Time goes by and it is more and more difficult for us to believe how Emiliano Martinez could achieve save Randal Kolo Muani’s shot at minute 123 of the final of the Qatar World Cup 2022. The agonizing stoppage led us to penalties against France and it all ended with Argentina team raising the cupbut not even the protagonists of the historic meeting understand what happened.
Almost three months after the consecration, here we compile the phrases of various world champions that went through TyC Sports or other media and They referred to Dibu’s heroic reaction on December 18, 2022.
How the players of the Argentine National Team lived the save of Dibu Martínez to Kolo Muani
- Lionel Scaloni: “It was a key play for us because it all ended there. If I see her again, maybe she’ll go in now. We won’t look at her anymore”.
- Lionel Messi: “It was so fast that I didn’t have time to suffer it. Later, when you see it, you realize what that play was”.
- Rodrigo DePaul: “The play is impressive, it’s incredible. Dibu sticks out his leg, it’s not that he hits him, it’s not that he just shrinks. He sees where the guy kicks”.
- Julian Alvarez: “We grabbed our heads when the ball was there, bouncing.”
- Nicolas Tagliafico: “I felt like no air was getting into my chest.”
- Lautaro Martinez: “I saw when the entire bank of France was on the field. The save is incredible, it will remain in everyone’s memory because I think it was like the little crown.”
- Christian Romero: “Honestly, you don’t have the chance to think that much”.
This is how Dibu Martínez revived the save on Kolo Muani
“I didn’t realize the value it had because it was so fast. It was a dirty play too. The goalkeeper throws it, Ota takes it well with his head, and when Ota anticipates it, the center-back controls it and returns it to the pot. It was a perfect ball between him and Germán. When Muani has it, it stays a bit diagonally. I said, well, I’ll take him down slowly, I didn’t rush, because otherwise it would poke me from above. I had to leave him an angle so that his last vision is the first stick. Then I played with my hand and foot, praying ‘please hit me’. I wanted him to hit me in the face, I didn’t care where. I wanted him to hit me. I don’t turn around, I close my eyes and I get all hard and say ‘hit me, that’s all I ask of you’. I’m so tense and so hard that I bounce forward.”counted I drew Martinez in TyC Sports.
