Courtois Admits He Studied Messi's Penalty Kick

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois making a save against PSG (Twitter.com/@realmadrid)

JAKARTA - Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois made a great save in the last 16 of the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Courtois saves Lionel Messi's penalty.

In the match which took place at the Parc des Princes Stadium, Wednesday, February 16 at dawn Indonesian Western Time (WIB), PSG had the opportunity to open the scoring when in the 62nd minute the referee awarded a penalty.

However, Lionel Messi who became the executioner failed to beat Courtois. After the match, the Belgian goalkeeper commented on the save he did.

"Obviously he takes a lot of penalty kicks, so it's hard to guess right," Courtois said as quoted by BT Sport.

However, Courtois then said he had long read and studied how Messi took penalties.

"I watched him do that (penalty) time and time again and it made me slowly read his movements. He missed a few on this side, so I think it's clear he's going to the left."

"Maybe in the middle, he scored one goal against Leipzig. I just said 'okay, we're going left' and I made a good save," Courtois said.

Apart from Courtois' brilliant save from Messi's penalty, Madrid must accept the harsh reality. Because, this match ended in a 1-0 win for PSG.

Almost closing the match with a score of 0-0, in fact, PSG actually stole three points in the final minutes. That one decisive goal was made by Kylian Mbappe when the game was running at 90+4 minutes. Courtois could not hide his frustration after the final whistle.

"Yeah, it was a bit annoying, we lost the ball in midfield and he (Mbappe) easily got away from two players," he said.

"I had to close the corner so I went down as fast as possible to block the low side, where he likes to shoot on the left, but the ball went right in the space right under me. It's hard to accept after a game like that."