Lille Olympique Sporting Club (or LOSC) is one of the seven teams to grab the first six points available in the Europa League. Yesterday, they achieved it in an away victory against Roma, 1-0, where the French team scored in the sixth minute, thanks to Hakon Arnar Haraldsson, and then managed to hold Roma off... including saving three penalties in a row.
They came in the last minutes of the second half, after a handball by Aissa Mandi. Artem Dovbyk was tasked with shooting the penalty, but missed. However, referee Erik Lambrecht ordered a retake because VAR found that defender Romain Perraud had encroached into the area, clearing the ball behind for a corner after the save.
<social>https://x.com/dostehlifb/status/1973824805569978538</social>
Dovbyk then missed again, shooting exactly in the same side, but VAR found that Roma's goalkeeper, Berke Özer, was a step forward. Matías Soulé was tasked with shooting the third and definitive penalty... and was saved again by Ozer. The Turkish goalkeeper denied all three of the penalty shots, leaving fans in Rome in disbelief, and Roma manager Gian Piero Gasperini saying that he'd never seen something like that.
"You cannot shoot penalties like that in Europe"
Meanwhile, Berke Ozer, who joined Lille last August when PSG signed Lucas Chevalier, became the hero of the match. "No one can expect to save three penalties in one evening. It was like being in a dream for me". Today, naturally, the Italian press also criticised the soft shots by Dovbyk and Soule. "You cannot shoot penalties like that in Europe", published Corriere dello Sport (via FootMercato).
"Dovbyk missed his first shot, then did worse with his second. Then Soulé's ingenuity stopped there, with a soft, aimless shot. About a year ago, Gasperini, then at Atalanta, called Lookman "the worst penalty taker I'd ever seen." Perhaps until tonight", said the Italian newspaper.
What do you think of the penalty saves by Lille's goalkeeper Berke Özer?