Bravo, Bravo! Keeper goes from zero to hero
WHEN Claudio Bravo’s first season at Manchester City began to unravel, few people could have envisaged the Chile goalkeeper being a Wembley hero three years later. Controversially brought in to replace Joe Hart, Bravo became a symbol of Pep Guardiola’s teething troubles at the Etihad; a keeper who could play the ball out from the back but, crucially, couldn’t keep it out of his net. A series of blunders led to Guardiola demoting Bravo a year after his £15.4million move from Barcelona and spending £35m on Ederson Moraes. Bravo was given the option to go but decided to stay and rebuild his reputation, and at Wembley yesterday came redemption for the 36-year-old. It was not the first time Bravo has come up trumps for City in a shootout. Relegated to the side for the domestic cups the following season, he helped Guardiola’s men through shootouts against Wolves and Leicester en route to lifting the League Cup against Arsenal. A ruptured achilles after playing in the Community Shield win over Chelsea a year ago ended Bravo’s season barely before it had started, but he returned yesterday with a match-winning performance to give City victory over Liverpool. The decisive save came against Georginio Wijnaldum in the shootout, but Bravo had already made a string of excellent saves in normal time. The best of them came from Mo Salah, twice coming out of his goal to deny the Egyptian including a crucial intervention in stoppage time. There was another flying save to keep out Naby Keita’s 20-yard effort when Bravo at first looked to be going the wrong way. Afterwards, Guardiola paid tribute to the man who refused to give up on his City career. ‘He won the game for us,’ said the City boss. ‘Everyone made an incredible contribution, but I’m so happy for him. ‘His first season wasn’t easy to adapt to the Premier League. He switched off mentally and said he was going to enjoy it and the team and last season in the Carabao Cup he did it. ‘I was really impressed. Not just now but in pre-season. He’s not young. He is over 30. His build-up was calm, his saves in the last minute. ‘He’s an incredible second keeper and today he saved the game many times, at the end of the game and, of course, the penalty.’