Europa League Final: Lookman's hat-trick secures Atalanta's historic victory


Lookman has joined Alex Iwobi (2019 Europa League) and Joe Aribo (2022 Europa League) as the only Nigerian players to score in final of a major UEFA competition. To compound his historic achievement, Lookman is also now the first African player to score thrice in the final of a major UEFA competition.

A hat-trick for Super Eagles player, Ademola Lookman, yesterday won the first ever European trophy for Atalanta, ending a 61-year wait for silverware, with Bayer Leverkusen’s 51-game unbeaten run thus coming to an end. 

Xabi Alonso’s team simply ran out of steam after a phenomenal season with Lookman running them ragged, opening the scoring with a back-post finish on 12 minutes before doubling the advantage with a stunning curling effort 14 minutes later.

He wrapped up his famous treble with a powerful left-footed strike that flew into the top corner meaning he became the first player to ever score a hat-trick in a Europa League final.

After storming to their first Bundesliga title, Leverkusen’s hopes of their own treble are over although they can secure a domestic double by beating Kaiserslautern in the German Cup on Saturday.

For Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini, this was the first major trophy of his long career - an overdue success.

UEFA award each team 630,000 euros for each victory that they achieve in the Europa League. They then award an extra 2.5 million euros for reaching the semi-final, and the prize money increases in the final. The runner-up earns 4.6m euros, whilst the winner will take home a grand total of 8.6m euros.

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