Joe Hart explained Gianluigi Donnarumma’s bizarre mistake which saw Real Madrid take the lead against Manchester City in their Champions League last-16 first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Federico Valverde put Madrid in front when he got on the end of a sensational launched kick by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and raced through on goal.
Donnarumma sprinted out of his goal to meet Valverde and slid to make a challenge, but Valverde skipped past the City keeper and rolled the ball into an empty net.
Replays showed that Donnarumma pulled his hand away from the ball as Valverde went past him when the giant Italian could have put out an arm to make a tackle. But, Hart explained, Donnarumma’s judgement may have been clouded by just how close he was to the edge of the penalty area when he made the challenge.
“It’s an incredible first touch from Valverde,” said Hart, speaking on TNT Sports. “So what I’m seeing there from this angle – and look, everyone in hindsight will say, ‘Well, his hands are still in the box’ – but because Donnarumma is committed, he’s coming out at pace, he’s thinking ‘slide tackle out the box’. And then as [the ball] goes past him, because he sees himself coming out of the box, he makes a calculated decision to think, ‘you know what, I don’t need to be giving a penalty away or a potential red card here, I’m going to sacrifice the goal’.
“When he sees it back, he knows he can use his hands, but with the way he was attacking that ball, he’s thinking ‘tackle, tackle, tackle out the box, and then he’s not realised that his hands are actually inside the box.”
Valverde went on to complete a first-half hat-trick to make matters much worse for Manchester City and give Pep Guardiola’s side a mountain to climb.
