Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was baffled as to why Gabriel Magalhães took the Gunners’ fifth penalty in their penalty shoot-out defeat in the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain.
Thierry Henry was left confused (Image: CBS Sports)
Mikel Arteta has revealed that Gabriel Magalhães “honestly wanted” Arsenal’s fifth penalty goal against Paris Saint-Germain. Gunners star Gabriel went for a must-score penalty in the Champions League final, but his shot went over the bar, handing PSG the trophy and breaking Arsenal’s hearts.
Fans and pundits alike wondered why a centre-back would take such decisive spot-kicks, despite regular substitutes such as Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard. Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was one of them, telling CBS Sports: “I always say, when you go and take a penalty, I always respect you.”
“I don’t know why he left. I don’t know how he got to be the fifth guy, but he left. The way he played all season and tonight was invaluable. But he missed it. But he didn’t hide.”
Arteta responded to Henry in the post-match press conference. “To be honest, he wanted to take number five,” the Gunners manager explained. “We have been preparing and training for this moment.
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“Normally, the penalty takers would definitely be Bukayo, Martin and Kai. We knew that if there was extra time on penalties, the penalty takers would be different players. When you see Ebuzu (Eberechi Eze) take penalties in training, he hasn’t made a single mistake, but he still has this quality. But in this moment we have to do it.”
“It’s a shame we don’t have the same precision and efficiency as them and that’s why we don’t win.”
Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya made up for Eze’s mistake by saving Nuno Mendes’ penalty, before Declan Rice made it 3-3 on penalties. PSG’s Lucas Berardo struggled to restore the French giants’ lead, but Gabriel missed his goal.
The Brazilian was arguably Arsenal’s best player in the final, limiting PSG’s chances to just a few halves. Havertz gave Arteta’s side a 1-0 lead in Budapest with six minutes remaining, but Ousmane Dembele leveled the score midway through the second half with a penalty after a foul by Cristian Mosquera.
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Gabriel Magalhães misses the decisive fifth penalty (Image: David Ramos/Getty Images)
Nothing separated the teams until the penalty shootout, and mistakes by Eze and Gabriel proved fatal. “Obviously missing a penalty in the Champions League final was not good,” Rice told TNT Sports.
“But we love them and we are with them. That happens in football. They won’t be the last players to miss a penalty in a final. Everyone has missed a penalty and we wouldn’t have won the Premier League this season without those two, that’s for sure.”
“Gabriel, I have no words for him, both as a person and as a player. Eze has scored some important goals for us this season. It happens. This is football, it’s cruel. We will take the positives and keep moving forward.”
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