Atalanta’s quest of reaching the UEFA Champions League last 16 came to a crushing end at the hands of Raphael Onyedika’s Club Brugge on a Tuesday night that saw Ademola Lookman score a goal and miss a penalty in his first game back from injury.
The Serie A side went into the game down 2-1 from the first leg, yet found themselves down 3-0 in front of home fans at the Gewiss Stadium by half-time of the second leg against Club Brugge following a brace by Chemsdine Talbi and Ferran Jutgla’s goal in stoppage time.
That was the cue for Gian Piero Gasperini to bring on Lookman, out since December, to salvage the situation and the Nigerian forward made an instant impact, scoring within 36 seconds of the second half to give Atalanta a fighting chance at a comeback.
Atalanta’s chances looked set to improve when Juan Cuadrado was fouled in the area by Christos Tzolis on the hour mark. Lookman got hold of the ball but saw his penalty saved by Simon Mignolet.
Gasperini’s men dominated play and had 11 shots on target, but Club Brugge held on for a 5-2 aggregate win and a slot in the round of 16 draws coming up on Friday.
Elsewhere in the Champions League on Tuesday night, Alphonso Davies scored with the last kick of the match to earn Bayern Munich a 1-1 draw at home to Celtic and make the last 16 draws with a 3-2 aggregate win.
Sam Chukwueze came off the bench in the closing stages as Feyenoord held on for a 1-1 draw with AC Milan to claim a 2-1 aggregate win at the San Siro, while George Ilenikhena got a goal in the 3-3 draw at Benfica as the Portuguese side prevailed on aggregate over Monaco.