The African Footballer of the Year, Ademola Lookman and his Atalanta teammates have been eliminated from this season’s UEFA Champions League by Club Brugge that parades another Nigerian Raphael Onyedika.
Atalanta lost the first leg at the Jan Breydelstadion in Brugge 2-1 and needed to win in Bergamo with at least two goals margin. But it was the Belgians who started the second leg like a house on fire and went three goals up in the first half.
Ademola Lookman was introduced in the second half and he spent only 34 seconds before scoring for Atalanta to rekindle their hope of a turn around which never happened as the match ended 3-1 in favour of the Belgians.
Lookman moved from hero to villain when he failed to convert a penalty kick which would have further brightened their chances of Atalanta to clinch victory from the jaws of defeat. His coach Piero Gasperini described him as one of the worst penalty takers in a post-match interview.
Bayern Munich overcame a scare by Celtic to reach the last 16. Though the Germans were leading 2-1 from the first leg, Celtic scored in the 63rd minute to restore 2-2 draw on aggregate. When it seems the match will get into extra-time Alphonso Davies equalised for the Germans to give them a 3-2 aggregate victory.
Benfica progressed to the round of 16 despite drawing their second leg encounter with Monaco 3-3 at the Estadio da Luz. The Portuguese did all the hard work in the first leg where they won 1-0, which gave them a 4-3 victory.
