Antonio Rudiger was one of the surprise selections. But the German defender didn’t miss a penalty shot and helped Real Madrid soar into the Champions League semi-finals.
Davide Ancelotti, son and assistant of Carlo Ancelotti, revealed his decision to choose the 5 players to take penalties in the 4-3 goal shootout against Manchester City that created something strange. Little heartbreaking to see Lucas Vazquez, Nacho Fernandez and Antonio Rudiger take on such duties. According to a report from Mundo Deportivo last Thursday UFABET
It was Real Madrid’s surprising choice of penalty taker, apart from Luka Modric and Jude Bellingham, who took the first two penalty kicks before Modric opened with a shot. Missed, but it turned out that 3 options like Vazquez, Nacho and Rudiger all scored and led the Whites to successfully advance to the Champions League semi-finals.
‘With four or five minutes remaining, I started thinking about the penalty taker. Jude was the first pick, Luca was the other one as well. Lucas is a very good penalty taker, Nacho has experience and personality and in training. We see he’s determined to step up and Antonio is a player who’s ready to score as well.’
‘Federico (Valverde) was going to be the fifth. But he told me he was very tired and he was really worn out. So we decided to let Rudiger take on this responsibility. It is up to the coaching staff to decide on the shooters,’ Davide said.
It was also reported that Eder Militao refused to take the penalty kick. Reasoning that Ederson, Manchester City’s compatriot goalkeeper, knows his way around very well. The remaining players are Braim Diaz, Eduardo Camavinga and Ferland Mendy.