schick said of Atalanta. “No matter where you move, there's always a defender behind you so you don't leave them any breathing room.”
Atalanta have become a new force under manager Gasperini and have already qualified for next season's Champions League. In a normal year, they would have been popular as the first European title winners.
But what Leverkusen did was unusual, and it may be a few more days before legends are born.
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press