Achraf Hakimi earned Morocco a place in the World Cup quarter-finals with the cheekiest of spot-kicks, but itās a far cry from when Inter coach Antonio Conte said: āHeās so bad at penalties, everyone else has to die before heāll take one.ā
The Paris Saint-Germain full-back became the hero for his country by completing the penalty shoot-out victory over Spain with a Panenka.
One can imagine ā and Croatia international and former Inter player Ivan Perisic certainly did, because he linked Hakimi on Instagram ā his thoughts went back to something Conte said during their time together at San Siro.
āThe important thing is that Hakimi doesnāt take penalties. He can do free kicks from a distance, but when we all stay behind and practice penalties I think to myself, if we ever went to a tournament where we went to a shoot-out, everyone else has to die before we let Hakimi take one.
āHe is truly awful at penalties, worse than I was as a player. Heās growing and can improve a great deal, because sometimes he doesnāt see the pass immediately, he is accustomed to taking a touch and thinking for a while and we canāt do that under pressure, but he is improving in every aspect.ā