Inter and the penalty shootout tragedy

 Inter just had to stop before the quarter-finals of the 2023/24 Champions League. They were eliminated by Atletico, after Lautaro Martinez's very bad penalty shot, the ball flew straight into the sky and it was unknown where it landed on another planet.

The referee of the Arsenal vs Porto match was shocking

Vinicius escaped a controversial red card

Tough race between Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe

Not without reason, coach Simone Inzaghi decided to choose Lautaro Martinez as the "killer" player in the 11-meter penalty shootout in the match against Atletico early this morning, March 14. Perhaps in that tense, suffocating moment, the Italian coach suddenly remembered the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals. In Qatar that day, Lautaro was also the last person on the Argentina team to take a penalty kick in the series. penalty shootout. He was very calm and did not make any mistakes to help the home team win 4-3 against the Dutch in the "shootout" series.

But it turns out Mr. Inzaghi chose the wrong person. The suffocating pressure at the Metropolitano stadium caused the Argentine star's mortal legs to disobey the instructions of his head. After his shot, the ball soared straight into the sky in the amazement of those who loved the team with blue and black stripes. So the reigning Champions League runner-up was bitterly eliminated from the tournament, even though they marched to Spain with the advantage of winning 1-0 against Atletico in the first leg thanks to the only goal scored by the striker. former Marko Arnautovic.

Lautaro held his head after missing Inter's decisive penalty

This season, Lautaro showed two completely opposite faces on two official fronts. He played extremely well in Serie A. After 28 rounds, the Argentine striker is leading the scoring list with 23 goals - the best scoring achievement in his career in national championships. Thereby, he contributed greatly to helping the team with the blue and black striped shirt lead the tournament with a gap of up to... 16 points compared to second-place team Milan. In other words, Lautaro brought Inter very close to winning the 20th Scudetto title in history. Thanks to that extremely high performance, Lautaro is being considered by Inter leaders to sign a contract extension.

But in the Champions League, Lautaro sank again. Before making a dramatic appearance in the second leg of the 1/8 round at Atletico, the 26-year-old striker also played very poorly in the Champions League. Through 8 matches for the blue and black striped team in Europe's most prestigious arena, his achievements were only 2 goals, accompanied by 2 yellow cards. Needless to say, in the first leg at home against Atletico, Lautaro also started, but he was almost "invisible" the entire time on the field. Near the end of the match, coach Inzaghi reluctantly had to withdraw Inter's captain to replace him with striker Alexis Sanchez.

Atletico coach Simeone comforts compatriot Martinez

If we ignore the bright spot that was the successful "killing" penalty kick in the 2022 World Cup quarterfinals against the Netherlands and go back in time to find out, Lautaro is not a penalty kick expert. Statistics show that, throughout his career up to the recent match against Atletico, the Argentine striker has taken a total of 27 penalty kicks. Among them, there were 10 times he was unsuccessful on the 11 meter mark. But Lautaro is still not the worst penalty striker in Inter's squad. According to statistics, Alexis Sanchez's goal conversion rate from penalty opportunities is even more embarrassing. The Chilean striker was only successful in 16/29 penalty shots in his career.

Lautaro is clearly the culprit that led to Inter's early elimination from the 2023/24 Champions League. Hopefully, after this defeat, he will not decline and continue his high performance to lead the black and blue striped team straight to the Serie A championship this season. Previously, the Argentine striker was also the hero in the Italian Super Cup final with his only goal in stoppage time to help Inter win the Cup.