BRUNO FERNANDES gave Villarreal a huge advantage by making Manchester United go second in the Europa League final penalty shootout, according to an expert.
United recovered from a goal down in Gdansk to take the game to extra-time thanks to Edinson Cavani’s second-half strike.
WIN £50,000! Play Dream Team Euros – our FREE fantasy football game
Eventually the game went to penalties, with captain for the night Fernandes winning the coin toss.
The Portuguese playmaker opted to shoot second, with the first 21 penalties all converted.
David De Gea missed in sudden death as Villarreal were crowned champions – reducing Fernandes to tears.
But LSE professor and psychological studies expert Ignacio Palacios-Huerta revealed United were always up against it thanks to Fernandes’ decision.
He explained shooting second takes a mental toll on players handing the side shooting first up to a 20 per cent advantage.
Palacios-Huerta told Sportsmail: “I would think that most people in football know about, or at least have the right intuition, on this 60-40 advantage.
“It was shocking to see that Bruno decided to give that 20 per cent advantage to Villarreal.”
Palacios-Huerta has written a study on the subject called Psychological Pressure in Competitive Environments: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment.
FREE BETS: GET OVER £2,000 IN SIGN UP OFFERS HERE
WIN £50,000 with Dream Team Euros
Dream Team Euros is HERE!
The best fantasy football game to accompany Euro 2020 has arrived.
And you can play absolutely FREE for your chance to win the £50,000 jackpot.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR FREE!
Dream Team Euros
- £50,000 jackpot
- The best fantasy football game this summer
- Play in mini-leagues against your mates, colleagues, family members – and some hand-picked celebrities
- FREE to play
In the paper, the professor reveals he has proven shooting second has a ‘detrimental effect on performance’.
But boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was quick to not blame De Gea for his miss, saying United should have killed the game off in normal time.
Solskjaer said: “You go through every scenario, of course, and [De Gea’s penalty record] had crossed my mind in the build-up to the game but we were confident in David and prepared.
“Anything can happen in a penalty shootout. I stuck with the keeper who played all of the game.
“I’ve got to say the penalty shootout was high quality, but we didn’t do enough in the 120 minutes to score more goals and that’s the disappointing bit.
“We had pressure, we had moments where we felt if we can just kick on a little bit now we can get a goal. But we just couldn’t.”
⚽ Read our Football live blog for the very latest news from around the grounds
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
