The UEFA Champions League is now much more exciting with its new format. Top teams struggle and they are now trying to get back on track for a playoff spot.
To imagine PSG is in the 25th position is unthinkable. Former champions Manchester City were in the 19th position before the last match against Juventus while defending champions, Real Madrid, only entered the playoff spot after the 3-2 win over Atalanta on Tuesday.
The Atalanta, Real Madrid game was one of the star matches of Matchday 6. It was explosive from the beginning to the end. The Italian team with Nigeria’s Ademola Lookman on parade gave a good account of themselves and almost scored the leveller with the last kick of the ball but for a bad miss by the on-rushing striker who wasted the good effort of Lookman by hitting the ball over the bar. Lookman has been very consistent this term for club and country. His efforts have been key to the top position of his team in the Serie A table. The Eagles forward scored the second goal for his team against Real and worked so hard to search for equalizer. It was not a surprise that he was voted Man of the Match after the encounter.
As a Nigerian, I was proud the Eagles star could win the award ahead of all the players in the star-studded Real team with the likes of Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Jnr, Rodrigo and a host of others. After the encounter, Lookman said: “We played a good game and there are lots of positives to take from the game. We played a top team and they had their moments. Then I scored and their reaction after that.
This is football and the most important thing is that we are positive in our play. The occasion really got the best of us, that’s positive as well. Every game we were hungry.
That’s our mentality over the past couple of months. We’ve been winning games though we lost but I don’t think it will affect our confidence.”
The defeat against Real was the very first for Atalanta in this year’s UCL.
As the D-Day for CAF’s Africa Footballer of the Year award draws near, Lookman is a hot favourite to clinch the award.
It would be nice to see a Nigerian take over from another national team colleague after the country missed out on the award for about two decades.
Because the emergence is determined largely by votes, it becomes dicey. I can recall a number of times favourite Nigerians lost out.
The time is close but it will be a disservice to the game if Lookman is not crowned. Earlier in the week, CAF came out with a list of the final shortlist of three candidates for each category of the awards but the body failed to reduce the men’s Player of The Year from five to three.
The continental body retains the five-man shortlist released since November and for the first time my faith in Lookman taking over from Osimhen was shaken. Lookman, who also scored a historic hat-trick for Atalanta in the final of the UEFA Europa League, will battle Simon Adingra, Serhou Guirassy, Achraf Hakimi and Ronwen Williams for the prize. It is now dicey and too close to call for the apex football body on the continent but for me as a close follower of the game, it’s King Ademola Lookman on Monday.
The 27-year-old shone at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, scoring three goals and registering one assist in seven appearances, as the Super Eagles finished in second place Falcons’ keeper Chiamaka Nnadozie is in the running for the CAF Women’s Player of the Year and also the Goalkeeper of the Year, which is more realistic than the main women’s award.
The Super Falcons and the Super Eagles are also in the gunning for women and men’s national team of the year just as Edo Queens after their exploits in the CAF Womens’ Champions League are in the running for the best Women’s team of the Year.
For now, the winner(s) have been decided in each of the categories just as anxiety mounts across the continent on who wears the crown in each cadre of the awards. CAF’s integrity is at stake in this 2024 awards and we just have to wait to see how the drama unfolds.
