CloseGraham Hunter is a Barcelona-based freelance writer for ESPN.com who specializes in La Liga and the Spanish national team.
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It's clear that penalties -- and everything surrounding them -- have become one hell of an issue.
I was at Girona's 3-2 Champions League defeat to Feyenoord in midweek to watch two different penalty-takers fail to convert from 12 yards. Odd, I thought.
Even when I spent the day at Girona training the following Friday and mentioned my perception that Bojan Miovski never missed penalties when he was with his last club, Aberdeen, Michel, the Catalan club's coach, threw his hands up in friendly exasperation and quoted the stat at me which backed up my perception.
Then on Sunday afternoon, Girona keeper Paulo Gazzaniga saved three Athletic Club penalties -- from Ãlex Berenguer, Iñaki Williams and Ander Herrera -- making it four spot-kick saves from four different takers in five days.
That's remarkable in and of itself, but immediately backed up by former Atletico Madrid and Spain keeper David de Gea saving twice (for Fiorentina vs. AC Milan) on Sunday night when Theo Hernández and Tammy Abraham became the men with custard-pie faces. Previously, in the same match, Moise Kean had seen Mike Maignan save his penalty!
DAVID DE GEA WHAT HAVE YOU DONE