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Ademola Lookman’s attempted Panenka goes embarrassingly wrong

Ademola Lookman’s attempted Panenka against West Ham United keeper Lukasz Fabianski goes embarrassingly wrong during Saturday’s night’s clash.

Panenkas are something that has gone on to become a frequently used penalty technique in recent years, the majority of them going to plan.

What is it you ask? The spot-kick taker waits for the goalkeeper to dive either side and gently dinks the ball down the middle.

However, when Ademola Lookman of Fulham tried it today, it went dreadfully wrong, and I’m sure the player will be thankful there was nobody in the stadium to witness his shocking attempt.

With seconds of injury time left, Lookman stepped up and chipped the penalty towards goal, but West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski hadn’t been fooled by the attempt, so was well placed to save.

Soon after, the whistle was blown for full-time and West Ham celebrated taking all three points and lift them up the Premier League table.

Understandably, Cottagers boss Scott Parker was not best pleased afterwards, having seen his team fail to rescue a point having conceded a Tomas Soucek strike in the 91st minute.

“I’m disappointed and angry,” Parker told Match of the Day. “You can’t take penalties like that and he knows that. He’s a young player and he’s learning.

“The boy has made a mistake. Ade is the first to understand that. When you’re young and you’re learning you have to learn quick. He is disappointed and rightly so. This is part and parcel of football, of growing as players and as a team. We’ll get around him now.”

Lookman has impressed since joining the Cottagers on loan from Bundesliga side RB Leipzig at the end of the transfer window, scoring a great solo goal against Sheffield United.

“Ade has been fantastic since he’s been in,” said Parker. “He’ll need to dust himself down. When you’re young you make mistakes.”

The 23-year-old was left with his head in his hands as the referee blew the whistle shortly afterwards and looked obviously devastated as his team-mates couldn’t believe how big an opportunity it was the finish the game level.

“Ademola is devastated, apologetic,” said Fulham midfielder Tom Cairney.

“He’s a young man who has had a good start here and is a big player for us. We’ll get around him and pick him up, he knows he could have got us a point.”

Midfielder Harrison Reed added: “He has apologised so we will brush it under the carpet and move on. He’s gutted in there, we all are.”

He has done this penalty before however, and was more successful, scoring against Brazil in an international fixture…

It comes just a week after another player, this time in the Championship, tried the Panenka penalty with the clock ticking down… and also missed.

Nahki Wells’ attempt against Norwich City keeper Tim Krul went embarrassingly wrong during last Saturday’s lunchtime clash.

Wells of Bristol City tried it today, it went dreadfully wrong, and I’m sure the player will be thankful there was nobody in the stadium to witness his shocking attempt.

Tim Krul slightly dives to one side, but really it didn’t matter which way he went as Well’s effort embarrassingly cleared the crossbar.

It cost the Robins in the end, preventing any hopes of a late comeback as they fell to a 3-1 defeat to the Canaries at Ashton Gate.

Teemu Pukki, who loves to score in the opening fixtures of a season, scored two early goals for the Canaries to make it an entertaining first half, with Jack Hunt pulling one back shortly after the Finnish international’s second strike.

Both goalkeepers then made excellent saves before Emiliano Buendia’s wonderfully-taken goal saw Norwich lead 3-1 at the break.

Chris Martin hit the post from 25 yards for the hosts after an hour before Nakhi Wells missed a 75th-minute penalty, awarded for a foul by Jacob Sorensen, as he embarrassingly tried to dink the ball down the middle over the goalkeeper but put it over the bar.

Bristol City manager Dean Holden told BBC Radio Bristol:

“It was a poor start, defensively right throughout the team in the first half we were too open, we gave them too many opportunities – two of the goals are long straight passes right down the middle of our back line.

“We got back into it with the goal, I thought we had the momentum in the first half, I thought we were in control of the game. They’ve got good players who’ll give you problems, but to concede when we did right on half time was a sucker punch.

“It was a wasteful penalty, we’ve spoken about it after the game. He puts them away in training every day, he practises every day, he’s not scored that one and we have to move on.”

Fans reacted after seeing Ademola Lookman’s attempted Panenka go embarrassingly wrong last night…

See Also: Nahki Wells’ attempted Panenka goes embarrassingly wrong

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