The previous week, in the presentation of the duel for the quarterfinals of the Conference League, the prestigious French newspaper L’Equipe had pointed towards Emiliano Back Martínez, the goalkeeper of Aston Villa, Lille’s rival in that European competition. But more than as an opponent in the competition, the focus was clearly on his condition as an Argentine and everything that happened in the final of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, where the goalkeeper had a leading role in the match and, above all, in the definition by penalties.
Dibu was classified as the “public enemy number 1 of France”. It sounded exaggerated as a letter of introduction to a football match, and the clarification was made that while he was hated on French soil, he aroused strong sympathy in the English team, which is also a relevant protagonist in the Premier League. Whistles and boos were announced for Martínez, more specifically for revenge, since the first leg was played in England, with a 2-1 victory for Aston Villa.
The long-awaited rematch arrived and Dibu, obviously, was not well received. Insults, boos and even a sign that said “Aren’t you embarrassed Emiliano?” (sic) was the reception for the previous warm-up. In some ways, Martínez was in his element. If he needed a motivating factor even more, grieving with people was the ideal fuel. A sort of John McEnroe, the remembered American tennis player who was motivated by his shouts and protests towards the umpire and verbal clashes with the fans.
The climate was tense from the media itself. L’Equipe, at the time, had already been very harsh, sarcastic and uncompromising in its comments towards Lionel Messi during the period in which the Argentine star played for Paris Saint-Germain, where he felt like a visitor at all times. The French newspaper also kept a segment highly anticipated by fans every day: the report card. The criticism used to be severe, sometimes vicious, and at all times it was contrasted with praise for Kylian Mbappé, Leo’s teammate at PSG. Evidently some wounds had not healed after Qatar and finally (not because of a newspaper, of course), Messi took another path, ending up at Inter Miami, in the MLS.
Finally, Aston Villa qualified for the semifinals of the Conference League (Lille won 2-1 and the aggregate was 3-3) and with Dibu Martínez as the exclusive protagonist in the penalty shootout. Duels with rivals, gestures of silence to Lille fans, discussions with the referee about what is allowed to be done and what is not (Copa América 2021 and Qatar 2022 World Cup effect). And the story ended with a little dance included after the victory. All this after being whistled, failed every time he touched the ball during the 120 minutes. It seemed like a finished story, but no. The final opinion of L’Equipe was missing…
“Les notes de Lille – Aston Villa: André a tout tenté, Martinez les a écoeurés”, was the title of the opening note of the French media in its segment for subscribers. There it was highlighted that “André (the captain who took the last penalty) gave everything, Martínez disgusted them.”
And when specifically addressing Dibu’s actions, they did not focus on the attitudes in the penalty shootout, but more generically. Regarding Aston Villa, L’Equipe noted: “But their defense, with two experienced centre-backs, Konsa (6) and Pau Torres (6), continued to hold out and with constant desire to win time, like his goalkeeper, Emiliano Martínez (8), warned, it took too long.”
To top it off, in addition to assigning him 8 rating points for his task, the newspaper highlighted: “In the penalty shootout, the world champion goalkeeper, a specialist, It was monstrous by making two stops to Bentaleb and André and disgust the Lille team.”
“My destiny was to win here again”
With measured joy, Dibu Martinez talked about his outstanding new day, now with Aston Villa, as had happened last weekend, when he was a figure in his team’s victory against Arsenal, which prevented them from remaining at the top of the Premier League. Now, his team will play the Conference League semifinal against Olympiacos, from Greece.
- “I am a believer. A hard worker. And it was my destiny to win here again.”
- “I get a bad reputation for stalling, because the other goalie was doing exactly the same thing. And I was cautioned in the 38th minute, when we were losing the game. So, I don’t know what the referee wanted from me.”
- “And then, the same thing. There was no ball at the penalty spot and I asked a ball boy for one, and was cautioned. “I don’t understand the rules.”
- “I always say that I am the owner of my career, I am the owner of my person, of my performances. I know my team needs me in those moments. Yesterday we were watching Real Madrid vs. Manchester City and the manager said “maybe we’ll go to penalties.” In my mind, always in those moments I am the owner of my area.”
- “This group of players and managers is special. And the owners are very involved, they are always behind us. It feels like we are going to do something special. “I don’t know if it will be the Champions League, I don’t know if it will be the Conference League… We are going to try to do everything we can for this club.”