Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has revealed that Gabriel Magalhaes had asked to take the crucial penalty he missed in the Champions League final.
Gabriel stepped up for the fifth spot-kick in the shootout needing to score to take Paris Saint-Germain to sudden death, but skied his effort over the crossbar.
His miss meant that PSG secured back-to-back Champions League crowns, with Arsenal left to rue their missed opportunities having battled hard to take it to penalties.
It was the Brazilian defender’s first penalty for Arsenal, and came with Arteta having removed a number of his regular penalty takers.
The Arsenal manager made six changes as the game went to extra time, with all of Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz substituted and thus unable to participate in the shootout.
“He wanted to take it,” Arteta said of Gabriel. “Normally the penalty takers would be Bukayo [Saka], Martin [Odegaard] and Kai [Havertz]. But we knew if the game went to extra-time and penalties, different players would have to step forward.”
Eberechi Eze also missed the target with his penalty, with Viktor Gyokeres, Declan Rice and Gabriel Martinelli registering in the shootout.
Rice gave his backing to Eze and Gabriel after a “cruel” ending to the campaign.
“To miss a penalty in a Champions League final, obviously it’s not nice,” the midfielder said to TNT Sports.
“But we love them and we’re with them. It happens in football. They’re not going to be the last players to miss penalties in finals.
“Everyone has missed a penalty and without those two this season we wouldn’t have won the Premier League, that’s for sure.
“Gabriel, I’ve run out of words for him as a person and as a player. Eze has scored some crucial goals for us this season.
“It happens. It’s football and it’s cruel. We take the positives and keep going.”
