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Liverpool Goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher Produced The World's First 'Rabona' Penalty Save

Liverpool Goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher Produced The World's First 'Rabona' Penalty Save

Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher denied Norwich's Greek forward Christos Tzolis in unusual fashion.

Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher produced what may well be the world's first 'rabona' penalty save against Norwich on Tuesday night.

The Reds won 3-0 in the Carabao Cup third round at Carrow Road, with Takumi Minamino grabbing a brace either side of a strike from Divock Origi.

Norwich had a golden chance to level matters at the end of the first half when Liverpool's debuting 18-year-old right-back Conor Bradley gave away a penalty after fouling Dimitris Giannoulis inside the penalty area.

Christos Tzolis assumed penalty-taking responsibilities and went down the middle with his effort, but the lack of power meant Kelleher saved it with his outstretched legs.

On first viewing it looked fairly routine, but Liverpool fans have spotted that Kelleher actually made a rabona save.

The rabona, perfected by the likes of Ricardo Quaresma, Erik Lamela and Dimitri Payet, is one of the most beautiful skills in football when done correctly.

Videos show the Irishman saved the ball in very unorthodox fashion, with his legs in a crossing motion after adjusting his feet brilliantly.


We've never seen anything like it before. Colombian Rene Higuita came up with the scorpion kick save and maybe Kelleher too will be a trailblazer.

Kelleher made a total of four saves in the game and kept a clean sheet in the cup tie. His impressive showing came in front of Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny, who was in attendance in East Anglia.

The 22-year-old received huge praise from Jurgen Klopp for his display.

"Caoimhin is a top goalie," Klopp told Sky Sports.

"It was important for him that his international coach can see he is really good.

"We started really well and I liked that - really aggressive, really lively, but then you could see we didn't train because we had to make a lot of decisions really late. The last line and the goalie saved us in these moments with speed, good challenges and stuff like that, so there was not really something in it for Norwich."

On the instinctive stop that denied a Norwich equaliser, Kelleher told the official Liverpool website: "I was just happy to make the save.

"Like you say, it was a moment in the game [when] they were coming back into it. I managed to make the save, it came off my foot and I think Joe made a great block after it as well. It was just a great team performance to keep the clean sheet."

Featured Image Credit: Image: Sky Sports

Topics: Liverpool, Norwich City, Carabao Cup