The former Chievo goalkeeper was the first to reject Cristiano Ronaldo’s Italian penalty: “I was manic. I knew everything about each shooter. The most important detail for me was what the penalty taker did in the time that passed from the penalty whistle to serving.”
Stefano Sorrentino saved Cristiano Ronaldo’s first Italian penalty. “I had seen many, he always closed the shot, but I knew that in a match that had already been decided, with Chievo we were down 2-0, the bonus of changing corner would be played. He had only changed in the derby with Toro, against the debutant Ichazo. The ball passed under his hand. I was sure he would open. But he kicked hard, I touched her but I wasn’t sure I had parried it. Then I heard the noise on the billboards … The luck is that he kicked half-height, he facilitated me ”.
There is a lot of study behind it.
“I was also too picky. Manic. The angle that the penalty takers chose. In which door. On what result. Lots of details. But the most important thing was what the penalty taker did in the time that passed from the penalty whistle to serving: by studying psychology I was able to understand many things. We see that now many are studying, once we were few”.
“Very, very much. Mutu to the goalkeepers who acted like clowns was the spoon. I slammed the ball on his feet, he said ‘I’ll spoon you’. He announced it, he wouldn’t, and I knew 7 out of 10 pulled them right. He would have gone safely. I dived to the right: parried. And Totti: first penalty against the Olimpico, he hadn’t scored in a long time. And when he needed a goal, he shot hard and centrally. So I stand to one side, leaving three-quarters of the goal free. He looks bad at me. On the run up I move to the centre, he shoots it at me at the intersection… In the end he says ‘I knew you were crazy, when I saw you in doubt I put it there’. Del Piero always looked at you out of the corner of his eye, at the first move he kicked from the other side. Goal, but he confessed to me that I was among the few who put him in trouble. Because I didn’t move.”
February 22 – 11:39
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