Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy said he was devastated after missing a last minute penalty that would have earned his side a first win against Lyon in the Champions League.
The Dutchman scored Real’s second goal as they came back from 2-0 down against a Lyon and earned a penalty with time running out. But he missed his third spot kick in five attempts with Coupet palming his effort away.
“The team has a right to be pleased with their performance, but I don’t,” van Nistelrooy said afterwards.
“I’m upset because the team played with a lot of guts and character to get back into the match and then I missed the penalty in the last minute.
“I didn’t hit it well and it isn’t good to be missing so many penalties, but drawing the game after being 2-0 down isn’t a bad result.”
Even if Van Nistelrooy had netted his spot kick Real would still have been in second place in Group E given that they lost 2-0 to Lyon in their opening match.
Real coach admitted that his side had struggled to contain Lyon’s Norwegian striker John Carew.
“Marking Carew is a very difficult task,” said Capello. “I coached him at Roma and I’ve never seen him play like that before. If a scout had come to the match looking for a great player he would have seen one out there tonight.”
