Real Madrid once again gave proof of all the quality and level it currently has as one of the biggest clubs in all of Europe, in what was their performance and victory in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals after beating Manchester City on penalties in a duel that took held at the Etihad Stadium facilities, home of the British team.
The tie was tied at 4 goals per wing and penalty kicks were necessary to define the winner who will now have to face Bayern Munich in the semifinals. But the real figure of the white night was for the goalkeeper of the merengue club, Andriy Lunin, who was the hero of the day with two saves in the penalty shootout against Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic.
An impressive performance for Lunin
The 25-year-old goalkeeper showed a lot of security and confidence in each of the shots he was able to stop and also in his overall performance in the quarterfinals against City.
After the match, Andriy Lunin revealed the strategy he used to counteract Bernardo Silva’s shot and also made it clear that City had 3 players who could kick directly into the middle and the goalkeeper had to choose when to do it: “We prepared all those who were left to shoot and we had to take a risk with one. Luckily (Bernardo’s) turned out well. In one you had to stay in the center,” the young goalkeeper said with a laugh.
“I’m tired. It’s the first game like this in my career. 120 minutes with this requirement. But many thanks to the team that ran and fought,” he said. And he added: “In these games you have to suffer. You can’t always have the ball, you can’t always be the best team on the field. For me it is a great experience. And the team made a great effort.”
The beginnings of Ukrainian
Lunin took his first steps into the game in his home nation. The Metalist was the club which gave him his first opportunity in his Inferiors until he left in 2015 for the Dnipro Under 19. Lunin made his debut in the First Division at the age of 17 in October 2016 against Karpaty and became an irreplaceable piece.
Dmytro Mykhaylenko, who by then played his coach’s role, had no problem praising him. after what was his first game in the first division: “I have known Andriy since he was ten years old, I have followed his entire career. So I wasn’t surprised by his confidence on the field. He didn’t play often with the reserves, but we knew what he was capable of and trusted him to play in the first team. We were pleased with his debut. The team felt that they were supported by a goalkeeper who plays well with his feet, commits with confidence and gives signals for his defense.”
In mid-2017, he headed to Zorya Lugansk and only played there for one season in that entity. Serhiy Rafailov, the team’s CEO announced that it had “attracted interest from clubs even bigger than Liverpool and Inter.” He was eventually sold to Real Madrid of Spain for a figure of 8,500,000 euros (just over $9,000,000 million dollars), which he bet on his future at 19 years of age.
Debut with the senior Ukrainian national team
His arrival at Real Madrid came very close to what was his debut in the Ukrainian senior team.being the starting goalkeeper in a friendly match against the Saudi Arabia national team, in a duel that ended tied at one goal in March 2018. In addition, he was a key member of the Under 20 team that played in the 2019 World Cup in Poland, winning the Glove of Gold for having been the best goalkeeper in said competition.
Although he was having great performances, he had no place in Real Madrid, so he had to be loaned to teams like Leganés, Real Valladolid and Real Oviedo in order to get more playing time and experience. During his stay in the aforementioned clubs he accumulated 10 clean sheets in 29 games played. He would wear white once again and made his debut in the elimination against Alcoyano, a promotion team in the third round of the Copa del Rey.
Born winner
The Ukrainian was able to add filming in recent times thanks to the injury of the Belgian Courtois where he participated in a total of 44 games in six years in the White House. His career is marked by having managed to win a total of seven titles (1 Champions League, 1 Club World Cup, 1 European Super Cup, 1 League, 1 Copa del Rey and 2 Spanish Super Cups).
His team has the least scored goal in LaLiga with 20 goals conceded and this Sunday he will have a test by fire, as he will be facing FC Barcelona in a new edition of ‘El Clásico’.
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