Atalanta vs. Olympique Marseille, for the Europa League: summary, result and goals

Juan Musso’s team beat Leonardo Balerdi and Joaquín Correa’s team 3-0 after a 1-1 draw in the first leg. It will define the title against Exequiel Palacios’ undefeated Bayer Leverkusen in Ireland.

Goalkeeper Juan Musso celebrates Atalanta‘s qualification to the final of the 2023-24 Europa League (Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)

Atalanta

Olympique de Marseille

Fin

94′ 2T: Atalanta – Goal from play by El Bilal Touré 51′ 2T: Atalanta – Goal from play by Matteo Ruggeri 29′ 1T: Atalanta – Goal from play by Ademola Lookman

Atalanta, with Juan Musso as starter, beat Olympique de Marseille 3-0 (4-1), which had Leonardo Balerdi from the start and the entry of Joaquín Correa, at the Gewiss Stadium and will play in the UEFA Europa League final 2023-24 against Exequiel Palacios’ undefeated Bayer Leverkusen. The soccer players Ademola Lookman, Matteo Ruggeri and El Bilal Touré scored the goals that made it possible for the Italian team to travel to Dublin, Ireland.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta will play for the first time a match in which a European title is at stake. It would also allow him to play in the Champions League again. And he achieved it in a deserved, incontestable way, against a rival who had fallen into disrepair, and far from the Velodrome it was a shadow of what he presented in the first leg.

Atalanta vs. Olympique de Marseille: the compact of the match

With Charles De Ketelaere, Gianluca Scamacca, Lookman and Teun Koopmeiners unleashed, the carousel of opportunities did not wait long. The Belgian crashed with the post after avoiding Pau López and, shortly after, the Italian, in an extraordinary state of form, against the crossbar after chasing a loose ball inside the area in a corner kick that led to another shot from From Ketelaere that the Spanish archer saved.

Atalanta hovered around the area of a blurred, outmatched Marseille, unable to stop the Italians. And the goal didn’t take long to arrive. Around the half hour mark, the figure of Lookman emerged to, from the left-handed profile, in a trademark play, shoot a diagonal with the ball and take a shot from outside the area that, slightly deflected by Samuel Gigot, opened the scoring.

Bergamo exploded with joy for the goal, because he saw his team burn Marseille and because he felt inevitably a winner. The first act ended only 1-0, the best news for the French.

Of course, as soon as the second period began, Iliman Ndiaye had a very clear chance, the only one of his match, who missed the ball on Musso and wasted Atalanta’s defensive mistake.

Marseille forgave, but not Gasperini’s team, for which everything came out in the most important duel in its history. Just a few minutes after suffering the visitors’ chance, Ruggeri put a shot into the corner that sealed the duel.

Since then, the party broke out in the stands and in the streets of Bergamo. They turned off Marseille, they shone with their own light and with that of the fireworks that were launched from the stadium.

Touré sentenced in added time with a great goal in which he exhibited strength and quality to certify access to the final dreamed of by everyone in Bergamo, for generations and generations. Atalanta will be, more than deservedly, and with serious options to lift the title, in the grand final of the Europa League.

Atalanta vs. Olympique de Marseille, for the UEFA Europa League: minute by minute