Shoot-out secrets REVEALED: How Lunin knew which City stars would go down middle
The secrets of Real Madrid's penalty shoot-out win over Manchester City have been revealed as Pep Guardiola's hopes of a double Treble were dashed.
Goalkeeper Andriy Lunin saved spot-kicks from Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic early in the shoot-out before Antonio Rudiger stepped up to put the Spaniards through.
It followed a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes of largely City domination, with Kevin De Bruyne cancelling out Rodrygo's early opener for Real.
Lunin spoke afterwards about how Real identified three City players likely to place their penalties down the middle and that intuition paid off when Silva fired a dreadful kick straight into his gloves.
Kovacic also sent his kick centrally and Lunin was able to get down to his right to repel it.
'We prepared it with the goalkeeping coach and there were three players with whom we had doubts about whether to stay in the middle or not,' Lunin told Marca afterwards.
Another factor was that certain Real players actively declined the chance to take a kick.
Luka Modric was denied by Ederson when he took Real's first kick, but Jude Bellingham, Lucas Vazquez, Nacho and Rudiger made no mistake.
Marca said that Eder Militao turned down the chance to take one because his fellow Brazilian Ederson knows his intentions too well.
Federico Valverde was another who didn't step forward among the designated five takers because he was suffering from fatigue after extra time.
Instead, Modric and Vazquez, who'd come on as substitutes and had fresher legs, stepped up.
The role of Kepa, the goalkeeper who lost his place to Lunin a few months ago, was also revealed.
Davide Ancelotti, the son of coach Carlo and his assistant, explained that Kepa helped finesse the Real penalty-taker line-up during the closing
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