Alexis Sanchez’s poor penalty record got even worse on Wednesday night, to the delight of Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann.
Inter Milan took on Atletico Madrid in a Champions League last-16 clash on Wednesday night, with former Arsenal winger Alexis Sanchez coming off the bench for the final 18 minutes of extra time.
Sanchez stepped up for Inter Milan in the penalty shootout at full time, and many casual onlookers were probably unsurprised by the decision to make him one of the team’s primary takers.
The 35-year-old has scored a few high-profile penalties that have earned him a strong reputation as a taker, including the winning penalty in the Copa America final in 2015, and a memorable injury-time panenka penalty for Arsenal in 2017.
Yet the reality is that the former Arsenal man is just not very good at spot-kicks.
Sanchez saw his shot saved on Wednesday night, with a tame effort comfortably kept out by Jan Oblak. It wasn’t even clear whether the forward was aiming for the left or putting his shot down the middle. The result was a mix of both.
Across every penalty he’s ever taken, both during matches and in penalty shootouts, Sanchez has scored 16 and missed 13.
That’s a conversion rate of 55%, in a sport where the average rate is 79%.
At Arsenal, Sanchez scored three and missed three. At Manchester United, he missed the only one he took. At Inter Milan, he’s scored two and missed two.
With Chile, he’s missed all four of the penalties he’s taken outside of penalty shootouts, as well as missing one in a shootout at the 2014 World Cup, though the three he’s scored in subsequent Chile shootouts are probably what most people remember.
The only team for whom Sanchez has taken more than one penalty and still maintained a positive record is Marseille, where he scored five and missed just two. For the record, that’s still a worse-than-average conversion rate of 71.4%.
Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann certainly appeared to have little sympathy for Sanchez, with cameras catching him shouting: “Cagón! Es un cagón, el chileno! Cagón!”
A polite translation of “cagón” would be “coward”, but many would translate it as something more like “s**thead”. With “el chileno”, there’s no doubt to which player Griezmann is referring.
In future, teams should probably think twice before putting Sanchez on penalties. A fantastic player on his day with many talents, this just isn’t one of them.