Great initiative to be fair
Brice Samba became the hero of the night at the City Ground on Tuesday night after his penalty shoot-out heroics helped guide Nottingham Forest to the play-off final.
Samba made three penalty saves
Samba saved three spot kicks after the game against Sheffield United went the distance to take Forest to within one game of returning to the Premier League for the first time since 1999.
The first of his two saves came from the very first penalty as he guessed the right way to deny Oliver Norwood from 12 yards out to put the hosts in the driving seat.
He then showed immense bravery by deciding to stay rooted to his spot for the second save, diverting Conor Hourihane's penalty onto the bar.
Finally his third, and ultimately the match-winning stop, saw him keep out Morgan Gibbs-White, sparking pandemonium in the East Midlands.
https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1526677645232152577
Samba had also earned plaudits for two incredible saves in the first and second half but in amongst the celebrations, one fan managed to obtain the keeper's water bottle which revealed some interesting details.
Throughout the penalties, people observed that Samba continuously checked his water bottle, which was wrapped round in a red towel. It later became apparent that he had notes about each of the Blades' penalty takers.
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Steve Cooper praised his goalkeeper for sticking to the plan
Stating which way they would go, the goalkeeper did extremely well to keep it away from the public eye and his manager Steve Cooper praised him for following the plan perfectly.
"Brice deserves the headlines. Amazing," he said.
"He was ready. We were ready. He's delivered the plan perfectly.
"He deserves all the accolades he's going to get, and he'll certainly get them from the rest of the team. But he'll be the first one to say it's about the team as well.
"They were great saves. Brilliant. Let's not lose sight of his saves during the game, too. They were great saves.
"It's his job, don't get me wrong. But he had a particularly good night.
"We had a plan for everything. I don't want to speak about it too much, because we've got another game to go. But we were ready."
Forest will play Huddersfield Town in the play-off final on Sunday May 29.
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