Frenchman Nicolas Anelka did not want to take a penalty against Manchester United in last Wednesday’s Champions League final.
Anelka was brought on by manager Grant after 110 minutes and was asked whether he was ready to take a spot kick.
“I was on the bench for 110 minutes and the coach brought me on after warming up for no more than a minute. Then he asked me whether I wanted to take one of the penalties,” Anelka told l’Equipe.
“Absolutely not, I said. I had to play as wing back and now he wanted me to take a penalty?”
Had John Terry not missed Chelsea’s fifth spot kick, it wouldn’t have been necessary for Anelka to take his.
The player put things into perspective saying that “that’s football” and that “Van der Sar made a good save”.
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on the issue of penalty in football as a deciding factor in winning a match is still remain the best for me.it is 50/50 chance for both teams to become a winner.the ideal of extending the time or reducind player as the game is on is another beauty on it’s own. in other words a team would need to buy play that as a lot of pace .in any way,it could be real fun.but the fact still remains that,there still gonna be a winner at the end.
As for Anelka the chelsea fc player,i don’t blame him much on the penalty he missed on that final.I still feel John Terry should have score.