By Korede James
Super Eagles forward Ademola Lookman scored and also provided an assist on Tuesday night as Atalanta thrashed Sturm Graz 5-0 to boost their chances of progressing into the knockout rounds of the UEFA Champions League.
Current African Player of the Year Lookman came on at the start of the second half and got Atalanta’s fourth goal in the 90th minute.
The Nigeria international then provided the assist for the fifth goal scored by Marco Breschianini in the 94th minute.
Other scorers for Atalanta were Mateo Retegui, Mario Pasalic and Charles De Ketelaere.
Atalanta are now fourth on 14 points in the league table.
Lookman now has four goals and one assist in six Champions League appearances this season.
Also on Tuesday night in the UEFA Champions League in Portugal, Barcelona came from 3-1 down to edge out Benfica 5-4 in a thrilling encounter.
A first hat-trick from Vangelis Pavlidis (second, 22nd, 30th minutes) gave Benfica a 3-1 first-half lead.
Robert Lewandowski cancelled out Pavlidis’ opener from the penalty spot on 13 minutes.
Raphinha scored on 64 minutes to make it 3-2 but an own goal by Ronald Araujo made it 4-2 to Benfica.
With 12 minutes left, Lewandowski converted another penalty to bring the score to 4-3 before Eric Garcia (86th minute) and Raphinha (96th) grabbed Barca’s fourth and fifth goals.
Barcelona occupy the second spot in the table with 18 points, while Benfica are 18th with 10 fighting for a spot in the playoffs.
In other results, AS Monaco pipped Aston Villa 1-0, Atletico Madrid beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1, Dortmund lost 2-1 at Bologna, Club Brugge and Juventus played 0-0, Liverpool defeated Lille 2-1, Stuttgart overcame Slovan Bratislava 3-1 and FK Crvena Zvezda lost 3-2 to PSV.
Champions League matchday 7 results:
AS Monaco 1-0 Aston Villa
Atalanta 5-0 Sturm Graz
Athletico Madrid 2-1 Leverkusen
Benfica 4-5 Barcelona
Bologna 2-1 Dortmund
Club Brugge 0-0 Juventus
FK Crvena Zvezda 2-3 PSV
Liverpool 2-1 Lille
Slovan Bratislava 1-3 Stuttgart
