Real Madrid star Andriy Lunin has provided a fascinating insight into the process which ultimately led him to keeping out one of Manchester City’s shootout penalties on Wednesday night.
Lunin, of course, is fresh off proving himself something of a hero for Real once more.
This comes after the Ukrainian enjoyed another outing to remember, en route to Los Blancos booking their spot in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
After racking up eight saves over the course of the 120 minutes against the aforementioned Man City, Lunin went on to stop a further two of the hosts’ spot-kicks during a tense penalty shootout.
One came down low to his right, to keep out Mateo Kovačić’s effort.
The other, though, on the face of it looked altogether more straightforward.
After Bernardo Silva directed something of a bizarre strike right down the middle of the goal, Lunin did not move an inch, to pull off what is likely to be the simplest penalty saves of his career.
Speaking to the media post-match, though, the 25-year-old went on to reveal that, in fact, he and the Real Madrid coaching staff had decided ahead of time that he would not dive for Silva’s penalty.
This came amid the presumption that the Portuguese was the most likely of City’s takers to aim centrally:
“We had to take a risk with a player in the penalty shootout, and we chose Bernardo Silva.”
Conor Laird | GSFN
