MADRID – The passing of the baton in the Slovenian national team dates back to very distant November 2015. Handanovic out and him in, cloud, Atletico Madrid’s goalkeeper, absolute protagonist last night in the Colchoneros’ penalty shoot-out victory against Inter which earned them qualification to the Champions League quarter-finals. “Especially about managing penalties, I learned a lot from Samir,” said Jan at the moment of passing the baton, as goalkeeper in his country’s selection. And we saw it last night, when he first saved Sanchez’s spot kick, which was decidedly limp, and then Klaassen’s, which was instead kicked properly.
Atletico Madrid-Inter 5-3 after penalties: the Nerazzurri are also out, the Champions League without the Italian
On Samir’s road
Limiting the ranking to penalties taken in regular time, Oblak’s career scoreboard says 15 saved against 49 conceded. Almost one in four. Handanovic retired with an even better performance: 31 clearances and 81 on net. But Jan, 31 years old, has plenty of time to make up for it. He was just 22, and was already wearing the Atletico shirt, when Handanovic stepped aside from the national team, after the dramatic elimination of Slovenia from the Euro 2016 qualifiers. The boy from Skofja Loka, twenty kilometers from the capital Ljubljana, was already there , demonstrated that he had the charisma necessary for the role, despite failing to bring Slovenia to the World Cup in Russia, as the whole country dreamed of.
Jan the Champions League penalty saver
If Handanovic’s numbers from eleven meters are still far away, Oblak can handle penalties. Especially in the Champions League. In his first participation in the tournament with Atletico, in the 2014-2015 season, he saved Messi’s penalty in the first leg of the quarter-final against Barcelona, but failed to intercept the rebound. He saved another penalty on 3 May 2016 against Bayern Munich, taking the Colchoneros to the final at San Siro against Real Madrid, which the Blancos then won due to Torres’ penalty error. On 14 May he won the Zamora Trophy, equaling Francisco Liaño’s record with 38 appearances and only 18 goals conceded. Then there are yesterday’s saves against Inter, which could straighten out a difficult season for Cholo Simeone’s team.
Those lessons from ten years ago
Handanovic, who retired at 39 as the best penalty saver in the history of Serie A (32 out of 91 in our championship), had the opportunity to train with Oblak on this fundamental between 2012 and 2016 when the then young goalkeeper from Rio Ave and then from Benfica he was added to the senior national team, first as an Under 21 player on loan, then as his second, in all respects. And an interview with the Slovenian sports newspaper Ekipa 24 dates back to 2013 in which Oblak, not even twenty years old at the time, said: “Samir’s coolness on penalties is impressive. He flies. We just have to learn.” The match at the Metropolitano against Inter, of which Handanovic was captain until his retirement in 2023, shows that he is on the right path.
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– 2024-03-15 06:49:10
