"A bit of playing with him on the line" - Thibaut Courtois explains how he was able to save Lionel Messi's penalty during PSG vs Real Madrid
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had done some pre-match research to determine where PSG forward Lionel Messi would aim his penalty in their UCL clash on Tuesday.
Courtois stated that Messi had been weak towards his right side when it came to recent penalties. As such, he made sure the Argentine struck the ball exactly where he wanted.
Speaking after their 1-0 defeat in Paris, the Belgian shot-stopper said:
"I knew that Messi had missed three to the right and had put in the other crosses, so it was a bit of playing with him on the line."
The game was locked at 0-0 before Real Madrid full-back Dani Carvajal brought down Kylian Mbappe in the box on the hour mark. The referee was quick to award PSG a penalty.
Lionel Messi had a great opportunity to open the scoring against his familiar opposition. However, the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner had his penalty knocked away by Courtois, who made an excellent low save to his left.
LIONEL MESSI HAS A PENALTY SAVED BY THIBAUT COURTOIS ❌ https://t.co/RU3OlqQuLx
However, the penalty miss did not haunt PSG on the night. Kylian Mbappe scored an incredible solo goal in injury time to secure a 1-0 win for the Parisian giants. Mauricio Pochettino's side were the better team on the night and deserved to come away with the win.
Real Madrid failed to create any worthwhile chances during the game. Carlo Ancelotti's side had just three shots in the entire 90 minutes, none of which were on target.
The second leg of the fixture is scheduled to take place on March 9th at the Santiago Bernabeu.
PSG forward Lionel Messi missed his first penalty against Real Madrid
It is worth mentioning that this was Lionel Messi's first missed penalty against Real Madrid. The 34-year-old had scored on each of his previous six spot-kicks against Los Blancos while representing Barcelona.
It was also Messi's fifth penalty miss in the UEFA Champions League out of a total of 23 attempts. He now shares a record with former Arsenal forward Thierry Henry as the player with the most missed penalties in the competition.
Lionel Messi has matched Thierry Henry's record for most missed penalties in Champions League history while surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo for most penalty attempts. He's missed five of 23 penalty attempts in the competition. #PSG [GOAL] https://t.co/XXWplr5Tsa
Lionel Messi has had a difficult start to his PSG career and has struggled to score goals on a consistent basis. He has netted just twice in Ligue 1 so far this season.
As things stand, Messi's overall record for PSG stands at seven goals and eight assists from 21 appearances across all competitions.