"Being too smart for your own good is usually drummed out of children before they leave school but sometimes people cannot help themselves. The Panenka penalty, successfully executed, offers the limited benefit of making a goalkeeper look silly and the taker a genius but Brahim Diaz is the latest to learn the cost of what happens when it goes wrong."
"Diaz was given 15 minutes to consider what to do with his spot-kick after the ludicrous levels of drama in the Africa Cup of Nations final. Maybe this was his undoing: being able to ponder every option, from the rudimentary to the artistic, until deciding to replicate Antonin Panenka's creation with what could, and should, have been the last kick of the tournament."
"With five goals in six games before the final, Diaz was arguably the key man for Morocco, taking them to the verge of glory in a home tournament. Against Mali he calmly stepped up and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way but he concluded that trying to replicate that penalty was ill-advised, perhaps because the keeper would be anticipating something similar."
Brahim Diaz attempted a Panenka penalty in the Africa Cup of Nations final after lengthy contemplation and it was saved by an unmoved Edouard Mendy. The miss denied Morocco the immediate chance to seal the title and Senegal went on to triumph in extra time. Diaz had been Morocco's key attacker, scoring five goals in six games and earning the golden boot, yet the failed dinked penalty transformed a moment of audacity into a costly miscalculation. The Panenka originally succeeded because of surprise, a factor missing from Diaz's attempt when stakes and expectations were high.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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