EUROPA LEAGUE
Santi Giménez ends goal drought in Feyenoord’s Europa League defeat to Roma: why didn’t he take a penalty?
The former Cruz Azul striker scored his first goal in almost six weeks but wasn’t involved in the decisive shootout in Rome.
Mexico striker Santi Giménez’s name was on everyone’s lips in the first few months of the season, in which he couldn’t stop scoring for Feyenoord. The former Cruz Azul star, however, has gone through something of a goal drought, in relative terms, since the turn of the year, which he ended in Thursday’s Europa League defeat to Roma.
Real Madrid and Barça links after Giménez’s early-season scoring exploits
After failing to score in the Dutch champions’ first league game of the season against Fortuna Sittard, the 22 year old went on an incredible goalscoring run in both the Eredivisie and the Champions League. Giménez scored 15 goals in nine successive matches (eight in the Dutch league and one in Europe), which included a hat-trick away to Ajax and a double on his UCL debut at home to Lazio.
As a result of his exploits, a whole host of top clubs, from Chelsea to Tottenham to Real Madrid to Barcelona were linked with a move for the Mexican, who ultimately stayed put in the January transfer window.
Giménez ends lean spell but replaced at crucial moment in Rome
After five more league goals at the end of November and the start of December, the striker went through a rather less productive spell in front of goal, scoring just once in 11 matches in all competitions between 7 December and Thursday (22 February), when opened the scoring against Roma in Italy.
Giménez hadn’t found the net in seven games across almost six weeks until his unorthodox strike at Stadio Olimpico, nudging the ball into the net with his shoulder - a VAR check validated the goal - after only five minutes. Unfortunately for Feyenoord and the Mexican, there wouldn’t be a happy ending.
Lorenzo Pellegrini quickly levelled the match and the tie, and Giménez was replaced by fellow striker Ayase Ueda with 12 minutes of normal time remaining, which raised eyebrows on social media, with only one goal needed to send the Dutch side through to the round of 16. With no further scoring, the tie went to penalties, with the attacker, who didn’t appear to have picked up an injury, forced to watch on powerlessly as his teammates were beaten in the cruellest of fashions from the spot.