Marco Amelia explains how he managed to parry Ronaldinho's penalty - with help from a games console!
“It was like playing against Ronaldinho on the Playstation! He did the same run-up, it was very strange!”
The Palermo goalkeeper saved the first half penalty and guessed the right angle in the final minutes, but was unable to keep Dinho's second spot-kick out in the 3-1 win over Milan.
“I saw at the last second he was changing the angle and so I charged up my legs to launch myself at it. I almost got the second too, but that would've been too much!
“I looked into his eyes and thought originally he was going to cross it to the other corner, but then saw him open up the foot and figured it was the near post.”
Amelia gave away that first penalty when he rushed out to close down Alexandre Pato, bringing him down right on the line.
“I honestly thought the ball was a bit longer than it was, then had to protect myself as both of us were going into a pretty big collision.
“In fact I hit my head on his knee and was dizzy for a minute, but had to get right back into it to save the penalty.
“The Coach told me to look out for [Andrea] Pirlo's long balls towards Pato, as he is the only striker who really moves without the ball.
“I ran out to get it, but Pirlo's ball was so precise that I had no room to intercept. Also it was rather tough to stop myself when I was running, as I'm a big fellow and had momentum!”
It was a splendid performance from Amelia, who is Italy's second choice goalkeeper behind Gianluigi Buffon.