The first rule of goalkeeping, according to managers, is that like the best referees you should not really notice them. Not if called on to make a save, obviously. Notice them all you like then. Notice away. But the rest of the time, when tumult subsides, you shouldn’t even know they are there.
It drives a coach crazy if the goalkeeper wants to get in the action unnecessarily. A rash sprint out to collect a loose ball the full back was already dealing with; a Cruyff turn and switch in the penalty area when a simple clip to the flank would have sufficed. As for goalkeepers who like the limelight — the scorpion kickers, the showy arm-wavers and screamers, the ones looking to go up and score the winning goal from a corner when everybody is happy with a draw — well, that’s why young coaches go grey.
And then there’s Emi Martínez. A man so addicted to drama he sets out to wind up, not an opponent, not an opposing team, but an entire country. Already about as popular in France as Italy’s lippy centre half from 2006, Marco Materazzi — after his taunting, teasing, match-winning performance in the 2022 World Cup final for Argentina — Martínez arrived in the capital with not just attitude, but also props.
A cap, with the French cockerel obscured by images of the trophies his Argentina team had won, a dyeing kit, used to put blue and white flashes in his hair. Not claret and blue, Aston Villa’s colours, you will notice. Blue and white, the livery of Argentina. That should have been the warning sign.
The Villa head coach, Unai Emery, is an understanding sort. He tries to see the best in people even when they are using their Golden Glove trophy as an extension of their genitals during the celebrations at a World Cup final. Emery forgave Martínez for that. Concluded he may be a fool, but he’s Villa’s fool, and they won’t find a better goalkeeper anywhere. The rest of us were allowed mild schadenfreude when the ball struck him off the bar and went in against Arsenal soon after his 2022 return, yet all inwardly concede that, despite some distinct outhouse tendencies, we’d have him in our teams tomorrow if we could.
So Martínez versus France made a wonderful subplot on a night when Villa took their Champions League ambitions deeper than anyone had hoped. As for the result, it wasn’t a knockout, but undoubtedly a big defeat on points for the Villa man. His team could have lost by more were it not for Martínez’s resilience, particularly early on, but the goals that Paris Saint-Germain did score would not have left any goalkeeper with the highest standards — and Martínez is certainly that — happy.
He did not dive at all for the first, from Désiré Doué, while the second, from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, defeated him at his near post. That Doué’s goal was one of the most sweetly arcing shots it is possible to imagine — think an even more refined version of Declan Rice’s free kicks against Real Madrid — while Kvaratskhelia took the substitute Axel Disasi apart, twice, before unleashing a hit of terrifying power, could certainly be advanced as mitigation. Yet, equally, no ’keeper is comfortable if beaten at the near post. It was one hell of a shot, from one hell of a player, but Martínez is one hell of a goalkeeper too. It wasn’t his best work.
The question, then, is: did he put too much pressure on himself? Would all the hair dye and handmade headgear have been better left at home and his focus been on the match of the century for Villa? It’s difficult for Emery. He does not want to undermine his goalkeeper’s obvious strength of character. He clearly feeds off the antagonism, the tension, being the centre of attention. But the end hasn’t justified the means here. The moment Martínez made no attempt to stop Doué’s shot he was in a battle for credibility in a concrete bowl of noisy, crowing Parisians. Then he got done again.
Not that this defeat was solely on Martínez’s shoulders. When Emery made the decision to replace Matty Cash with Disasi at half-time — Cash was on a booking and up against the brilliant Kvaratskhelia and his coach plainly feared finishing with ten men — the die was cast. Disasi can look vulnerable at the best of times, and this was the worst of them. Kvaratskhelia could not have had him for breakfast more comprehensively had he arrived coated in marmalade.
Yet it’s 3-1. No team are entirely out of it at 3-1, going back to their place. The worry is that there was little here to suggest Villa have the beating of PSG, even with the tailwind of the Holte End next Tuesday. Equally, PSG can take close to a week off. The league is won. They are playing for history if they can become the first Ligue 1 team to go the campaign unbeaten, but don’t even have a fixture this weekend. Villa, by contrast, are in the mother of all scraps for a place in next season’s Champions League. Mind, their weekend game is against Southampton, which is as near as any team come to putting their feet up while still having to leave the house.
So they were in containment mode here. Emery is a pragmatist, a coach who plays the percentages. PSG are up there with any team in the competition, having disposed of Liverpool, and Emery set up like a man who knew chasing down a two-goal deficit would be daunting. So that late third from Nuno Mendes was a killer. Yet they’re sill in there, still fighting, still with that puncher’s chance. And maybe Martínez has got it all out of his system now. And if he hasn’t, he should.
