Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Paul Izzo came up huge for his team against Newcastle Jets on Saturday afternoon as he saved not one but two penalties in the same passage of play.
Victory were leading 1-0 at McDonald Jones Stadium when Damien Da Silva was deemed to have handled the ball in the box, sending Apostolos Stamatelopoulos to the penalty spot with a chance to level up the scores.
Instead, he was denied by an incredible sprawling save from Izzo, who launched to his left to keep the ball out.
However, the drama did not end there, as replays showed the Victory goalkeeper had left his line early, leading to a re-take being awarded.
Stamatelopoulos stepped up again, opting to send his strike towards the other side of the goal and incredibly, Izzo read it and got down low to pull off a second penalty save in as many minutes to complete an extraordinary few minutes in Newcastle.
“Izzo has stayed behind his line this time, picked the right way and that was nowhere near the side netting… and Paul Izzo comes out king of the mind games,” said Paramount+ commentator and former Isuzu UTE A-League boss Phil Moss.
“Stamatelopoulos… gee whiz, the season he is having… you’d put your house on the fact he was going to find the back of the net at least one out of two times. Not to be. Credit Paul Izzo.”
His co-commentator Ben Homer added: “That is quite brilliant goalkeeping. He probably should get a couple of saves in the statistics for that!
“You just wonder what impact that has on both of these sides, Victory dodging a massive bullet, Newcastle giving up a golden opportunity to make it 1-1.”
