Sep 19, 2024, 06:25 PM ET
Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya was hailed by his supervisor Mikel Arteta and Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini after the Spaniard’s miraculous double save earned his facet a 0-0 draw within the Champions League on Thursday.
However for Raya saving Mateo Retegui‘s 51st-minute penalty and then somehow springing across his goal to claw out the same player’s headed rebound effort, Arsenal may have begun their group video games with a dangerous defeat away to the Serie A facet.
“I witnessed two of the best saves I’ve ever seen in my career from David in that moment,” Arteta mentioned.
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“If you can’t win, you have to take the point. We started well, then we lost control and were very inconsistent. We didn’t suffer defensively, apart from the penalty.”
Atalanta supervisor Gasperini was equally in awe.
“He’s a cat. The first save is good but the rebound is unbelievable. The goalkeeper has been crucial,” the Italian coach mentioned.
Raya was modest about his effort, saying he had been fortunate and in addition paid tribute to Arsenal’s goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana who he consulted whereas VAR checked the penalty choice.
“It was a long time to decide if it was a penalty so I took the decision to go to the side and I went to speak with the goalie coach about where to go and where not to go,” he mentioned.
“He helped me a lot in every aspect so credit to him.”
Whereas it was a strong begin by Arsenal, Arteta was much less joyful together with his crew’s efficiency as they supplied little in the best way of attacking risk in opposition to final season’s Europa League winners.
“We had moments with the ball but we never got it into dominance or threat,” he mentioned.
“The first 25 minutes we read their approach really good. After that we lost control of the game.”
Info from Reuters contributed to this report.
