Aston Villa’s Marco Asensio joined an unfortunate club of Premier League players on Saturday as he missed two penalties against Southampton.
The Paris Saint-Germain loan player missed a golden opportunity to break the deadlock against the Premier League’s bottom side, who are already relegated, when Aaron Ramsdale saved his penalty in the 69th minute.
Though Ollie Watkins and Donyell Malen spared some of Asensio’s blushes by putting Aston Villa comfortably ahead afterwards, he ensured he would still make the headlines as he had a second spot-kick saved in stoppage time.
John McGinn scored Villa’s third just after, but it was still one to forget for Marco Asensio. He is just the fourth player to miss two penalties in a Premier League game, joining an unfortunate and exclusive club.
Juan Pablo Angel v Fulham in February 2005
At least in Asensio’s case, his side still emerged with a comfortable win. The same couldn’t be said for Juan Pablo Angel, also of Aston Villa. The Colombian looked to be the hero of the match against Fulham just after halftime when he scored his first goal in three months.
High on confidence, he stepped up to take a penalty 20 minutes later – and missed. Six minutes after that, when another spot-kick was awarded Villa’s way, he took it again… and missed again.
Had Villa hung onto the lead he had earned them, all might have been forgotten. However, Lee Clark’s stoppage-time equaliser for Fulham meant it was Angel’s misses rather than successes that characterised that day.
Darren Bent v Tottenham Hotspur in April 2010
Darren Bent was much better off. His two missed penalties against his former club Tottenham Hotspur ended up not mattering in Sunderland’s win over them in 2010. Bent had been Spurs’ top scorer in the 2008/09 season, after which he moved north to Sunderland for an initial £10m.
When he welcomed his old club to the Stadium of Light, he took no prisoners and opened the scoring in the first minute. He bagged his second from the penalty spot before halftime, but his efforts to take home the match ball after that failed.
Just before the interval, Bent was again called up to the spot, but this time, his effort was saved by Heurelho Gomes. Midway through the second half, he had another chance at his hat-trick but Gomes again kept it out.
Ten minutes later, Bent looked as though he might live to regret his pointed celebrations when Peter Crouch pulled one back for Spurs to make it 2-1. Fortunately, Sunderland colleague Bolo Zenden was on hand to put the gloss back on the scoreline in the 86th minute, netting to finish the match 3-1 to Sunderland.
Saido Berahino v Watford in April 2016
Bizarrely, the same goalkeeper proved the downfall of our third unfortunate penalty-taker. Heurelho Gomes swapped Spurs for Watford in 2014 on an initial one-year deal and stayed on after helping them to promotion. He won Player of the Season as they stayed up in 2015/16, and a highlight was another impressive penalty display against West Bromwich Albion.
In April 2016, Watford were hanging onto a narrow 0-1 lead away at West Brom when Gomes brought down Saido Berahino in the box. Hornets fans needn’t have worried: he not only redeemed himself by saving the resulting penalty but another 20 minutes later.
He told the BBC after the game: “I did the same against Sunderland [in 2010] but that was a different feeling as we lost the game. This means a lot – it is great for me and most importantly great for the club.”
Gomes is one of nine Premier League goalkeepers to save two spot-kicks in a match – but the only one to do it on two separate occasions. Though he doesn’t take the number one shirt in our greatest ever Premier League lineup, it’s still an impressive accolade.
The post The three other Premier League players to miss two penalties in a game as Marco Asensio becomes number four appeared first on HITC.
