Key events
77 min: Musso gathers a long punt on the edge of his box. His feet were initially outside, but by the time he touched the ball, he was back in. Leverkusen claim something, anything, out of desperation more than anything else.
GOAL! Atalanta 3-0 Bayer Leverkusen (Lookman 75)
Lookman has already scored two stunning goals, but this is the best of the lot! Scamacca makes off on the counter. He eventually passes to Lookman on his left. Lookman shifts the ball to his left to take Tapsoba out of the game, then lashes an unstoppable rising drive across Kovar and into the top right! That nearly took the entire frame of the goal out of the ground!
73 min: Ederson nicks the ball off Frimpong and feels a gentle brush of finger on face. He takes the opportunity to go down. Andrich is then booked for getting up in the referee’s grille to complain about the cheap free kick.
71 min: It’s all a bit scrappy, which given the scoreline, suits Atalanta just fine.
70 min: Koopmeiners goes into the book for a big yank on Wirtz’s shoulder.
69 min: A double change for Leverkusen, as Alejandro Grimaldo and Exequiel Palacios make way for Robert Andrich and Adam Hložek. Andrich’s very first act is to take his eye off the ball when offered an opportunity to stride down the middle towards the Atalanta box.
68 min: Nothing comes of the free kick.
67 min: Lookman drops a shoulder as he prepares to skin Tapsoba down the left. The Leverkusen defender is forced to take one for the team, grabbing a chunk of his shirt and ensuring the winger doesn’t tear clear. Into the book he goes.
66 min: Zappacosta drives slowly down the right and wins a throw deep in Leverkusen territory. That’s some good play, because there was nobody to find in the middle, and it’s eaten up a chunk of clock.
64 min: Wirtz floats a diagonal ball towards Grimaldo on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Musso comes off his line decisively to claim ahead of Grimaldo, who was winding his neck back for a header. Great goalkeeping, and brave too, because he’s taken a knock.
62 min: Ederson, in an attempt to channel Xabi Alonso v Luton and Newcastle, tries to beat Kovar from the halfway line. Nope.
60 min: Zappacosta is booked for a clumsy tackle on Adli, who was making good down the left. No malice, just a total lack of timing, other than that of the comedic variety. Nothing comes of the resulting free kick.
59 min: Wirtz’s loose pass into the Atalanta box somehow finds its way through to Adli on the left. Adli flashes a cross into the mixer. Musso parries but the ball falls to Frimpong, who leans back and slashes a wild volley miles off target.
57 min: Charles De Ketelaere is replaced by Mario Pašalić. When play restarts, Frimpong makes good ground down the right but his cross, intended for Boniface, is deflected towards the keeper by Ederson, who has been absolutely everywhere tonight. Musso gathers.
56 min: Hincapie is clocked around the jaw by Scamacca, but it looked accidental. The referee certainly sees it that way, and thankfully the Leverkusen defender is back up soon enough.
54 min: Leverkusen probe this way and that. Hincapie and Grimaldo combine down the left to earn a corner. They take it quickly and waste it. But the German champs have shown a clear improvement since the break.
52 min: A free kick for Bayer out on the left. Everyone loads the Atalanta box. But Grimaldo can’t clear the front man, which is nothing short of shocking, and Atalanta clear with a yawn. Musso still hasn’t had a serious save to make.
51 min: Frimpong drives down the right and threatens to tear clear, only for Ederson to step across him and flick out for a corner that comes to nothing. It’s a proper end-to-end game with both teams going for it. You know what they say about the next goal? Well, that.
50 min: Nothing comes of the corner.
49 min: Lookman slips Koopmeiners clear down the left. Koopmeiners crosses low. De Ketelaere waits to slam home, but Hincapie slides in to hook out for a corner, just in time.
47 min: Boniface’s first act is to drop deep and attempt to find Frimpong with a floated pass down the middle. It sails through to Musso.
Leverkusen get the second half underway. Victor Boniface has come on for Josip Stanišić. Atalanta meanwhile have been forced to switch out Sead Kolašinac, who came out for the second half but limped off before it even started. He’s been suffering from a thigh problem. Giorgio Scalvini comes on in his place.
Half-time entertainment. Or all is not lost for Leverkusen.
HALF TIME: Atalanta 2-0 Bayer Leverkusen
Atalanta have been excellent, and this scoreline doesn’t flatter them at all. Xabi Alonso will need to make some changes. Leverkusen’s invincible coat is hanging on das Shügglipeg.
45 min +1: Xhaka has a rake at goal from 25 yards. It’s a decent enough effort, albeit one that’s always bouncing wide of the bottom-right corner, and covered by Musso.
45 min: There will be two additional first-half minutes.
43 min: De Ketelaere cuts in from the right and fizzes a low shot towards the bottom right. Kovar is behind it all the way. Up the other end, some work for Kovar’s opposite number Musso to do, as he gathers Adli’s left wing cross with Frimpong lurking.
41 min: Frimpong has the opportunity to tear clear down the left but is shepherded out of harm’s way by a combination of Zappacosta and Ruggeri. To be fair to Frimpong, there was nobody in the middle for him to find. “If Atalanta go 3-0 up by half-time, this will suit Xabi Alonso down to the ground,” argues Istanbul nostalgist Gary Byrne.
39 min: Ederson slides in to steal the ball off the toe of Wirtz, and sends De Ketelaere away down the right. De Ketelaere finds Scamacca on the edge of the D, but the striker’s crowded out. Yet again, Atalanta look far sharper than their opponents.
38 min: Frimpong threatens to enter the Atalanta box on the left. Kolašinac comes across to stop him, at the expense of a corner that’s easily cleared. Leverkusen are beginning to carry a threat for the first time this evening.
37 min: Xhaka floats a clever pass down the inside-left channel. Wirtz, entering the box, thinks about bringing it down, but lets it bounce in front of him. That allows Musso to claim.
35 min: Grimaldo has an opportunity to wedge a loose bouncing ball over Musso, who is wandering around in no-man’s land. But he duffs the chip and the ball lands softly in Musso’s arms. Then Scamacca slides in aggressively on Adli. He’s booked, and so is Wirtz, for asking for the aforementioned booking.
34 min: Xabi Alonso sends Victor Boniface out to warm up.
