Serie A outfit Atalanta secured their first major trophy in 61 years following a stunning 3-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final in Dublin on Wednesday night.
Ademola Lookman was the hero with a sensational hat-trick. The Nigerian ace had the best game of his career which ended Leverkusen’s 51-match unbeaten streak in all competitions.
Plenty of records were broken during the course of the Europa League campaign. Let’s take a closer look.
Individual records
Lookman became the first player to score a hat-trick in a Europa League final since 1975 (including the UEFA Cup).
The former Everton man is the first player to register a hat-trick in a single-match format of the Europa League final.
Lookman also became the fastest player to score two goals in a Europa League final – managing to do so in 26 minutes.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang broke the record for the most goals scored in the Europa League group stage and knockout games. He has bagged 34 goals – three more than Henrik Larsson.
Nation records
Spain are top of the Europa League winners list with 14 trophies. Sevilla have won half of them.
Italy are the second most successful nation in the competition’s history with ten trophies.
Five Serie A clubs have lifted the trophy – AC Milan, Juventus, Parma, Napoli and Atalanta.
Italy has also made the second-most number of appearances in the Europa League final.
With their 18th final appearance last night, they jumped ahead of England (17) on the list. Only Spain are in front of them (19).
Germany created unwanted history by becoming the nation with the most runner-up places in the competition.
They have finished on the losing side of finals nine times with seven separate teams.
Leverkusen have had the best season in their history, but became the first German side to fail to score in the final since Hamburg in 1982.
Club records
Sporting CP bowed out of the competition against Atalanta in the round of 16, but they created some notable records.
The Primeira Liga outfit increased the record for the most season appearances in the competition (36).
They now have the most draws (48), moving ahead of Inter Milan and PAOK.
Sporting have scored the most goals in the competition’s history with 321, moving ahead of PSV Eindhoven.
They have won 95 games in the Europa League and are just one short of Inter’s all-time tally.
