Petr Cech was able to “read Mario Gomez’s mind” during the 2012 Champions League final
Chelsea won it’s first Champions League title in 2012 with that infamous penalty shootout against Bayern Munich.
Thomas Müller with a late header had put the German side steering the wheels of the game. When there was no hope left, right at the end, the legendary Didier Drogba leveled things up with what was a bullet of a header at the death.
The game was at a stalemate at 1-1 after the extra time and Chelsea were starting at the defeat as Juan Mata had missed the first penalty with Philip Lahmn and Gomez had already found the net from the twelve-yard spot.
While many would look at that Mario Gomez penalty and thought it was just another one of those, the pressure was high and the room for mistake was none. Although that one went in, Chelsea went on to dramatically win their first UEFA Champions League with a penalty shootout score line of 5-4 at the Allianz Arena.
Reading Gomez’s mind
Great goalkeepers are great anticipators. This is one example where Petr Cech anticipated right where Mario Gomez would shoot during his penalty, only for Gomez to change corners at the very last second.
When revealing to Amazon’s Prime Video (as relayed by The Sun), the Bayern striker said he changed the spot where he would shoot. That did end up working as he ended up putting the ball in the net.
Gomez speaking to Prime Video: “I put the ball down and look at Petr Cech, who’s standing there, he was a monster. I put the ball down and it was clear to me, I’m going to hit it into one corner, powerfully. I have to hit powerfully otherwise he will get to it.
“I walk back, turn around and think ‘no, he’ll save it’. On the way to the ball I changed my mind and went for the other corner. The mad thing about this story is afterwards I have doping control. Petr Cech is sitting with me in doping control.
“He’s completely shy, reserved, and eventually he says to me ‘Hey, what was with the penalty?’
“I look at him and say ‘eh?’ Then he says to me ‘you wanted to shoot towards the other corner first. You totally confused me. I knew you were going for the other corner.’
“He pretty much said what happened in me. That’s brutal. That made me realise again what a great goalkeeper he is, who also read the players and the players’ body language.”
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The greatness of a Petr Cech is exemplary with 202 clean sheets in the Premier League but interviews like this make us realize what a menace he was and how Chelsea were lucky to have him.