Mario Gomez revealed he felt Petr Cech had read his mind during the Champions League final penalty shootout.
Bayern Munich were on home turf in 2012 as they welcomed Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea to the Allianz Arena in search of their fifth Champions League win.
The Blues meanwhile were in search of their first, but looked to heading home empty-handed when Thomas Muller fired Bayern in front after 83 minutes.
Chelsea responded promptly through Didier Drogba who struck back just two minutes before the end of the ninety to send the game through to extra-time.
After neither side was able to take the lead in the additional half hour, the game went to penalties with Juan Mata missing Chelsea’s first spot kick.
Mario Gomez reflected on facing off against Petr Cech in the 2012 Champions League final
The former Bayern Munich star revealed he felt Cech had read his mind during the penalty shootout
Reminiscing about the final for the club’s Generation Wembley documentary on Amazon Prime Video, Gomez revealed he had changed his mind on where he would aim his shot just seconds before taking the penalty.
‘Then I put the ball down and look at Petr Cech, who’s standing there and was a monster,’ He said.
‘On the way to the ball I changed my mind and went to the other corner.’
Gomez ultimately fired his shot to Cech’s left, narrowly sliding the ball beyond the Czech goalkeeper’s grasp.
Cech would go on to make two saves during the shootout, denying both Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger from twelve yards and diving the correct way for all five of Bayern’s penalties.
‘The mad thing about the story is afterwards I had doping control,’ Gomez continued.
‘Petr Cech is sitting with me at doping control. He’s completely shy, reserved, and eventually he says to me, “Hey what was with the penalty?” I look at him and say “eh?”
‘Then he says to me, “You wanted to shoot towards the other corner first, you totally confused me. I knew you were going for the other corner.”
While Gomez would convert his spot kick, Cech would make two saves as Chelsea triumphed in Munich
Gomez called the former Chelsea and Arsenal goalkeeper a ‘monster’ for his ability to read players’ body language
‘He pretty much said what happened in me. That’s brutal.
‘That made me realise again what a great goalkeeper he is. Who also read the players and the players’ body language.’
Gomez would go on to be part of the Bayern side that triumphed in the following year’s final, appearing as a substitute as Die Roten defeated Borussia Dortmund at Wembley.
