By Victor Kanayo
It was a memorable night of celebration on Wednesday for Atalanta as Nigeria’s Super Eagles man Ademola Lookman fired a hatrick to end Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten season record and lift the Europa League trophy.
With Lookman’s performance, he has become first player to score a hat-trick in a single leg UEFA Cup or Europa League final.
Lookman, a former Charlton and Everton star, is also the third Nigerian player to score in the final of a major UEFA competition, after Alex Iwobi (2019 Europa League) and Joe Aribo (2022 Europa League).
Due to Lookman’s feat, Atalanta have become the first Italian club to win the competition since Parma beat Marseille in the 1999 showpiece.
Having gone through an entire Bundesliga campaign undefeated, Leverkusen had not been beaten in 51 matches prior to Wednesday’s contest.
They can still lift the German Cup final this Saturday, should they defeat second-tier Kaiserslautern.
