DUBLIN, Ireland -- It was Michael Jordan who once said that he "never lost a game, I just ran out of time," but as much as Xabi Alonso and his Bayer Leverkusen players might want the same to be true of their failure to complete an unprecedented unbeaten treble, the reality is that they ran out of ideas long before the clock and Atalanta beat them in the UEFA Europa League final.
Leverkusen had become the team that just doesn't lose under Alonso this season. Unbeaten champions of a 34-game Bundesliga season, DFB-Pokal finalists and also in the final of a European competition -- not a single defeat, anywhere -- they were attempting to become the first team since European club competitions begin in 1955-56 to sweep the board without losing a game.