Football Daily | Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Jupp Heynckes … Ademola Lookman

THE BIGGEST OF NIGHTS IN BIG VASE?

The credit cards of those Bayer Leverkusen fans who made the schoolboy error of flocking to the Dublin city-centre tourist trap that is Temple Bar before Wednesday night’s Big Vase final weren’t the only thing associated with the travelling Germans to ship a serious spanking. After being relieved of their money by local landlords, Leverksen fans made their way to the Aviva Stadium to see their team take a similarly brutal beating, going down 3-0 to Atalanta and losing their famous 51-match unbeaten run in the process. On Big Website, Amine Adli had declared that neither he nor his Leverkusen teammates could “remember what it’s like to lose a game” and it’s difficult to know quite how the striker could have tempted fate more. Adli and co were issued a stark reminder, with one of the Championship and Premier League’s forgotten men Ademola Lookman emerging as the Italians’ unlikely hero after scoring all three goals.

Rather than boo their underperforming rabble on and off the presentation rostrum in the wake of a fairly inept display, Leverkusen’s fans showed they’ve forgotten how to lose as well and seemed to take defeat in their stride. With victory in the league already boxed off, everything else is just soße and if Xabi Alonso’s men can rally to beat second-tier Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final on Saturday they can at least claim an invincible domestic double, which would be no mean feat for the fabled team of bottlers previously nicknamed “Neverkusen”. “For me, the result today does not change one bit how I feel about my players or what we have been doing,” tooted Alonso in his post-match natter. “It hurts because we wanted to lift the trophy but you can’t have everything. We lifted the Bundesliga and we have the chance to lift the DFB-Pokal on Saturday.”

Having lost the Coppa Italia final to Juventus last week, Atalanta went into this game as serious underdogs, with the Serie A club hoping to win their first shiny pot since 1963 and end a three-final losing streak under their 66-year-old manager Gian Piero Gasperini. They did just that in fine style, with Lookman channelling his inner Geoff Hurst to score a sublime hat-trick in a final to win Big Vase for a club that has massively over-achieved during Gasperini’s eight years in charge. “I am hugely proud for all of Italy, because it was a cursed trophy, even if it was only Inter and Roma who made the final over the last 25 years and lost,” cheered the Italian. “Having won it with Atalanta is perhaps one of those footballing fairytales that very rarely happen and it does show there’s still room for meritocracy in football.”

For Lookman, the final could scarcely have gone much better and in scoring a hat-trick straight out of the top drawer, the former Charlton, Everton, Leicester and Fulham winger became the first player since 1975 to score a hat-trick in a European final, joining fellow journeymen Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás and Jupp Heynckes in achieving the feat, even if it did take some time to track down the match ball after the final whistle. “It’s one of the best nights of my life,” declared the 26-year-old, upon being asked to confirm that, yes, this was in fact his finest nocturnal hour. Football Daily and everyone else waited with bated breath for the penalty-kick follow-up queries, which sadly went unasked: “What were the other ones, Ademola? And what on earth were you doing that put those nights up there with this one?” Now it seems we’ll never know.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I am in an odd situation sort of like where I am married with children, but meet an absolutely beautiful woman. Maybe that’s not a good example for me to say on television” – married Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini, a target for the managerial vacancy at Napoli and who also has children, hits the nail on the head with the latter half of his statement.

WIN A DAVID SQUIRES PRINT!

Thanks to our friends at the Guardian Print Shop, we are giving away more David Squires cartoons. To enter, just write us a letter for publication below. We will choose the best of our letter o’ the day winners at the end of each week and that worthy winner will then be given a voucher for one of our top, top cartoonist’s prints. And if you’re not successful, you can scan the full archive of David’s cartoons here and buy your own. Terms and conditions for the competition can be viewed here.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

With reference to the choices facing Kieran McKenna (yesterday’s Football Daily letters), it is nice of Rishi Sunak to call his snap general election and throw the prime minister’s position into the mix for the Ipswich boss to choose from. Given Todd Boehly and co’s history, he might as well take over at Chelsea and still have enough time to get the boot, then campaign and become PM” – Vivekanand Muthukrishnan.

Did Sunak really stand in a rainstorm and get soaking wet just to avoid being called the ‘Wally with a Brolly’?” – Noble Francis.

While it is quite the honour, especially after the success of the film, for Mary Fowler and Christine Sinclair to join the Barbie family (yesterday’s Quote of the Day), I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that, with trademark Teutonic efficiency, the Germans were trailblazers in this regard. After all, they had their own lifesize Thomas Doll with realistic ‘footballing action’ and brushable hair way back in the 1980s” –Derek McGee.

Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Derek McGee, who now has the chance to win a David Squires cartoon from our print shop at the end of the week. Terms and conditions for all this can be viewed here.