Lukeman, the "little man" who was dealt with at half price two years ago, wore a hat in the Europa League final!

Chengdu Business Daily Red Star News

2024-05-23 14:22Published on the official account of Red Star News of Chengdu Business Daily, Sichuan

In the Europa League final in the early morning of May 23, the outside world generally paid attention to the performance of Leverkusen's Wirtz, Xhaka, Grimaldo, Frimpong, Boniface, Schick and other stars before the game. Even when many foreign media expected the players of both sides to start, the "little man" Lookman was not included in Atalanta's main eleven.

But no one expected that it was this "mediocre" player who decided the Europa League title with a wonderful hat-trick and set a series of records.

卢克曼捧杯庆祝 图据IC photo

In the Europa League final, which was considered one-sided before the game, Atalanta coach Gasperini's high pressing and defensive counter-attacks were very effective, and also allowed Lukman to give full play to his fast and impactful characteristics. In the first half, Lookman gave Atalanta a 2-0 lead with his clever flanking at the back post and his ability to beat defenders in front of the penalty area and shoot into the bottom right corner of the goal. In the second half, Lookman once again showed his superb shooting skills on the counter-attack, bursting into the box with the ball, and when facing a defender, he shook his "bike" and fired a furious shot to seal the victory for Atalanta.

Lookman's three goals

Lookman's hat-trick not only helped Atalanta win the Europa League for the first time, but also ended Leverkusen's unbeaten run of 51 games in all competitions this season. Lookman reached the pinnacle of his career with three goals from three shots on target, while also setting a number of records – the first player to score a hat-trick since the Europa League final was introduced in a single leg. In the history of European finals (including the UEFA Super Cup), only nine players have scored a hat-trick including Lookman in the early hours of this morning.

If you don't count the hat-tricks of Atletico Madrid striker Falcao in 2012 and Liverpool midfielder McDermott in the UEFA Super Cup in 1977, the last time a player wore a hat in a three-major European final was back in 1975 when Borussia Mönchenbach player Heynckes was played. The last time a player scored a hat-trick in a European final for a Serie A team was AC Milan's Michel Plati in 1969.

The first hat-trick in 49 years of three major European finals was enough to garner enough attention for Lookman, who the Nigerian striker had never experienced before. Although he has played for Charlton Athletic, Everton, Leipzig, Fulham, Leicester City and other teams, his performances have not been impressive. Especially in 2019, Lukman was relegated to Fulham because of missing a penalty, and he was ridiculed by the outside world at that time. The rough start of his career also made London-born Lookman feel that he would not get the opportunity to play for England. In 2022, as an Anglo-Nisvane descent, he applied to FIFA to change his membership and qualified to play for the Nigerian national team. In the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations, Lukman scored key goals in both the 1/8 finals and the 1/4 finals, and finally helped the Nigerian team reach the final. Although the team lost to Ivory Coast and missed out on the title, Lukman was still named in the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations team.

卢克曼带走2023/24赛季欧联杯决赛比赛用球 图据IC photo

The most crucial step in Lukeman's career was to join Atalanta from Leipzig in 2022 for a transfer fee of 9.35 million euros, although compared to his transfer from Everton to Leipzig in 2019 (18 million euros), Lukeman's value is close to a five-fold discount, which also makes Leipzig lose a lot. But in Atalanta, Lookman was given more opportunities to perform. Although he is not an absolute mainstay in the team, Lookman's goalscoring efficiency at Atalanta is quite high. In the 2022/23 season, Lookman scored 13 goals and 8 assists in Serie A, and combined with the statistics of the Coppa Italia, he scored 15 goals and 8 assists throughout the season; This season, Lookman has 9 goals and 6 assists in Serie A, 5 goals and 1 assist in the Europa League, 1 goal and 1 assist in the Italian Cup, and currently has 15 goals and 8 assists.

On the German "transfer market" website, Lukman is currently worth 30 million euros. With the performance of the Europa League, the 26-year-old player is expected to further increase his value, and his super individual ability is likely to attract the attention of some big teams. After this unforgettable game, Lukman said: "It was one of the best nights of my life, the team did amazing and tonight we made history! ”

Red Star News reporter Jiang Shan

Edited by Ou Peng

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