Liverpool legend can’t understand major rule change and responds to being called a ‘jackass’ by Andrea Pirlo

Liverpool legend fails to understand big rule change and reacts to Andrea Pirlo calling him a ‘bastard’

EXCLUSIVE: Jerzy Dudek has his say on new penalty shoot-out rules that would have been bad news for him in Istanbul, revealing all about Liverpool’s famous shoot-out win against AC Milan

Jerzy Dudek admitted he doesn’t understand why the board of the International Football Federation restricts the ability of goalkeepers when penalized.

After Emiliano Martinez’s antics on his way to winning the World Cup in Qatar last year, the IFAB has decided to introduce a series of rule changes for next season which spell out clearly what a goalkeeper can and cannot do. defending a penalty kick from 12 metres.

As set out in the amendments to the IFAB Legislative Report 2023/24, Article 14 “The penalty kick” reads: “Clarification that the goalkeeper must not behave in a way that disrespects the game and the opponent, for example by kicking the ball incorrectly to distract the player.”

Further clarification of the modified rule reads: “The defending goalkeeper must remain on the goal line, facing the kicker, between the goal posts, without touching the goal posts, the crossbar or the goal, until the ball is kicked. The goalkeeper may not behave in a way that unfairly distracts the player, for example by delaying the kick or by touching the posts, crossbar or goal.”

Had those rules been in place since 2005, it would have been bad news for Liverpool and Dudek after the Polish goalkeeper famously did his best to scare the AC Milan players in the Reds’ shoot-out victory. Such tactics included “spaghetti legs”, jumping over his goal line and then moving forward from his line

Serginho would concede AC Milan’s first penalty, while Dudek would save from both Andrea Pirlo and Andriy Shevchenko as Liverpool lifted the European Cup for a fifth time in Istanbul. And ahead of facing Celtic for Liverpool Legends, Dudek shared his confusion as he reacted to rule changes that would ban such antics.

“No more? I don’t understand why, he said in an exclusive interview with ECHO. The goalkeeper must move!”

“I think they move to Block every year, but the goalkeepers react well to the new rules all the time. You can see how many penalties goalkeepers save now, at the World Cup for example, it’s unbelievable. Very good work

Dudek’s talent was that Istanbul was reminiscent of Bruce Grobbelaar’s ‘spaghetti legs’ when Liverpool beat AS Roma in 1984 when they won the European Cup on penalties. Meanwhile, it was Reds legend Jamie Carragher who encouraged the Pole to do his best to distract the Italians.

But while such behavior seemed allowed at the time, the shooter revealed how much work he did regarding potential penalty takers for AC Milan in the days leading up to the 2005 Champions League final.

“I just used my mind to stop penalties, it was a lot of fun,” he said. “I did a lot of homework to save.

“I’ve seen maybe 100 penalties from AC Milan players, going back to the Champions League final played against Juventus in Manchester. I have more or less seen them all.

“I had an idea (where they would go) and we worked very hard with goalkeeping coach Jose Ochtorena. You can imagine how much the players like to take a penalty. It helps if you need to block them.

“I was then inspired by Carragher. He ran up to me before the penalty shootout and told me to push a bit.

“I didn’t really know what he meant, but I said okay and started playing a little game with them. Pass the ball to them, look at it and their eyes. I saw that they were all under a lot of pressure.

“The pressure on the penalty taker is always greater than on the goalkeeper. I used that. I saw player after player coming, not really full of confidence. It’s normal, it’s a Champions League final, you know. And we won.

AC Milan legend Pirlo later admitted he even considered retiring after the Istanbul loss after finishing on the losing side despite taking a 3-0 half-time lead, and was in his 2013 autobiography anything but flattering about Dudek.

“I thought about quitting because nothing made sense after Istanbul,” he wrote. “The 2005 Champions League final just suffocated me.

“Most people say the reason we lost on penalties was Jerzy Dudek, that bastard dancer who took the mickey off us by swinging on his line and then rubbed salt into his wounds to save our penalties …

“I could barely sleep and even as I fell asleep, I woke up with a gloomy thought: I’m disgusting. I can’t play anymore. I slept with Dudek and all his Liverpool mates.”

Dudek chuckled when asked about Pirlo’s assessment of him, before insisting that he had never taken the ‘mickey’ away from Milan players and was only focused on winning the European Cup.

“Yes, he said I’m a stupid person?” the Pole asked before letting him read the full quote. “Right now all I can do is smile. But I’ve never fooled anyone.

“I was very serious, shall we say. It may seem like I was dancing, moving around the target, but I’ve never done it out of disrespect to anyone. Sounds like fun, but I’ve never done it to get the Mickey Mouse. I did it to contribute to the victory.