Inter Milan Star Admits ‘I Changed Things Up’ With Successful Penalty Vs Arsenal In Champions League | OneFootball

Inter Milan midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu admits that he “changed things up” with his successful penalty against Arsenal.

The Turkish international spoke to InterTV after yesterday’s Champions League victory, via FCInterNews.

In the end, Calhanoglu’s penalty was the difference between Inter and Arsenal yesterday.

The Nerazzurri were awarded a spot kick right at the end of the first half after Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino handled the ball in the area.

And there was certainly no surprise to see Calhanoglu step up to take it.

The former AC Milan and Bayer Leverkusen midfielder is Inter’s first-choice penalty taker.

The 30-year-old has yet to miss a single penalty for the Nerazzurri. This has given the team a real sense of certainty from the spot.

And therefore, it was not surprising to see Calhanoglu score with his effort.

However, it was not quite the way that he usually does.

The reason why Calhanoglu has been so clinical on penalty duty for Inter has been that he virtually ignores the goalkeeper most of the team.

The Turkish international will simply place his effort as far into the top corner as he can with plenty of pace and power. This typically gives the goalkeeper no chance of saving his effort.

But that was not the approach that Calhanoglu opted for against David Raya yesterday.

Inter Penalty Hero Hakan Calhanoglu Confirms “I Changed Things Up” Vs Arsenal

As far as his penalty-taking, Calhanoglu said that “In training I tell the goalkeeper where I’m going to kick it.”

“That way I can see if they can get to it. And often they can’t get to it.”

“I always need to do a perfect job of it,” the Inter midfielder said.

“Today I changed things up,” Calhanoglu confirmed. “Because I saw that the keeper had gone down early.”

Calhanoglu scored his penalty centrally, after Arsenal keeper Raya had already committed to his dive.

“Today I tried to watch him right to the end,” the 30-year-old said. “And then I placed it more lightly.”

“Usually I go for a strong shot into the corner.”

And Calhanoglu also hailed the “Three massively important points.”

“Today wasn’t easy for us,” he added. “Arsenal are a very strong team, they have top players who caused problems for us.”

“But we held onto the result right to the end, and we’re happy to have won.”