After saving penalties from Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones of Liverpool on Tuesday night, Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma emerged victorious. Supporters have since recognised the ‘genius’ move the 26-year-old employed to give himself the upper hand in the vital shootout.
One of the favourites to win the entire tournament, Arne Slot’s Liverpool, lost in a penalty shootout after Ousmane Dembele’s goal in the 12th minute tied the score in the two-leg Round of 16 match.
Under the brilliant lights of Anfield, neither team was able to find the crucial winner after 120 minutes, therefore penalties were used to settle the outcome. From the start, Luis Enrique’s team was flawless, and their goalie was as commanding.
Considered by many to be among the world’s top goalkeepers, Donnarumma has received recognition for his former penalty-saving prowess. He is calm and relaxed and rarely moves until the penalty taker puts the ball 12 yards out.
Donnarumma’s ‘Genius’ Tactic in Shootout vs Liverpool
Fans have emerged with a theory of the Italian’s ‘mental gymnastics’
Mohamed Salah took the pitch for the home team in the shootout after Vitinha of PSG had buried his team’s first spot-kick. Donnarumma stayed anchored to the spot as the Egyptian, a sharpshooter from the spot, hammered the ball into the upper left corner.
However, supporters believe that they won the match and gained passage because of the 70-cap Italy international’s strange, but now-justified, choice to move neither left nor right in a try to block Salah’s shot.
Although it appeared as though Donnarumma had already decided that Salah, Liverpool’s top penalty taker, would score and wouldn’t even try to stop his attempt from going in, supporters have since developed a theory.
Supporters think that because Donnarumma remained in the midfield, it served as a warning to Liverpool players who were considering following in Salah’s footsteps that he wouldn’t do so.
https://twitter.com/AbsoluteBruno/status/1899811795667161408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1899811795667161408%7Ctwgr%5Ed74a6da6c665910e0c5169014a19dd88a9bd51e3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.givemesport.com%2Fgianluigi-donnarumma-clever-tactic-liverpool-psg-penalty-shootout%2F
Genius Donnarumma. He decided against trying to save the penalty so that he could affirm his likelihood to stay in the middle to prevent all the other Liverpool players from trying it! pic.twitter.com/5egNDXlSHc
— GravityGooner✨ (@Gravitygunner14) March 14, 2025
The former AC Milan goalie then had a 50/50 chance of making the correct estimate, and based on the outcome, it did. To the delight of the travelling supporters, Nunez dove to the left and made a powerful two-handed stop after his miss.
For Jones, the intimidating glovesman took the opposite stance, extending one arm in the process. Donnarumma’s mental acrobatics were even noticed by CBS Sports during their post-match broadcast of the European thriller. They stated:
I am not sure whether Salah stayed because he said, “Hey, I’m going to keep the rest of the penalties honest because if I stay in the middle on the first one, they won’t shoot to the middle again,” or because Donnarumma saw him and said, “Okay, he goes in the middle X amount of times.”
@cbssportsgolazo
PSG, one of the eight largest clubs to never win the Champions League, will now play Unai Emery’s unbeaten Aston Villa in the quarterfinals thanks to Donnarumma’s outstanding play in goal on Merseyside.
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