- Mario Gomez reflected on Bayern Munich’s defeat by Chelsea after a penalty shootout
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Mario Gomez revealed he felt Petr Cech had read his mind during the penalty shootout in the Champions League final.
Bayern Munich were on home turf in 2012 when they welcomed Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea to the Allianz Arena in search of their fifth Champions League win.
The Blues meanwhile were looking for their first goal, but appeared to go home empty-handed when Thomas Müller fired Bayern ahead after 83 minutes.
Chelsea responded promptly through Didier Drogba, who struck back just two minutes from the end of the nineties to send the match into extra time.
After neither side could take the lead in the extra half hour, the match went to penalties, with Juan Mata missing Chelsea’s first penalty.
Mario Gomez reflected on facing Petr Cech in the 2012 Champions League final
The former Bayern Munich star revealed he felt Cech had read his mind during the penalty shootout
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Gomez reminisced about the final of the club’s Generation Wembley documentary on Amazon Prime Video and revealed he had changed his mind about where he would aim his shot just seconds before taking the penalty.
“Then I put the ball down and looked at Petr Cech, who was standing there and was a monster,” he said.
“On the way to the ball I changed my mind and went to the other corner.”
Gomez eventually fired his shot to Cech’s left, narrowly sliding the ball out of the Czech goalkeeper’s reach.
Cech would go on to make two saves during the shootout, denying both Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger from twelve yards and diving appropriately for all five of Bayern’s penalties.
“The crazy thing about the story is that I had a doping test afterwards,” Gomez continued.
‘Petr Cech sits next to me at the doping control. He’s completely shy, reserved, and finally he says to me, “Hey, what was the punishment?” I look at him and say “eh?”
‘Then he says to me: ‘You first wanted to shoot towards the other corner, you totally confused me. I knew you were going to the other corner.”
While Gomez would convert his penalty, Cech would make two saves as Chelsea triumphed in Munich
Gomez called the former Chelsea and Arsenal goalkeeper a ‘monster’ for his ability to read players’ body language
‘He said something like what was happening inside me. That’s brutal.
‘It made me realize what a great goalkeeper he is. Who also read the players and the players’ body language.’
Gomez would go on to be part of the Bayern team that triumphed in the following year’s final, appearing as a substitute when Die Roten defeated Borussia Dortmund at Wembley.