Xabi Alonso, in time of defeat: from Athens to Dublin

Xabi Alonso This Wednesday he faced the first European final of his career as a coach, fighting for a historic treble with his Bayer Leverkusen, who under his command on April 14 was proclaimed German champion for the first time. After 51 games unbeaten, they are relegated and will fall short of the coveted treble, but can do the double if they beat the Kaiserslautern (now in Second) in the final of the German Cup, at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. He won the game Gian Piero Gasperini with 3-0 to bring the Europa League to Bergamo.

Xabi Alonso He knows the glory of Europe as a player: he achieved a champion with the Liverpool and another with him real Madridand, with the Spanish team, where he became world champion in 2010, he won the 2008 and 2012 European Championships at continental level And he lost in one European final: the 2006-07 with Liverpool against him Milan in Athens (2-1).

But Xabi Alonsothat this season changed the history of his club and the Bundesliga by ending the hegemony of Bavaria (who won 11 German league titles in a row), could not win his first European final as a coach.

October 5, 2022 on Xabi Alonso He replaced Gerardo Seoane and thus became the coach of Bayer Leverkusen, which he led to the first Bundesliga and a dream season, with 51 games without defeat.

Xabi Alonso has, in the words of his players, the ability to transmit his ideas. He knows how to understand the game, read the games and the rivals. He designed a Bayer Leverkusen star with the ball, integrated but also vertical, where collective performance is important as well as the individual growth of the players. But in the final it is another Leverkusenunknown, who found himself completely overtaken by Atalanta, Europa League champion with a hat trick Ademola Lookman.