The surprise will have made you sputter! In recent days and the start of Matvey Safonov against Toulouse (3-0, last Friday), the idea of seeing the Russian goalkeeper continue on the lawn of the Allianz Arena has gained weight. It was confirmed Tuesday evening shortly after 7:30 p.m. when the Parisian composition was revealed.
Before the match, Luis Enrique came to explain his choice on Canal +: “It varies depending on what I see on the pitch, what is best for the team and what the opponent does. It’s a team that looks like us, presses very high. We will need the help of our goalkeeper,” explained the technician, judging that the Russian goalkeeper was the best able to kick in against an aggressive opponent.
During the warm-up, Borja Alvarez, the goalkeeper coach, had Safonov repeat this situation using Gianluigi Donnarumma and Arnau Tenas to come and press him. From the first minutes of the match, it was in another register that the old Krasnodar rampart distinguished itself. On a coming corner from Joshua Kimmich, he took the ball out of his left corner (5th). A few moments later, it was against Jamal Musiala that he won his first duel by repelling a powerful strike (7th), before repelling a shot from Leroy Sané (12th). The first impressions were good until the 39th minute.
“Communication cannot be improvised”
Bayern Munich got another corner which Kimmich took at the near post. At the start of the action, Nuno Mendes was marking Musiala, before leaving the German international Safonov embarrassed, forcing him to move aside. The consequence was immediate: number 39 missed his fist release and the ball returned within six meters to Kim Min-jae, who opened the scoring. “He (Musiala) doesn’t play the ball, […] our goalkeeper was blocked on the corner, cursed Marquinhos on Canal+ after the match. I don’t like to talk about the refereeing, but he was tough against us. »
The sequence was reminiscent of the missed aerial interventions by Gianluigi Donnarumma against Arsenal and already last year against FC Barcelona in the quarter-final of the Champions League (2-3, April 10) or Dortmund in the semi-finals. -finals (0-1, May 7).
“I am not a big supporter of changes in this position,” Christophe Lollichon, former goalkeeper coach at Chelsea, explained to us a few days before the meeting in Bavaria. A goalkeeper needs rhythm, particularly in terms of involvement and the need to be in match condition. I don’t know how a goalkeeper can be in a good mood if he plays one game in four. »
With a few more matches on the clock since the start of the season, would he have replaced Nuno Mendes in Musiala’s marking? Or simply pushed back the young master player from Bayern Munich who was bothering him with this action? “Communication between a goalkeeper and his defense cannot be improvised, for example. You need benchmarks and consistency,” adds Lollichon.
In the second act, Safonov had visibly left this ball behind him and made up for it first by repelling a powerful cross with his fists and especially by diverting Musiala’s shot at the entrance to the area onto his post (74th). A final stop which allowed Paris to maintain hope of returning to the score. But in the middle of a rather clean copy, his single error will have been costly.
