Former England international goalkeeper Joe Hart has revealed what was going through his mind when Italy legend Andrea Pirlo chipped him from the penalty spot in the quarter-final shootout at EURO 2012.
England and Italy played out a 0-0 draw over two hours of football that night, before the Azzurri went on to triumph on spot kicks.
Pirlo’s successful ‘Panenka’ on Hart proved to be one of the most memorable moments of the entire tournament, and it was certainly one that Hart has struggled to forget.
Hart on penalty psychology
Writing for BBC Sport, the former Manchester City and Torino stopper explained the psychology behind saving penalties.
“The taker is always the favourite but as a goalkeeper you have to revel in the fact you are more than capable of upsetting them,” Hart said.
“I actually went as far as putting myself in a false state of mind. I would put myself in a moment when someone was taking a penalty against me – in normal play too – where I was fully convinced I knew exactly what they were thinking, what their timing would be and exactly where they would put it.
“Around 85 to 90 per cent of the time I would be wrong but it meant I was in a state of mind where I was confident and comfortable with what I was doing, and it gave me the best possible chance to save it.”
Despite having all the possible information to hand, Hart explains why it is so difficult to keep penalties out, pointing to Pirlo as the prime example.
“Even with that mindset and all the information on takers, goalkeepers are still playing against people who can pretty much do whatever they want,” he said.
Hart on Pirlo
“The Panenka penalty that Alessandro Pirlo scored against me for Italy in our quarter-final at Euro 2012 showed that. It gets talked about a lot, and I thought it was an exceptional penalty, a moment of quality and class,” Hart admitted.
At the time, in 2012, Pirlo suggested that he wanted to take Hart ‘down a peg’ with his cheeky penalty attempt. The Englishman, in turn, said that he would have loved for the opposite to have happened.
“Obviously I would have loved to have just stood there, chested it down and whacked it back at him, but he knew exactly what I was going to do. Pirlo is a flow player, who goes with what he feels. I do not even think he would know what he had done previously from the spot.
“He had just orchestrated the entire game but I had played well too and I was in a moment where I was hard to beat. I was very confident. His favoured penalty went the way I went, and I had thought if I am going to save this, I am going to go hard.
“So I did that, but Pirlo understood how pumped up I was. A beautiful player like that understands the rhythm of football and he just placed it down the middle.”
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