Bruno Guimaraes is still feeling the pain of his penalty miss for Brazil during this year’s World Cup, saying: ‘It still hurts a lot.’
Brazil took on Norway in the last 16 of the tournament in New Jersey, in front of more than 80,000 fans.
The game was goalless when the South American giants were given the chance to open the scoring from the penalty spot when Kristoffer Ajer hacked down Matheus Cunha.
Guimaraes stepped up to take the spot-kick but it was not a good one and goalkeeper Orjan Nyland turned the effort away after a stuttering run up.
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Erling Haaland would go on to score twice late on, with Neymar’s penalty deep into injury time only a consolation as Norway won 2-1 and went on to face England in the quarter-finals.
Back on international duty with Brazil this month, Guimaraes admits that missing that penalty in July has left a wound that still hurts.
‘It’s a very bad feeling,’ he told a press conference. ‘Missing a penalty is part of football, but you’re never really ready for it to happen.
‘Moving on from what happened, obviously it’s a wound, a scar, it’s very recent, it still hurts me, it still hurts a lot that this happened. But it’s part of football.
‘May I learn from my mistakes. Often you learn from victory, but normally we learn from defeat, from what didn’t work out. I will continue my daily struggle, my dreams… If there’s another penalty and it’s awarded to me, I won’t hide, I’ll take it again a thousand times, because representing this shirt means a lot to me, it’s always been my biggest dream.
‘It wasn’t a good moment, I suffered a lot, but it’s time to move on. You can’t change the past, but you can change the future.’
The summer Arsenal signing dismissed suggestions that Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Jr dodged taking the crunch penalty.
‘After an elimination, you end up seeing a lot of conspiracies about things that don’t make any sense,’ he said. ‘Before the game, we always have our pre-game talk, and the coach decides who will take the penalty.
‘I was the guy chosen to take it. Right then, some players wanted to grab the ball. One player takes it, passes it to another, even trying to fool the goalkeeper. And that’s what happened, nothing out of the ordinary.
‘Vini wasn’t the designated penalty taker. I was the one who should have taken the penalty. I took the penalty, I missed, I could have scored. That’s part of football. We’re sad about the criticism of Vini, but it was my turn to take it.’
The 28-year-old has only just signed for Arsenal and says that is where he is fully focused, but does admit he would like to return to Brazilian club football before his career ends.
‘Yes, I would like to return to Brazil, to play for Vasco [da Gama] or Athletico [Paranaense], teams I have a lot of gratitude for,’ he said.
‘But to be honest, I’m not thinking about that now. I just arrived at Arsenal, so I’m very focused. I want to win a championship there, I want to play, I want to make my mark with this new shirt. But ultimately, the future belongs to God.’