Ederson was a surprise pick for Man City's fifth attempt in the Champions League quarterfinal shoot-out against Real Madrid. Unlike Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic, the Brazilian scored, though it wasn't enough for Pep Guardiola's team to advance.
But why did Ederson get to the ball, let alone for the last strike before sudden-death penalties?
The short answer would Ederson is good at penalties and is unafraid to say so.
Back in 2020, Ederson said: "I don't train much free-kicks. I trained penalties and when I played for Riberao I took some free-kicks but that is in the past now. I am the best penalty taker but I am not chosen to take them!"
Here's a bit of context. In the 2020/21 season, Man City struggled to convert from the stop. Raheem Sterling, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero each missed one that season, and City's penalty success was only 63.6%.
At one point, Pep Guardiola was asked if he should hand the responsibility over to Ederson, who'd already volunteered.
"He [Ederson] is an option because I am pretty sure he's a good taker," said Pep about his goalkeeper. "A penalty taker has to be the personality with huge confidence in himself."
And yet, those remained words and until April 2024, Ederson had never taken a penalty in his professional career.
During a training session before the Champions League final against Chelsea in 2021, Ederson was spotted smashing penalty kicks in with high accuracy. However, the game didn't reach the shoot-out as the Blues won 1-0 in normal time.
Goalkeepers on set-piece duty are an exotic sight in football but notable examples include Rogerio Ceni, Jose Luis Chilavert, Rene Higuita, and Hans-Jörg Butt.
By the way, Ceni and Ederson actually met not long ago, and maybe the highest-scoring goalkeeper in the history of football gave Ederson a few tips on how to approach a penalty:
