The fans forum of Italian Serie A side Atalanta have issued a statement on the criticism of Ademola Lookman by the coach of the team after his penalty miss in their 1-3 loss to Club Brugge in the UEFA Champions League, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Head coach of Atalanta Gian Piero Gasperini said Lookman shouldn’t have taken the spot kick they were awarded in the 1-3 loss to Club Brugge, which saw them get eliminated from the UEFA Champions League.
The Nigerian was introduced in the second half as he marks his return from injury after almost a month out , and he immediately showed his importance by pulling a goal back to bring scores to 3-1.
Atalanta were later awarded a penalty and a chance to further reduce the deficit. Lookman picked up the ball and delivered a poor penalty which was comfortably saved by Simon Mignolet.
His decision to take the spot kick didn’t leave Gasperini happy in anyway and he reacted to the miss in the post match conference branding the reigning Africa Player of the Year as one of the worst penalty takers he has seen in his life.
“Lookman was not supposed to take that penalty, he is one of the worst penalty takers I’ve ever seen,” the Italian manager told a post-match press conference.
The coach said one of the duo of Mateo Retegui or Charles De Ketelaere should have taken the kick rather than Lookman, and voiced his unhappiness with Lookman.
“He has a frankly terrible record even in training, he converts very few of them. Retegui and De Ketelaere were there, but Lookman in a moment of enthusiasm after scoring decided to take the ball and that was a gesture I did not appreciate at all.”
Responding to his open criticism of Lookman, the fans forum lament the choice of words by the coach and wondered why he didn’t take the same route or used the same words when Mateo Retegui missed a penalty against Arsenal in the same tournament.
They called on the coach to apologize to the Nigerian, who is their best player and handed them their first major European title with his hattrick in the Europa League final 3-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen last year.
Gasperini has been told to make the apology public in his next press conference else the fans will mobilize for him to be booed in all of their games till the end of the season.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
