Atalanta and Leverkusen fans dream of Europa League glory

Supporters celebrated both head coaches, Gian Piero Gasperini and Xabi Alonso, ahead of the final in Dublin.

Transcript

00:00 I would have never thought that I would see Leverkusen win the league at all.

00:03 Maybe win a national cup trophy, but winning the league is just crazy because

00:07 everybody thought Leverkusen can never win anything.

00:10 And now we're here, we can win three trophies, not just one.

00:12 We've already won one. We're really confident, yeah.

00:15 Running on the pitch versus Bremen, unbelievable.

00:19 I cried a lot on the field.

00:22 I could not imagine that anything like that happened to me.

00:26 And it was unbelievable.

00:28 It's a feeling like paradise, a football paradise.

00:31 So that's what you dream of if you're a football fan.

00:35 The dream of wanting to have this in your lifetime.

00:40 OK, many others have that often.

00:43 If you are a Manchester City or a Liverpool supporter,

00:46 then you have it every second year.

00:48 But for us, it's very special, very unique.

00:51 I think you can already see it in a way that fans renamed the street where the stadium of Leverkusen is

00:56 to Javier Alonso Street.

00:58 We can already build him a statue no matter what happens after next season,

01:01 if he leaves, if he doesn't leave.

01:04 He's a legend. He will forever be remembered.

01:06 The way he not just plays football, but brings respect to the club, to the fans.

01:10 I have never seen a coach like that at Leverkusen in my life.

01:13 I think now we finally made the change from being a club that really brings up the talent,

01:19 but has to sell the players at some point, to being established as a top club in Germany and in Europe.

01:27 He was a childhood hero for me.

01:29 And suddenly to know he's coming to my home soccer team was just incredible.

01:35 And it's like, well, this is going to be great.

01:38 But of course, no one could know how great it's going to be.

01:41 Gasparini deserved a statue out of the stadium for us.

01:45 He's incredible.

01:47 He took us to another world.

01:50 The final of the Europa League is not something that we can imagine eight years ago.

01:57 We are happy with this final because for us it's the first in the history of Atalanta.

02:05 So we are very excited.

02:07 I'm not telling that prediction.

02:11 We hope it's a good game.

02:12 - M6? - No, for my heart, no.

02:15 - Atalanta! - Atalanta!

02:17 - Allez, allez, allez!

02:22 Allez Atalanta, allez Atalanta, allez Atalanta!