Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini said he never intended to offend Ademola Lookman by saying the striker is “one of the worst penalty takers he has ever seen” after their home Champions League defeat by Club Brugge.
Gasperini brushed off the backlash against his comments while addressing a press conference on Saturday, pointing out similarities to an incident in Udinese’s 1-0 Serie A win over Lecce on Friday where Lorenzo Lucca scored a penalty despite not being the designated taker.
Belgian side Club Brugge stunned Atalanta 3-1 in the second leg of their playoff tie to dump the Italian side out with a 5-2 aggregate win and reach the last 16.
Lookman, Atalanta’s hero last season when they won the Europa League, pulled back one goal for the Italian side when they were 3-0 down.
I would have liked a strong player like Lookman to have made a gesture towards De Ketelaere saying: ‘Come on keep the ball, put it in.’.
