Home » Pascal Chimbonda Reveals Who Bottled Taking Penalties In Spurs’ 2008 UEFA Cup Heartbreak

Pascal Chimbonda Reveals Who Bottled Taking Penalties In Spurs’ 2008 UEFA Cup Heartbreak

By Joe Fish -

Every penalty shootout has a hero and a villain.

In 2008 when Tottenham faced PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Cup last 16, the hero was Heurelho Gomes, in goal for PSV before his move to Spurs.

The villain, or at least one of them, was Pascal Chimbonda, who missed the 14th kick of the shootout to give the Dutch side victory, after Jermaine Jenas had earlier squandered a chance to send us into the quarter-finals.

But Chimbonda should never have been on the spot. In a career retrospective with The Athletic this week, the former Spurs defender revealed that he only volunteered after Steed Malbranque and our own goalkeeper, Paul Robinson, had refused to step up.

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Chimbonda recalled to The Athletic’s Charlie Eccleshare: “I was one of the last ones but it should have been Malbranque because I am not a penalty taker. He said, ‘No I don’t go’, and Paul Robinson as well had a good shot so he said, ‘Paul you go’. Paul said no, so I said, ‘OK, I go.’ It was meant to be Malbranque then Robinson, but I got the balls so I just went. And wow, seeing Gomes inside the goal — he’s tall, and looked massive.

“I was so sad when I missed, I covered my head with my shirt. I don’t cry, I keep everything inside, but that was tough. And in the changing room, everyone had their head down, no one said anything. Next day they killed me in the papers and I thought it should be Malbranque, not me!”

There would have been no expectation on Robinson to take a penalty, but Malbranque on the other hand was a regular from 12 yards at previous clubs! According to transfermarkt.com, he had a record of converting 12 out of 14 prior to the PSV game, including two against Spurs while at Fulham.

Chimbonda is right; it should have been Steed. Oh, it should have been Steed.

Tags NewsNow Pascal Chimbonda Pascal Chimbonda interview 2020 Paul Robinson Steed Malbranque
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Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago

We gonna bring in some more than capable players in for free and reduced prices this window. I’m expecting/hoping a good few of pochs lot get moved out. Verts. Dire Foyth Davies (Davies won’t be going, loser poch gave him a 5 year contract. (He’ll sit on that coz no top club will come in for him, thats coz hes rubbish) with Jose’s players. Preseason. Winning mentally will be properly installed. Oh. Hugo can go too if a better replacement can be found. The ghost of no experience of winning poch finally gone. I said 2122 season Tottenham gonna start to dominate consistently .(probably 22/23) I said we’ll win a big double within 5years at the new lane (probably six) but single cups will come before then. THFC the original giants gonna return with an arrogant flamboyant swagger. Yes this covid 19 will’ve set us back slightly but nothing we can’t overcome. We are TOTTENHAM. Big recession coming and we’ll get through that too. SoulJAHspur. Spurs go marching ON ON ON🌚

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago

Pascal earned his corn at spurs.

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