Bonucci’s penalty was Giaccherini’s

Emanuele Giaccherini admitted that he should have taken Italy’s seventh penalty against Spain instead of Leonardo Bonucci.

Bonucci missed the Azzurri’s decisive spot-kick in their 7-6 penalty shootout defeat to Spain at Fortaleza on Thursday night, but it should not have fallen to the defender.

“That penalty should have fell to me,” his teammate Giaccherini told La Repubblica.

“However, I didn’t feel like taking it and I asked Leo to have a go instead.”

Bonucci revealed that Iker Casillas’ movement influenced his kick.

“When I understood that Casillas was going in the right direction, I wasn’t cool enough.

“I changed the way I was going to kick the ball, I tried to lift it, but you all saw what happened.

“Now I’ll spend the next year practicing penalties because I wouldn’t want the same kind of thing to happen at the World Cup again next year.”

Tags Bonucci Confederations Cup Giaccherini Italy Spain
La Liga - Club News