OPINION: Social media hit out at Pellè, but do not forget his brilliant performances at EURO 2016
The Southampton striker has been excessively criticized alongside his teammate Simone Zaza who also missed a penalty yesterday night after awful run-up.
Everyone knows how it ended up for us, but we can’t only blame Pellè for his mistake. There are psychological aspects behind a shootout that only football players are well aware of. At a first glance, Pellè might seem a poser, but if we see it from the player’s point of view, we should understand the fear and the tension for such an important penalty. Pellè could not keep his nerves in the most important moment of the tournament.
Pellè is the only responsible for the penalty he missed. Said that, we should never forget about how brilliant he was during the entire tournament. He scored two goals (one against Belgium, the other one against Spain) and was vital for Conte’s style of play, also against Germany thanks to his physical presence in front of the Germans’ defensive line and his movements to help the rest of the team.
Pellè had already ‘promised’ a Panenka Penalty to the opponent’s goalkeeper during his career with better results than yesterday night. In 2007 he did it during the U-21 European Championships scoring from the spot. He also did in 2012 in a game between his old club Feyenoord and Heerenven.
The former Parma man lost the cold-heartedness of the previous occasions yesterday, failing the most important chance of a tournament which he had been playing brilliantly till that damned moment.
Tommaso Caccia, translated by Lorenzo Bettoni @lorebetto
