'He knows his role' - Rulli provides heroics but no worries for Donnarumma

Published5 hours ago

Geronimo Rulli's penalty shootout heroics against Brighton in the Carabao Cup may have some questioning Gianluigi Donnarumma's spot at Manchester City, but manager Enzo Maresca has no doubt about his number one.

Rulli returned to the club in the summer from Marseille for a modest £1.7m to feature as a back-up to the Italy captain, but seemed to press his claims to challenge the jersey with an impressive display.

The 34-year-old dived full stretch to his left to save the last two penalties from Brighton's Yasin Ayari and Lewis Dunk to allow holders City to progress to the quarter-finals of the competition.

The match had ended 2-2 in normal time and would not have gone all the way had Rulli not made a sensational fingertip save to deny Georginio Rutter in the second half.

Veteran Rulli will be back on the bench though for this weekend's Premier League game against the same opposition - despite Donnarumma's form being questioned by many in recent weeks.

When asked if Rulli had put pressure on Donnarumma's spot, Maresca told BBC Sport: "No, absolutely not from my point of view.

"He is working well but Rulli knows exactly his role, there is no doubt about that. Saturday it will be Gigio plus 10."

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'Overall he was good'

Rulli is no stranger to being the hero in a penalty shootout.

In the 2021 Europa League final, he famously scored a penalty for Villarreal against Manchester United, before denying opposite number David de Gea to decide the marathon shootout and the destiny of the trophy.

If Rulli had not already ingratiated himself to City supporters with that moment against their rivals, then he will have rubberstamped the affection on Wednesday night.

The goalkeeper had spent the 2016-17 season at City without making a first-team appearance and returned to the club to replace James Trafford after the England international moved to Leeds for £45m.

It looks to be a canny piece of business from City.

In the pre-match news conference, Maresca said Rulli was "doing well" and "knows exactly his role" as understudy to Donnarumma, and that message was re-iterated after the game.

Along with Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias, Elliot Anderson and Josko Gvardiol, Italian Donnarumma has been given three days off to "recover the energy" and Maresca will be hoping he returns to training this week rejuvenated.

Donnarumma was at fault for Aston Villa's second goal last weekend and Maresca acknowledged he has been "making some mistakes".

"Apart from penalties, overall he was good especially in the build-up," Maresca said of Rulli. "It was not easy because they are a team that go man to man and are aggressive.

"In the first half, we tried some long solutions with Floyd [Samba] and then in the second half we tried on the floor with Phil [Foden]. He made one good save and was good."

Big chance for City to go all the way again

Maresca shook up his starting line-up by making nine changes to the side that were beaten at Aston Villa on Saturday and it almost backfired.

City had twice fallen behind to goals from Malick Yalcouye and Georginio Rutter, but the hosts showed their battling spirit to draw level through Mateo Kovavic and Vitor Reis.

But the result continues Maresca's impressive start as manager, losing only against Villa and Paris St-Germain, as well as Arsenal in the Community Shield.

The Gunners were knocked out of the League Cup and so were Chelsea which means City will continue their quest to retain their trophy, coming up against Bradford in the quarter-finals.

Asked if it a big opportunity to go all the way again, Maresca said: "Absolutely.

"It's a different competition but the ambition has to be the same: this is a new project, new players, a new manager who started three months ago and we need to do our business and that is winning games.

"At the moment we are doing that."

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