Bukayo Saka was criticised by Rio Ferdinand after an attempted Panenka penalty went wrong for him in Arsenal’s quarter-final second leg clash with Real Madrid.
The Arsenal maestro has been their go-to star for a number of seasons now, and despite a long-term injury lay-off this term has been their key performer in the Champions League.
This season he has four goals and two assists from six outings in the competition, and he won both free-kicks scored by Declan Rice in the first leg at the Emirates.
With his side 3-0 up on aggregate and handed a chance to make it 4-0, and 1-0 on the night, Saka looked to try and chip the ball over a diving Thibaut Courtois.
The Belgian goalkeeper then stretched his arm out and saved the attempt, handing a huge lifeline to his side.
Ally McCoist was quick to pile praise on Courtois, and rightly so as it was an impressive reaction save given he had already dived down to his right, but admitted Saka gave him ‘an opportunity’ to make the save.
Bukayo Saka was denied the chance to put Arsenal 4-0 up on aggregate against Real Madrid
The Arsenal forward looked to lift his effort over Thibaut Courtois but was unfortunately denied
The spot-kick was only given after a VAR check with many questioning the validity of it
‘I can’t believe it myself. It’s one of these things. The goalkeeper does unbelievably well,’ the Scottish legend said on TNT Sports.
‘It’s not a great pen. Down the middle, it might go in, it’s got every chance it’s going in.
‘But he gives the goalkeeper an opportunity with his left hand, look at the size of him. The hand’s strong. You only get away with that if you score.’
It was a real pressure penalty, with Saka facing up to a wall of white shirts, in a febrile Santiago Bernabeu.
The England star has also been exceptional from the spot for Arsenal, scoring 12 of his penalties and missing only once, curiously two years to the day before Wednesday night’s clash with Real Madrid.
However, he was unable to fire past Courtois on this occasion, with Man United and England legend Ferdinand questioning the decision to try and Panenka the Real Madrid stopper.
‘Wow. What a moment to play the cheeky role. Before the game, you talk about silencing this place, silencing this crowd, what an opportunity to do that.’
Martin Keown also criticised the decision at half-time, saying: ‘Saka normally is so intelligent. He always picks the right ball. He just gets it completely wrong here.
Rio Ferdinand seemed to question the decision to go for a Panenka and not ‘silence’ the crowd
Martin Odegaard appeared to be set to take the ball before handing it over to Arsenal’s penalty specialist Saka
‘OK, after this, he’s picked his head up. But that was a massive opportunity to put this to bed.
Steve McManaman added: ‘He’s taken a huge chance trying to Panenka it. He gets everything wrong. He doesn’t go down the centre of the goal, he goes where Courtois is diving. It was a simple enough save.
‘It was a huge moment. But to be honest, Real Madrid have not responded at all. They’ve been toothless.
A Panenka penalty is an infamous way of taking a spot-kick, with players usually lauded when it comes off given the confidence required to even attempt it, though often when it goes wrong, players can be left a little red-faced, and Saka is far from the only player to fall on the wrong side of that.
But Saka had the last laugh though, netting in the 65th minute with a very similar finish but from open play, dinking over Courtois to make it 4-1 on aggregate, only for Vinicius Jr to equalise almost immediately.
There were questions over whether the spot-kick should even have been awarded, especially given the VAR check was begun around 90 seconds after the actual foul.
Raul Asencio was seen pulling Mikel Merino to the ground, but there were very few calls for a penalty at the time, and equally some incredulity at the award moments later.
‘For me, it is [a penalty],’ said Keown. ‘It’s one of those. OK, he doesn’t actually get on the flight path of the player but you can’t hold onto your opponent like that in the box.
The hosts saw a penalty of their own chalked off by VAR despite the referee pointing to the spot
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown also claimed Saka had got it ‘completely wrong here’
McManaman was in agreement, adding: ‘It’s naive, it’s inexperience. It was a penalty. I don’t know why he’s doing it.
‘As Martin rightly said, the flight of the ball was nowhere near him. So why get involved in it all? Very frustrating for Real Madrid.’
Prior to taking it, Martin Odegaard stood at the penalty spot with the ball in his hands, before then eventually handing it to Saka.
The England forward has long been the Gunners’ go-to penalty specialist, rather than his skipper Odegaard.
There was more penalty drama with Real denied a spot-kick of their own after VAR then overturned one for a foul on Kylian Mbappe.
The French captain went down under a challenge from Declan Rice, with referee Francois Letexier pointing straight to the spot and booking the midfielder, thereby ruling him out of the semi-final first leg should the Gunners make it.
However a VAR check that took around five minutes then scrubbed off the penalty, leaving Arsenal to breathe a sigh of relief.
