5 sensational penalty misses by goalkeepers
One of the most beautiful sights in football is witnessing the goalkeeper take a penalty and go on to score from it. The reason being that the shot-stoppers are the ones meant to save the shots rather than be the shooters themselves.
Hence, seeing them on the other end of the show is always exciting. However, penalties are penalties and they are missed by almost every other player. So it is not much of a surprise witnessing a goalkeeper take a spot kick and miss it.
And here are 5 times when such a thing happened...
#5 Gianluigi Donnarumma
So it was the summer of 2015 and Diego Lopez was facing his former club in a friendly game whilst playing for Milan. It was kind of like a welcome reunion because Iker Casillas – the man for whom Lopez had to be sold to Milan in the first place – was let go to Porto.
Deep in the second half – in the 72nd minute to be precise – Lopez was subbed off for a guy that would eventually bench him just a few months later (Madrid seem to be like a bad luck juju for Lopez, no?): a 16-year-old Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It was the first time that the much-admired goalkeeper played for his club, AC Milan, as he managed to not concede from open play for the rest of the game. When the normal time ended, the game went on to penalties and it was one of the longest shootouts in the history of the game.
Indeed, the contest carried on for so long that the goalkeepers of both the teams – the last takers – came up to take their penalties. While Kiko Casilla scored his penalty to give Real a 10-9 lead over the Rossoneri, Donnarumma’s subsequent kick was saved by the former Espanyol goal guardian, providing Real Madrid a victory in the end.