By Daily Sports Nigeria on May 14, 2025

Atalanta forward Ademola Lookman was in doubt to feature against Roma on Monday but the Nigerian started and scored a decisive goal to secure Champions League football for La Dea.

La Dea knew a defeat to Roma could transform the race for Europe, so it was tense when Bryan Cristante cancelled out the Lookman opener, but Ibrahim Sulemana scored the winner for 2-1 to guarantee third place.

The Nigerian international had been a major doubt to even be in the squad after feeling an Achilles tendon inflammation on Friday in training, but he started and scored in Bergamo.

“It’s a great feeling, we knew the importance of the game today to qualify for the Champions League. We put in a performance tonight that was deserving of that,” Lookman told DAZN.

“I try to be available whenever I can, so that’s important. I try to give my best. The team showed we are strong, there are two more games, we want to finish with as many points as possible.”

While Gian Piero Gasperini said that Atalanta will get straight to celebrating this week, even though there are still two rounds left to be played, Lookman is more focused.

“Another game on Sunday, we’re looking forward to it, but tonight is a good night to celebrate. It’s not easy to do what we did this season, so congratulations to everybody.”

Sulemana came off the bench to grab the winning goal and wrote his name in Atalanta history, despite this being only his seventh Serie A appearance of the season, for a total of 143 minutes of football.

“I cannot say much, I am just so happy,” he told DAZN.

“This is why we work so hard, we’re really happy. The coach told me to press, get support for the strikers, and I got the goal.

“We worked hard every day to get to this moment. We don’t look at what anyone else does, we only look at ourselves.”

Sulemana will have extra reasons to celebrate, as next week is his 22nd birthday.

Source Punch Ng

Posted May 14, 2025

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