Egypt suffered a heartbreaking penalty shoot-out defeat against Senegal in Sundayâs Africa Cup of Nations final.Following a tense 120 minutes of football, the match - and the tournament itself - was eventually decided on penalties.Senegal won the shoot-out 4-2, with Sadio Mane firing home the winning penalty. His Liverpool teammate, Mohamed Salah, was presumably set to take Egyptâs fifth spot-kick but didnât have the opportunity.After the match, Egypt goalkeeper Gabaskiâs water bottle was found near the goal where the penalties were taken.The water bottle was covered in small pieces of paper with an incredible amount of detail about each Senegal playerâs penalty technique.Hereâs a video of the water bottle:
As you can see from the footage, every Senegal player was assigned their own individual note showing where theyâve struck their penalties and whether or not each of those spot-kick was successfully converted.
Weâve seen similar tactics used before - by England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, for example - but not in this amount of detail.
How close did Gabaski get to saving Senegal's penalties?
But how close was Gabaski (real name Mohamed Abou Gabal) from saving each penalty? Letâs take a look:
Kalidou Koulibalyâs penalty
Gabaski correctly dived low to his right and got a touch on the ball but was unable to prevent Koulibalyâs penalty finding the back of the net.
Abdou Dialloâs penalty
Egyptâs goalkeeper again went the right way but Diallo managed to find the bottom corner.
Bouna Sarrâs penalty
Gabaski made the save.
Bamba Diengâs penalty
This was the only Senegal penalty that Gabaski dived the wrong way for.
Sadio Maneâs penalty
Gabaski had already made a tremendous penalty save from Mane earlier in the match but he was unable to stop Senegalâs star man from finding the back of the net, despite diving the correct way.
As you can see, Gabaskiâs homework very nearly paid off.
Egypt may have lost but their goalkeeper gave his side the best possible chance of winning the shoot-out with his remarkable preparation.
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