Former Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea has joked that Antony never scored a goal against him with his right foot during training, after the Brazilian’s stunning strike on Thursday night.
De Gea is now playing his football for Fiorentina, who came unstuck 2-1 against Antony’s Real Betis in the first leg of the semi-final of the Conference League.
The 25-year-old winger has been in impressive form since moving to Spain and he has been a real catalyst for Betis’ rise up the table and proximity to the Conference League final.
His fine form has seen him linked to the likes of Atletico Madrid in the summer.
Antony kept up his renaissance in Andalusia with a wonderful strike with his weaker right foot to give his team a 2-0 lead on the night.
The Brazilian was frequently accused of being too one-footed during his time at Old Trafford and would seemingly try to avoid using his right foot at all times.
Nonetheless, his willingness to take on the effort highlights his rocketing self-belief while in a green and white shirt.
Speaking after the game, his former teammate during the 2022-2023 season joked that we witnessed a rare event during the match.
In comments carried by Tribal Football, De Gea claimed “he’s (Antony) in very good shape, he has a brutal one-on-one style, with confidence; when a player is confident, it shows how good he is.”
He also added how surprised he was by the Brazil international’s goal by stating, “he had a great game and a great goal. I didn’t see it come out, there was a player in front of him and I couldn’t see it.”
The Spanish keeper joked that “I’ve trained with him a thousand times and he hasn’t scored a single goal with his right foot in any training session.”
De Gea then commented on how happy he was for him after all his struggles in Manchester.
In his 48 career goals, Antony has in fact only ever scored six with his right foot with the vast majority coming from his significantly stronger left foot.
Featured image Simone Arveda via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
