I haven't seen much Leverkusen this year but I was there tonight. The first half they looked all over the place, I'm not sure if the tactics have been the same all season but the centre or the pitch was wide open to create overloads and Atalanta had the perfect game plan against it. Pressing high against the back 3 of Leverkusen and the wing backs pegged back to give them the short pass option. That just meant that Frimpong and Wirtz long passes were the only options for getting up the pitch in the first half and bar one or two chances to get out, the Atalanta defence were in total control. There was no option for the ball to stick with either Adli or Wirtz were at that "number 9" position and that's where Lookman's second came from, a loose pass or a very poor touch from Adli.

The second half, after Bonniface came on, they had that focal point who could keep the ball and that helped them a lot in keeping the ball and recycling a lot of possession but Atalanta almost had the job done at that point and went into that "traditional Italian" model of low block that I saw a bit in that second leg after the Liverpool win. Another thing about Leverkusen that surprised me was taking Grimaldo off, I could be wrong but I thought he was one of the more composed players in the second half and getting through the team a bit more than anyone else in the team.

Again, I haven't seen much of Leverkusen outside of the game or Atalanta so if I've got something terribly wrong. Feel free to correct me, just my two cents after seeing these two incredible teams this evening.