Atletico Madrid head coach Diego Simeone has expressed satisfaction with the performances of Ademola Lookman, after his goal sent the club to the semifinal of the Champions League ahead of Barcelona.
The Super Eagles winger grabbed the only goal of the night for Atletico in their 2-1 defeat to Barcelona, although they advanced by an aggregate scoreline of 3-2.
Related: Ademola Lookman reacts to Atletico Madrid’s UCL progress
It was also Lookman’s 10th goal contribution since joining Los Rojiblancos earlier this year, marking his growing importance to the side.
Lookman strike sends Atletico through to UCL last four
Atletico Madrid went into the second leg encounter after winning 2-0 in the first leg and were hoping to advance to the semifinal for the first time since 2017.
Lamine Yamal gave Barcelona the lead in the first half after just four minutes, before Ferran Torres scored a second as they took advantage of the tie.
Lookman, who enjoyed an impressive outing, pulled one back for Atletico in the first half which then ended 2-1.
Barcelona scored in the second half to move ahead once again, but the strike was ruled out by VAR, while they had Eric Garcia sent off later in the first half for denying a goalscoring opportunity.
Atletico advanced on the night and will now face either Arsenal or Sporting in the last four of the UCL.
Simeone hails Lookman’s performance at Atletico
Speaking after the match, Diego Simeone was impressed with Lookman’s performance and has tipped him to continue to improve.
“He’s still evolving, he’s improving a lot defensively which makes him even more important and of course he’s carrying more weight in the team”, Simeone stated.
“He’s brilliant offensively, he’s very courageous and he’s very good in one on one. Since I’ve been at the club, we’ve never had players like that with those features and well, we are betting everything on playing almost four forwards. Giuliano is a winger, he’s almost a forward and when he attacks, he’s an extra forward and when we attack we played from the heart.
“The amount of running we did was unbelievable and Lookman’s offensive importance giving pace to the team when he was on the ball. We need more from him, he has more in his tank and we’ve seen it in Nigeria and well, he’s always played great”, the Atletico Madrid head coach concluded.
Atletico Madrid will find out their semifinal opponent later tonight when Arsenal face Sporting Lisbon at the Emirates in their second leg encounter.
