Some eagle-eyed viewers noticed a slight movement in the ball just before Lautaro Martinez struck his decisive penalty kick over the bar against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night, but a successful spot-kick from Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018 may explain the phenomenon.
Inter were eliminated from the Champions League on penalties on Wednesday night, having been level at 2-2 with Atletico Madrid over two legs.
Lautaro Martinez, who took Inter’s fifth penalty on the night, had to score to keep his side in the shoot-out, but ultimately blazed his effort well over the bar.
Some social media users have noticed that the ball ‘popped up’ from the penalty spot just before Lautaro Martinez made contact. There have been suggestions that this is the reason why his penalty went so far over.
Perché Lautaro ha guardato il dischetto dopo il rigore? Ecco perché. pic.twitter.com/1B75prrmxP
— Pierhoff9 (@PieroAlfano9) March 14, 2024
The same thing happened to Ronaldo during Real Madrid’s 2018 Champions League round of 16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain. Just like with Lautaro Martinez’s effort on Wednesday, the ball bounced up just before Ronaldo’s leg struck the ball.
Ronaldo, however, was still able to bury his penalty past Keylor Navas in the PSG net on that occasion.
Ronaldo’s former Manchester United teammate Rio Ferdinand was on punditry duty with BT Sports in the UK for that game, claiming to host Gary Lineker that Ronaldo used to do the same thing on a regular basis in training.
It is believed that the power exerted from the penalty taker’s standing leg on the perfectly-maintained, elite-level pitches is sometimes enough to make the ball ‘pop up’ from the spot.
The issue for Lautaro Martinez is that if he had not intended to make the ball bounce upwards, his foot would have made contact with the ball further down than he would have anticipated, which, in turn, would have caused his penalty to go much higher than originally intended.
We are still waiting for the ball to land.