How many penalties has Morocco goalkeeper Bono saved?

Yassine Bounou has another famous name to add to his list of penalty victims: Kylian Mbappé.

What is Bono’s penalty streak?

The Morocco goalkeeper got the better of France’s captain during their World Cup quarterfinal, diving the right way to save Mbappé’s first-half penalty after the forward had earned the spot kick himself with a clever piece of skill against Noussair Mazraoui. A lengthy VAR review only increased the tension before the attempt, but it made little difference to the man in goal.

Facing Bono from 12 yards has become one of the toughest assignments in international soccer.

Mbappé tried to disguise his finish, but Bounou read it perfectly and made yet another save to extend one of the most remarkable World Cup records ever compiled by a goalkeeper. According to Opta, across the three World Cups in which he has been part of Morocco’s squad – although he did not play at his first tournament – he has now faced nine penalties, including shootouts, and saved four, with three others missing the target. Only two were scored.

José Luis Silva, the former Sevilla goalkeeping coach who worked closely with Bounou in Spain, once explained the secret to his success in an interview with AS: “He scares the players taking them.”

Mbappé is only the latest addition to a growing list of elite players denied by Morocco’s No. 1. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Bono became a national hero when Spain failed to score a single penalty in the decisive shootout of their round-of-16 meeting, with the Moroccan goalkeeper producing two saves as his team reached the quarterfinals for the first time.

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