Ademola Lookman labelled ‘one of the worst penalty takers’ on record-breaking night for Atalanta man
Ademola Lookman has been called 'one of the worst penalty takers' by his own manager as Atalanta crashed out of the Champions League.
Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini made the damning claim following the 27-year-old's missed effort in Tuesday night's 3-1 defeat to Club Brugge.
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The Serie A side went into their knockout play-off second leg trailing 2-1 after their loss in Belgium last week.
And things got off to a wretched start in Bergamo with the visitors scoring three unanswered goals in the first half.
It was Lookman who sparked the hosts' attempted comeback when he poked home just 34 seconds after the break to bring up his 15th goal of the campaign.
His strike saw him create Champions League history by scoring the fastest goal by a substitute from the start of the second half.
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High on confidence, Lookman then stepped up in the 61st minute in his quest to cut Brugge's aggregate lead to 5-3.
But ex-Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet guessed the right way to deny Lookman's penalty from nestling in the bottom right corner.
It was the 36-year-old's 16th penalty save from his lengthy career - and just Lookman's second miss from 12 yards after his infamous Panenka attempt for Fulham against West Ham in 2020.
Atalanta failed to grab another goal in the second leg, with Brugge becoming the first Belgian side to directly knock out an Italian team in the competition since Anderlecht dumped out Juventus in 1982.
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And speaking after the match, Gasperini didn't hold back his anger over Lookman stepping up to take the penalty.
That's despite the Nigeria international scoring his four previous spot-kicks since joining the club in 2022.
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Gasperini vented: "Lookman wasn’t supposed to take the penalty.
"He's one of the worst penalty-takers I’ve ever seen.
"Even in training he has a very low percentage, he kicks them really badly.
"He wanted to take the penalty after scoring a goal.
"He took the ball despite [Mateo] Retegui and [Charles] De Keteleare available to take it. I didn’t like what Lookman did."
Lookman has since broken his silence on the situation and responded to the 'deeply disrespectful' comments.
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Speaking about his manager's words, he posted on social media: "It saddens me on a day like this to have to write this statement - most of all because of what we achieved together as a team and as a city.
"Being singled out in the manner I have been not only hurts but feels deeply disrespectful, not least because of the immense hard work and commitment I have always put in each and every day to help bring success to this club and to the incredible fans of Bergamo.
"In truth, I have dealt with many difficult moments during my time here - the majority of which I have never spoken about because in my opinion the team must always be protected and must come first. This makes what happened last night even more hurtful.
"Along with our incredible fans, we as a team are hurting too much with last night's result. During the match the designated penalty taker instructed me to take the penalty; and to support the team I took responsibility in the moment to do so.
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"Life's about challenges and turning pain into power which I'll continue to do."
Attention for Atalanta will now turn back towards their Serie A title tilt with the club sitting in third spot - five points behind leaders Napoli.
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