To justify his mediocre penalty shootout against Rennes, the OM goalkeeper came up with a vague theory…
Sunday evening, during the round of 16 of the Coupe de France between Stade Rennais and Olympique de Marseille, Pau López stood out at the very end of the first period. The Spanish goalkeeper managed to stop Benjamin Bourigeaud’s penalty. However, during the long penalty shootout which closed the match, he failed to stop a single Rennes shot.
Worse, the former AS Roma player did not dive once on the right side. “Penalty shots are the lottery. It’s also a matter of luck. So we worked on it, but sometimes, it’s like that (…). It’s the goalkeeper’s life, sometimes you stop him, sometimes you don’t. I think we need to analyze the match we played, more than the penalties,” he confided in the mixed zone, after the elimination of the Marseille club.
Pau López gives you a crazy penalty in the match and then he takes 10 in a row in the penalty shootout.
There’s no more Olympique de Marseille than that.
— (@Vincent_1393) January 21, 2024
However, all the studies carried out around the exercise in question go in the opposite direction to Pau López’s statement. “Penalty shots are not a lotteryexplained to Eurosport Christophe Revel, former goalkeeper coach for Morocco, OL, Rennes and Brest today. It is an exercise that is prepared technically and mentally using repetitions of gestures and situations, getting as close as possible to reality. The most important thing is to make the goalkeeper an actor in this moment, to put him at ease and to take all pressure off him to optimize his chances of success.“
