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Atalanta secured a late winner against Empoli to maintain the top spot on the Serie A table.
Lookman returned to the starting lineup after missing Atalanta’s cup game win in midweek due to his CAF award win on Monday.
However, upon his return, he celebrated his POTY win with a goal in Atalanta’s 3-2 narrow victory over Empoli.
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07:11 - 22.12.2024
Lookman is back! Super Eagles forward ready for first match as CAF Player of the Year
Nigeria's Ademola Lookman last featured in a game against Cagliari before he was named Africa's latest king.
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11:12 - 20.12.2024
Ademola Lookman: Newly-crowned African best gains over 100,000 followers days after dethroning Osimhen
Fresh off his coronation as CAF Player of the Year, Lookman is closing on the 1 million mark on Instagram.
As it happened
Super Eagles star Ademola Lookman returned to the Atalanta starting 11 after winning the African Player of the Year award.
The winger wrote his name in the history books last Monday, beating Achraf Hakimi, Serhou Guirassy, Ronwen Williams and Simon Adingra to the award.
Atalanta started the game brightly but conceded the first goal of the game. Lorenzo Colombo found himself in some space inside the box to get on the end of a pass from Liam Henderson, then sent the ball into the roof of the net.
The home side responded immediately with the equaliser when Davide Zappacosta picked out Charles De Ketelaere in the box with a decent cross and headed the ball into the net.
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Just before the half-time break, CAF POTY winner Lookman gave Atalanta the lead after latching onto a cross in the penalty area to poke home.
Sebastiano Esposito got Empoli’s equaliser just at the start of the second half, from the penalty spot.
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Atalanta continued pushing forward and had to get the winning goal very late in the game from in-form De Ketelaere.
The home side held on and denied Empoli any chance of an equaliser until the final whistle was blown by the referee.
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