With France performing rather poorly in the first half of the World Cup final Didier Deschamps made an early decision to remove Ousmane Dembélé and Olivier Giroud and replace them with Marcus Thuram and Randal Kolo Muani.
Their energy helped a lot, and the latter of the two even had the chance to win the game for his country, only to find himself faced with Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martínez.
The goalkeeper made himself as big as possible and saved the one on one, ultimately taking the game to penalties, where he became the hero once again.
He returned to Aston Villa a world champion, and will continue to help Unai Emery’s team as they seek to climb back up the Premier League table.
His celebrations after the World Cup became a talking point, but that’s not what Kolo Muani remembers, having gone through his chance to win the game over and over in his head.
Speaking to beIN Sports about his failed chance stopped b Aston Villa star, he said, relayed by Foot Mercato: “I still watch it. I know it off by heart. In my head, I told myself: ‘Randal, you need to shoot’. I tried to shoot at the near post, the goalkeeper makes a very nice save and gets it out. I lost that duel. After, I think there were other options. I could have chipped him, I could have found Kylian, because he also had a good angle.
“But in that moment, I don’t see him, because the ball comes over me, and I don’t see Kylian. It’s only after, when you watch the video that you see there’s other possibilities, but it’s too late. You can’t do anything else. It’s still hard to swallow, and will be for life, but it doesn’t hurt me. I tell myself that I need to fight and I will go find that goal. That’s what’s going to push me to score all the time and exceed myself. I think that missed goal will give me strength.”
