Super Eagles star, Ademola Lookman was on target as Atalanta defeated Empoli 2-0 in Sunday’s Serie A game.
The Nigerian international who was making his 27 appearances, has netted eight goals and bagged six assists this ongoing season for Atalanta.
The host opened the scoring in the 42nd minute through Pasalic’s fine goal to the delight of the home supporters.
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Lookman extended Atalanta’s lead in the 51st minute, to increase his goal tally to eight this season.
All efforts for Empoli to reduced the scoreline proved abortive as Atalanta earned the maximum points.
The win means Atalanta sit sixth on 57 points while Empoli sit 17th on 31 points.
9 Comments
Nigeria is fortunate to have this baller player for Super Eagles. This guy is an attacking machine and won’t be surprised if he’s nominated among the top three African players.
Lookman remains the best winger/second striker in the current Super Eagles team. He keeps delivering week after week.
Double digit goals in back to back seasons. Very technically gifted player. This are the kind of foreign born talents I always crave for in the SuperEagles. He chose Nigeria without any pressure and he’s our best player in Europe this season. A true attacking machine. With him in our attack SuperEagles is guaranteed goals. Our attacking trident in a simple 4-3-3 formation should be Lookman, Boniface and Osimhen.
He chose Nigeria without any pressure….? You may need to double check on that
If pressure had a name Ademola Lookman and Kevin Akoguma would be synonyms for pressure.
But no doubt we indeed lucky to have this guy. Probably the most consistent SE player in Europe for the past few seasons.
Our Persistence surely paid off on this one.
Ademola Lookman was roughly 24 when he finally made up his mind to play for Nigeria. Yes, he initially and understandably edged his bets towards playing for England but once his mind was made up, there was nothing stopping that train.
I think AY-the-Great is right to say that Lookman – who even 2 years after picking Nigeria could still make the England squad due to his young age – chose Nigeria without pressure.
Look at someone like Chuba Akpom. Having been approached to represent Nigeria in his early 20s, he eventually relented and picked Nigeria in his mid to late 20s when his chances for England were waning. Now that is someone who picked Nigeria under pressure which is why (I suspect) he is being snubbed by Super Eagles hierarchy despite his rich vein of form.
There was no pressure on Lookman, he picked Nigeria at the peak of his prowess. Those are the sort of dual nationality players we want.
God just bless us with another victor Moses
I am just glad Lookman did us the honour of representing his fatherland. No doubt he’s quality, that much he has shown for club and country. His numbers speak for ıtself.
But as Oliver Twist, we need more elsewhere.
I sincerely hope the FA could do the needful and apply ‘pressure’ on Eze, Olise and Tosin. They are quality that are quite needed. They are quite young as well. The Crystal Palace duo are especially vital with our midfield begging for an upgrade. Iwobi simply needs a breather. He’s giving his all, he needs assistance. He simply can’t do it all alone.
We are blessed to have wide range of forwards that can stand in if the prefer choice is missing and offer diverse play. I sincerely hope we can get that in our midfield, especially the attacking side. If that could happen, then we are set going forward.
Unfortunately Mr Hush,
History admonishes us that managers of high profile clubs hold this notion that indigenous Nigerian players are neither visionary nor intelligent enough to occupy attacking midfield positions. Hence most of our high profile indigenous midfielders player centre to defensive midfield positions in high caliber leagues: cases in point are Onyeka, Ndidi (until recently) and retired Mikel Obi.
But these managers are wrong – dead wrong.
It is no surprise that Ndidi has shone like a million stars in just one season as an attacking midfielder (in England)when he found a coach that failed to embrace the notion of Nigerian players not being clued-up enough to function in the attacking midfield role.
Where is this all leading to?
Rather than continue to focus our search on dual nationality attacking midfielders who might prove to be lightweight in African football like Joe Aribo, perhaps a shrewd Super Eagles coach can scour lower leagues (like Czech, Hungary, Bulgaria or Turkey division 2 for example) for rugged, fluid attacking midfielders who are only in those leagues because managers in top clubs fail to give them a look-in.
It is no coincidence that Sunday Mba (NPFL) eclipsed Nosa Ighiebor (Spanish La Liga) in the 2013 afcon in attacking midfield. Quite a lot of physically strong and mentally dialled in Nigerian midfielders are just waiting to be plucked from the tree of lower league football to wreck havoc for Nigeria.
Those 3 players you mentioned would be wonderful additions to the SE.
Eze especially.
I’m already dreaming of Eze in an SE jersey.