Muriel wins the 2023/24 Goal of The Season
From a joint venture with LeoVegas.News
Lookman v Muriel, Mola v Lucho, Nueve v Eleven. For the 2023/24 LeoVegas.News Goal of the Season title no slogan was superfluous, neither tagline was too pompous: out of Atalanta's 106 seasonal goals, only one won the title of greatest hit (literally and figuratively).
And the winner is...
LUIS MURIEL! With a coup de main (or talon) and against all ods, Lucho dulled in the end! The Colombian 9 puts and end to Lookman's egemony in the end-of-season prizegiving -thus preventing the Nigerian striker to score a hat-trick of title after lifting the POTM for May-June and POTS awards- with a coup de théâtre and which better way to blow up the Lookman fort than a stroke of genius? We're of course hinting at his taconazo against Milan in the dead of injury time: after gathering Koopmeiners' through pass, Miranchuk served a trivela pass to Muriel, who after gathering the ball and opening up the space by controlling it with his sole, found himself back to goal. With only one way left to score, our Nueve stuck to his hunch, goes for it and, as they say, the rest is history...
Atalanta 3-2 Milan, goals and highlights
In a summer littered with football in all its shapes and form ( regardless of you being #teamCopaAmerica or #teamEuro2024), the LeoVegas.News couldn't stand on the sidelines: 6 Groups of 4 teams each and with the four best third-placed picks also advancing to the knockout stage!
From the Group Stage to the grand finale, here's the "Road to the Final" of the two contenders to the throne!
Group Stage: Ademola Lookman
Drafted in Group A, Lookman had to face: De Ketelaere's ground air strike in the return game against Frosinone and a double Scamacca (namely, his back-heel flick and GOTM of October against Empoli and his twist-shot against Torino, the recently crowned Goal of the Month for May-June), which, spoiler alert, would have made its climactic comeback in the next stage.
Group Stage: Luis Muriel
Picked in Group C, Muriel's taconazo and Goal of the Month of December crossed swords with: a doppelganger of sorts (being it Lucho's slalom in the UEL game v Sturm Graz), Koopmeiners' pinpoint free-kick shot v Genoa (once again, spoiler alert) and De Ketelaere's chip shot v Lecce on Scamacca's trivela assist...
Road to the final: Ademola Lookman
After coming out on top of Group A with a whopping 63% of votes, Lookman had to spar with Koopmeiners' FK goal v Genoa in the RO16 (claiming a landslide win with an unquestionable 95% of preferences).
The quarter-final schedulling opted for a "Lookman v Lookman" lineup instead, where the second of the Aviva Stadium night squashed the finishing blow on Bayer Leverkusen 70 to 30.
In the last stand before getting to the final, the semis had once again UEFA Europa League written all over: despite Matteo Ruggeri's tomahawk against Olympique de Marseille sitting in the other corner, the Atalanta fans voted Lookman's snooker shot without even a second thoughts and a 73% of votes...
Road to the final: Luis Muriel
Seeded choice after cruising past Group A without even breaking a sweat (65% of upvotes), Muriel also had Koopmeiners in his cards, this time edging his bets with his thrust against Juventus. And the opponent was not the only similarity between the two RO16 ties: same was the outcome as well (95% of votes).
In a twist of fate,the "theme" of the double was a trending topic also in the right side of the brackets. This time though the twist was all in the who and not in the what as the "Taconazos (and GOTM) Derby" saw Muriel knockout Scamacca's backheel flick against Empoli on the quarter-finals.
Yet another GOTM clash was in the coards in the semis: this time, Scamacca went all -in with his twist-shot against Torino! Round 2 of the "Goal Of The Month to end all Goals of the Month" contest saw Lucho have it his way once again as the polls did cast their verdict loud and clear Lucho 2-0 Gianluca (this time with a 64 to 36 ratio)...
Muriel v Lookman: The Final
After two weeks of endless competitions (and many sad goodbyes), we finally got to the main showdown between the two heavyweight contestants.
Given the impressive credentials of our challengers, the "Thrilla on IG" couldn't be more riveting, and not solely as far as beauty was concerned but also in terms of weight each goal had: while Lookman secured Atalanta's lead in Dublin, Muriel set into motion the Nerazzurri's unbeaten streak for the (almost) two months that followed.
After 24 hours of chomping at the bit, the exit polls have proclaimed Muriel/Lookman winner with 53% of votes: and on this bombshell, we can't help but say "Enhorabuena Lucho!".