Michel Adopo shared a dressing room with Lookman when they won the Europa League at Atalanta. Now he’s telling the world exactly what to expect from his former teammate at the Emirates on Tuesday night.
Michel Adopo has a front-row seat to this prediction. The 25-year-old French midfielder spent the 2023/24 season at Atalanta alongside Ademola Lookman, and he was there on the night in Dublin when Lookman’s hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen made history. So when Adopo says Lookman will score against Arsenal in Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg at the Emirates Stadium, it comes from someone who has seen the Nigerian at close range under pressure.
The first leg at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano last Wednesday ended 1-1. Lookman came close twice but slipped at the critical moment on both occasions. Atletico also hit the crossbar twice. It was one of those nights where the performance was there but the result felt slightly short of what the display deserved. Arsenal hold the slender away-goal advantage that comes with the draw, with the second leg at home in North London.
Adopo, speaking to The Sun ahead of the return leg, was clear about what he expects. “After the triumph, I remember that Ademola himself didn’t understand the importance of his performance,” he said, reflecting on that Europa League final. “Atletico is an amazing opportunity for Ademola. Finally, he is at a giant club. I actually believe he will score against Arsenal.” Nigerian fans looking to back Lookman at the Emirates can check the Bet9ja promo code today before Tuesday’s kick-off.
What the First Leg Told Us
Lookman’s first leg showing against Arsenal was not his sharpest in an Atletico shirt, but it was far from anonymous. He created a chance, had his one shot, and served as a constant threat that occupied Arsenal’s defensive attention throughout. He completed 90 minutes, his first full game for Atletico since joining from Atalanta in February, which matters given he had only recently shaken off an adductor problem that ruled him out of two matches ahead of the semi-final.
That injury context is worth remembering. Lookman missed Atletico’s last two games before the Arsenal first leg, returned to full training just days before, and still started and finished the match. Diego Simeone clearly trusts him. The fact that he completed the full game while still finding his sharpest edge suggests there is more to come from him across the 90 minutes in London.
Since joining from Atalanta in January 2026, Lookman has recorded seven goals and four assists in 18 appearances across all competitions for Atletico. His biggest moment came in the quarter-finals, where he scored the goal that helped Atletico past Barcelona. A player who scores when it matters most in a UCL quarter-final is exactly the type Simeone builds his biggest nights around. Fans following the semi-final buildup can also find a handy breakdown of the YOHAIG promo code before placing a wager on the match.
The Record That Adds Extra Weight to the Night
There is a specific number hanging over this tie for Nigerian football supporters. Lookman currently has eight Champions League goals in his career, placing him third among Nigerian scorers in the competition. Obafemi Martins holds nine. One goal at the Emirates puts Lookman level with a striker who was considered one of the most prolific Nigerians of his generation in European football. Two goals in London and the record is his.
Victor Osimhen remains the Nigerian leader in the competition with 18 goals, seven of them in the 2025/26 campaign alone at Galatasaray before they exited. The gap to Osimhen is significant, but the gap to Martins is one goal. These are the kinds of individual milestones that Nigerian fans track with real attention, and Tuesday’s match at the Emirates offers Lookman the stage to move the number.
For Arsenal, the threat is not just about Lookman individually. The Gunners have Eberechi Eze fit and available after an injury concern of his own, and they will be looking to use home advantage to control the tie. But Atletico under Simeone rarely show up at the Emirates as a team willing to sit back and absorb. Their record in European away legs over the past decade suggests they know how to make big grounds feel smaller than they look. Neutrals wanting to follow the action live can get started with the current Bet9ja promotion ahead of kick-off on Tuesday.
Why This Match Is Bigger Than Just One Game
Atletico Madrid have not been in a Champions League final since 2016, when Real Madrid beat them on penalties in Milan. For Simeone, reaching the final in 2026 would be a fourth in his 14 years at the club, and winning it would be the one prize that has stayed just out of reach throughout one of the most sustained runs of continental involvement in European football history.
For Lookman, the narrative arc is almost too neat. He won the Europa League at a moment when he “didn’t even understand the importance” of what he was doing, as Adopo puts it. Now at a bigger club, in a bigger competition, against a London club he knows well from his time in England. If Adopo is right, the Emirates on Tuesday night will be one more chapter in a story that keeps finding new ways to exceed what people thought was possible from a player who took a very long road to get here.
📌 Did You Know?
- Ademola Lookman was born in Wandsworth, South London, meaning Tuesday’s game at the Emirates puts him in the city where his football career began, facing a club he grew up watching from across the capital.
- Lookman’s hat-trick in the 2023/24 UEFA Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen in Dublin was the first hat-trick in a European final since Marco van Basten scored three for AC Milan against Steaua Bucharest in the 1989 European Cup final.
- Michel Adopo, who made the prediction, joined Atalanta from Toulouse in 2023 and was part of the squad during Lookman’s historic Europa League final campaign. He has since moved on, but the two remain close enough for Adopo to speak about Lookman’s mentality with clear personal insight.
- Atletico Madrid have been to four Champions League semi-finals under Diego Simeone, reaching the final in 2014 and 2016 but losing both. Tuesday represents their best chance in a decade to finally reach the showpiece again.
- Obafemi Martins, whose UCL record Lookman is chasing, scored his nine Champions League goals primarily during his time at Inter Milan between 2002 and 2006. He was one of the fastest players in European football at the time, representing a completely different era of Nigerian attackers in the competition.
- Lookman made his senior club debut at Charlton Athletic in 2016, spent time at Everton, Leipzig, Fulham, and Leicester before finding his peak at Atalanta. He covered more English football ground than almost any Nigerian player of his generation before establishing himself in Italy and then Spain.
- Arsenal’s last Champions League final appearance was in 2006, when they lost to Barcelona in Paris. They have not won the competition in any of their 13 appearances. A semi-final exit to Atletico would extend that wait past 70 years of the competition’s modern history.
