‘Dibu’ Martínez always leaves his mark on penalties. In the semifinals of the 2021 Copa América against Colombia and in the 2022 World Cup against the Netherlands (quarterfinals) and France (final), The Argentine goalkeeper emerged victorious from the ‘sudden death’ leaving ‘little dances’ and gestures. His show has no end.
He repeated in the Conference quarterfinals in a crazy round in Lille. The ‘Dibu’ stopped the penalties against Bentaleb and André that put Aston Villa in the semi-finals. Furthermore, there was a surprise at Pierre-Mauroy.
The Argentine goalkeeper, reprimanded in the first half, saw another yellow card in the shootout for his gestures to the stands. He was not sent off by Kruzliak. The rule says that cards shown during the match will not be taken into account in penalties. That’s why he didn’t see the red one.
An anomalous situation in an intense match in France. Lille, who came out to ‘bite’ Villa after the 2-1 first leg in Birmingham, came back in the tie through Yazici and André. Cash, in the 87th minute, took the match to extra time in a controversial play: Chevalier collided with Bentaleb with Durán ‘bothering’. The goal was not disallowed.
The ‘show’ of the Dibu in the penalty shootout: two stops, yellow, little dance…
And from then on the local goalkeeper got tired of making saves. He took a scandalous shot at Bailey from the ground. But the protagonist was a ‘Dibu’ who is the king of penalties. The error of the aforementioned Bailey did not matter. The Argentine, who silenced a crowd that booed him relentlessly because of the disputes in the Qatar final with France, stopped Bentaleb and André and celebrated Villa’s qualification, which will play its first European semi-final since 1982. Then, they won the European Cup. Emery wants to taste metal. With Martínez everything is possible.