Ahead of tonight’s reunion with David De Gea, Villarreal goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli only has one regret about his penalty save which settled the Europa League final against Manchester United: he wishes it had been against an outfield player.
First, Rulli scored past De Gea to put Villarreal 11-10 up in that extraordinary sudden-death shoot-out in Gdansk last May. Then he saved his opposite number’s kick to win the final.
It must be a goalkeeper’s union thing but he really doesn’t like that particular detail of the story.
‘I would have preferred for the shoot-out to end before, and for me to stop any of the kicks instead of the keeper’s,’ he says.