Milinkovic-Savic admits penalty shoot out ‘a bit strange’ for Napoli victory

Napoli goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic was the hero of the Coppa Italia penalty shoot-out against Cagliari, saving one and scoring one too. ‘It was a bit strange.’

The game ended 1-1 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, where Sebastiano Esposito cancelled out the opening Lorenzo Lucca header.

At this stage of the tournament, there is no extra time, so with the teams all square after 90 minutes plus stoppages, they went straight into a penalty shoot-out.

It was a dramatic slog, as Mattia Felici hit the woodwork and David Neres saw his attempt saved by Elia Caprile, so it went to sudden death.

Only after nine converted penalties did Napoli finally win, following Milinkovic-Savic’s save on Zito Luvumbo.

“I’d never experienced a shoot-out with 10 penalties before, it was a big strange,” the goalkeeper told Sport Mediaset.

“The important thing is that we got through to the next round.”

The Partenopei will face either Como or Fiorentina in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia.

With so many spot-kicks taken, Milinkovic-Savic stepped up and converted one himself, hitting a ferocious strike into the roof of the net with reports it was clocked at 130km/h.

It is not a new thing for the former Torino shot-stopper, who has over the years taken penalties and even early on in his career enjoyed stepping up for free kicks.

“It was a better penalty than his,” laughed Milinkovic-Savic with a gesture to teammate Buongiorno.

“I only train to save penalties, not take them. We’ve got some good players from the spot, but if I am needed, then I have no problem taking them too.”