Achraf Hakimi earned Morocco a place in the World Cup quarter-finals with the cheekiest of spot-kicks, but it’s a far cry from when Inter coach Antonio Conte said: ‘He’s so bad at penalties, everyone else has to die before he’ll take one.’
The Paris Saint-Germain full-back became the hero for his country by completing the penalty shoot-out victory over Spain with a Panenka.
One can imagine – and Croatia international and former Inter player Ivan Perisic certainly did, because he linked Hakimi on Instagram – his thoughts went back to something Conte said during their time together at San Siro.
“The important thing is that Hakimi doesn’t take penalties. He can do free kicks from a distance, but when we all stay behind and practice penalties I think to myself, if we ever went to a tournament where we went to a shoot-out, everyone else has to die before we let Hakimi take one.
“He is truly awful at penalties, worse than I was as a player. He’s growing and can improve a great deal, because sometimes he doesn’t see the pass immediately, he is accustomed to taking a touch and thinking for a while and we can’t do that under pressure, but he is improving in every aspect.”