{"id":946344,"date":"2026-03-11T20:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/?p=946344"},"modified":"2026-03-11T21:30:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T21:30:33","slug":"video-why-donnarumma-backed-out-real-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/video-why-donnarumma-backed-out-real-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: Why Donnarumma backed out when Real Madrid scored against Manchester City","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- Article Start --><p><a href=\"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/italy-donnarumma-every-word-italy-man-city\/\">Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma<\/a> found himself in a split-second quandary for Manchester City against Real Madrid, seemingly preferring to give up the goal.<\/p><p>The shot-stopper started tonight\u2019s Champions League Round of 16 tie at the Bernabeu, but was caught out by the opener scored by Federico Valverde.<\/p><p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0b629b85ba2abe5ff39df9829ee5fb57\" image-id=\"mcfcqSoiGEZA\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 8500px; aspect-ratio: 8500\/5518;\"><\/smartframe-embed><\/p><p>It was very route one football, as Thibaut Courtois punted a long ball forward, controlled brilliantly by Valverde to go clear on goal.<\/p><h2>Donnarumma behaviour explained<\/h2><figure id=\"attachment_946346\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-946346\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-414x276.jpg\" alt=\"MADRID, SPAIN - MARCH 11: Federico Valverde of Real Madrid scores his team's first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Round of 16 First Leg match between Real Madrid CF and Manchester City FC at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on March 11, 2026 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Angel Martinez\/Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-946346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-414x276.jpg 414w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-190x127.jpg 190w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-245x163.jpg 245w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-320x213.jpg 320w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-770x513.jpg 770w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-310x207.jpg 310w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Valverde-goal.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-946346\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MADRID, SPAIN \u2013 MARCH 11: Federico Valverde of Real Madrid scores his team\u2019s first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Round of 16 First Leg match between Real Madrid CF and Manchester City FC at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on March 11, 2026 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Angel Martinez\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>As Donnarumma came rushing out to narrow the angle, he seemed to pull his arm away at the last second, so Valverde went around him and managed to steer it into the net from a tricky position.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/live\/clygg57vve7t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Former Torino goalkeeper Joe Hart on TNT Sport<\/a> confirmed the suspicion many had that Donnarumma thought he wasn\u2019t going to get there in time, and that he may well be sliding his way out of the penalty area in the process.<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A brilliant assist from Courtois is finished off by Valverde to give Real Madrid the lead against Manchester City \ud83d\udca5<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tntsports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@tntsports<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/discoveryplusUK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@discoveryplusUK<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hS6f3Pe7Vj\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/hS6f3Pe7Vj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/footballontnt\/status\/2031828680075288784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 11, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p><p>That and the fear of giving away a penalty even if it wasn\u2019t a red card, along with the narrowing angle making it a tough finish, prompted the Italian to withdraw his arm and let Valverde through.<\/p><p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBS7voPjr5\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 5465px; aspect-ratio: 5465\/3643;\"><\/smartframe-embed><\/p><p>It is also not entirely a surprise, considering this was the second assist Courtois has registered in the Champions League this season for Real Madrid.<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thibaut Courtois assist \u203c\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian keeper plays a lovely ball out to Fede Valverde who gives Real Madrid the lead \ud83d\udd25 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EX93BvXlk9\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/EX93BvXlk9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CBS Sports Golazo \u26bd\ufe0f (@CBSSportsGolazo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBSSportsGolazo\/status\/2031830043568099508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 11, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p><!-- Article End -->","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma found himself in a split-second quandary for Manchester City against Real&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":90,"featured_media":946345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,39,41962,41482,1,41484],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-946344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-azzurri","category-champions-league","category-home-page-top-news","category-italy","category-latest","category-newsnow"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Gianluigi-Donnarumma.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":946350,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946344\/revisions\/946350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}