Xabi Alonso stated that it was painful to see Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten run coming to an end after losing the Europa League final 3-0 to Atalanta on Wednesday night.
It brought to an the German side’s unbeaten run in all competitions this season which stood at a record 51 games
Leverkusen were only two games away from making that historic feat but Ademola Lookman’s hat-trick meant Atalanta made history of their own with their first-ever European trophy.
Alonso however believes his team will learn from the experience.
“Normally it happens earlier in the season, but it’s the first one in such a big game, it hurts for sure but we need to deal with this pain in a positive way, try to transform it into a good energy for the next thing. But it’s football,” Alonso said.
“The normality is not to get defeated in the 52nd game. Normally you have it much earlier in the season so it’s been quite exceptional what we have achieved and we have to be really proud. Probably we need some time but, for sure it’s painful.”
“We will learn. Everyone. Myself as well because these defeats in the final, you don’t forget them because we had a big chance. We had put everything but it didn’t go as planned. We were not on our best level. Everyone, myself included, will learn.”
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Speaking further on the final loss, Alonso added: “Yes. Atalanta were better than us. We can’t say anything other than that, they deserved the trophy.
“We weren’t able to play as we wished after the first goal from Atalanta. They showed a great deal of energy and we weren’t able to find the solutions to counteract that.
“We were prepared for a number of challenges, one v one duels over the pitch but we weren’t able to really impose ourselves in these one v one situation, we weren’t able to fashion goalscoring opportunities.
“Ultimately it wasn’t our day. We’ve had a bad night. It’s a shame, it really hurts that it’s happened now.”
Leverkusen’s hopes of winning an unprecedented treble are now gone but they still have the opportunity to add to their Bundesliga trophy when they take on Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final on Saturday.
