Atalanta Bergamo have won the Europa League against Bayer Leverkusen. Former Schalke player Sead Kolasinac experiences a rollercoaster of emotions with the winner.
Sead Kolasinac experienced a rollercoaster of emotions on Wednesday evening in Dublin. The defender impressed for a half in the Europa League final for Atalanta Bergamo with his positional play and important ball recoveries before he had to retire at the break. Even before the restart – his team was already leading 2:0 against Bayer Leverkusen – the former Schalke 04 professional signaled that he could not continue. He had to come off with a knock. Condemned to watch, he nevertheless experienced the title win with the Italians. Dejection was followed by boundless jubilation!
“It’s unbelievable,” said Kolasinac after the game. He didn’t know how to deal with his feelings. His teammates seemed to feel the same way, he said, giving an insight into the dressing room. It was very quiet, said the 30-year-old after the spectacular triumph. “It’s a historic triumph for the club and I’m proud to be a part of it,” said Kolasinac.
Even shortly before kick-off of the Europa League final between his Serie A club and the German champions, the 30-year-old Bosnian appeared extremely relaxed. “Of course, you don’t play a European Cup final every week. Nervousness is part of it,” said the former Schalke player, not appearing nervous at all. Almost chatty, he reported that he had of course been in contact with Leverkusen’s six-man Granit Xhaka beforehand – the two know each other from their time together at Arsenal FC. The advantage of his team, he said, was that they were aware of Leverkusen’s qualities – but: “Nobody threw the final at us either, we worked hard for it and clearly want to win it.”
And that’s exactly how it turned out. Atalanta almost put Bayer ahead with a 3:0 win thanks to a brace from Ademola Lookman. The comeback qualities of the Xabi Alonso team were nowhere to be seen this time
European Cup evenings – Sead Kolasinac knows all about them. Even back then, when he made his breakthrough at FC Schalke 04 as an up-and-coming (wing) defender, he experienced this special atmosphere. From 2012 to 2017, he played for the Royal Blues for the first time, having joined their youth team from VfB Stuttgart in 2011.
In view of FC Schalke’s current situation as a club with a long tradition that has been relegated from Bundesliga 2 for large parts of this season, it seems out of time when you look at who Sead Kolasinac has played against in Schalke kit. It was the time when S04 was still one of the top teams in the Bundesliga. In the Champions League in the 2012/13 season, he played against Montpellier in the group stage and then against Galatasaray Istanbul in the round of 16. Group matches against FC Basel and Chelsea FC followed a year later. Their opponents in the round of 16 were the great Real Madrid. Too big, it has to be said: Schalke lost 1:6 and 1:3 – a bad evening for a defender.
He also played on the international stage at his subsequent clubs FC Arsenal, Olympique Marseille and currently Atalanta Bergamo. He returned to FC Schalke on loan from January to June 2021. However, Schalke were already a long way away from European Cup evenings: at the end of the season, Kolasinac was also unable to prevent relegation and returned to London. In total, he made 13 appearances in the Champions League, 43 in the Europa League (2 goals) and three in the Conference League. But he has only just won one European Cup: with Bergamo, against Leverkusen.
The Italians thus broke a long final curse. Like Leverkusen, who were long derided as runners-up, Bergamo also had to cope with some tough defeats in the final. “It would mean a lot to win this title. A lot of good work has been done here over the last ten years,” said Kolasinac ahead of the game. “I hope today is the day.” His wish was granted