EUROPA LEAGUE Knockout stage
Ones to watch Nick Bidwell picks out 12 players to keep an eye on in the knockout stages
Teun KOOPMEINERS ATALANTA
“Koopmania” has taken hold in a big way at the Stadio di Bergamo, where the Atlanta faithful worship at the feet of Dutch midfielder Koopmeiners. Soon to turn 24, Koopmeiners did not exactly look ready for the anointing oil when moving to Lombardy from Eredivisie outfit AZ Alkmaar on the last day of the summer 2021 transfer window. In the eyes of his new Serie A fan base, he had it all to prove, merely a non-playing member of the Netherlands’ Euro 2020 squad and never having participated in the Champions League. But without fuss or false starts, he quickly struck a chord with the 46
WORLD SOCCER
Fans’ favourite… Teun Koopmeiners
Nerazzurri faithful, winning them over with his unbounded energy, vision, creativity, composure in the tightest of spots and leadership qualities. New arrivals on the Italian scene often have difficulty adjusting to the tacticsheavy Calcio culture. The cerebral Koopmeiners, though, has taken it all in his stride, cutting an impressive figure of elegance, power and quick thinking. As his former AZ coach Pascal Jansen points out, he has “a left foot of gold” which serves many different purposes. He has an incredible range of passing, especially excelling in cross-field switches of play, and long, raking
As his former AZ coach Pascal Jansen points out, Koopmeiners has “a left foot of gold”
balls straight to the feet of a team-mate. His ball control is of the adhesive variety, he is great in triangles, his set-piece delivery is peerless and he boasts a hammer of a long-range shot. In his last two seasons with AZ (2019-20 and 2020-21), he scored no fewer than 33 goals in all competitions, albeit fortified by a heavy smattering of penalties. With Atalanta, he has yet to find his shooting boots – only registering a couple of goals in the first half of the season – but, with time, will surely improve on that quota. Atalanta, renowned for scouring the globe for value-for-money acquisitions and turning them into high-flyers, can only be glad that they won the race for Koopmeiners’ signature. Leeds United, Arsenal, Roma, Nice and Monaco were all in the queue to wrest him away from AZ. Fortunately for Atalanta, they proved