Geronimo Rulli saved the last two penalties from Brighton’s Yasin Ayari and Lewis Dunk to send holders Manchester City into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, and his display has raised questions about the place of Gianluigi Donnarumma. Manager Enzo Maresca, however, has no doubt about his number one.
Rulli rejoined the club in the summer from Marseille for a modest £1.7m to serve as back-up to the Italy captain. The 34-year-old made a strong case to challenge for the jersey, diving full stretch to his left in the shootout.
The match finished 2-2 after normal time. City would not have reached a shootout at all had Rulli not made a sensational fingertip save to deny Georginio Rutter in the second half.
Rulli will return to the bench for this weekend’s Premier League game against the same opponents, even though many have questioned Donnarumma’s form in recent weeks.
Asked whether Rulli had put pressure on Donnarumma’s spot, Maresca told BBC Sport: “No, absolutely not from my point of view.
“He is working well but Rulli knows exactly his role, there is no doubt about that. Saturday it will be Gigio plus 10.”
Overall he was good
Rulli is no stranger to being the hero of a penalty shootout. In the 2021 Europa League final, he scored a penalty for Villarreal against Manchester United, then denied David de Gea to decide the marathon shootout and the destiny of the trophy.
If Rulli had not already won over City supporters with that moment against their rivals, he will have strengthened that affection on Wednesday night. He spent the 2016-17 season at City without making a first-team appearance, and he returned to replace James Trafford, who joined Leeds for £45m.
It looks to be a canny piece of business from City.
In the pre-match news conference, Maresca said Rulli was “doing well” and “knows exactly his role” as understudy to Donnarumma, and he repeated that message after the game. Along with Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias, Elliot Anderson and Josko Gvardiol, Donnarumma has been given three days off to “recover the energy”, and Maresca will hope he returns to training this week rejuvenated. Maresca acknowledged that Donnarumma, who was at fault for Aston Villa’s second goal last weekend, has been “making some mistakes”.
“Apart from penalties, overall he was good especially in the build-up,” Maresca said of Rulli. “It was not easy because they are a team that go man to man and are aggressive.
“In the first half, we tried some long solutions with Floyd [Samba] and then in the second half we tried on the floor with Phil [Foden]. He made one good save and was good.”
Big chance for City to go all the way again
Maresca made nine changes to the side that were beaten at Aston Villa on Saturday, and the gamble nearly backfired. City twice fell behind to goals from Malick Yalcouye and Georginio Rutter, but the hosts showed their battling spirit to draw level through Mateo Kovacic and Vitor Reis.
The result extends Maresca’s impressive start as manager. City have lost only against Villa and Paris Saint-Germain, as well as Arsenal in the Community Shield.
Arsenal and Chelsea have both been knocked out of the League Cup, which leaves City to continue their quest to retain the trophy against Bradford in the quarter-finals.
Asked whether it is a big opportunity to go all the way again, Maresca said: “Absolutely.
“It’s a different competition but the ambition has to be the same: this is a new project, new players, a new manager who started three months ago and we need to do our business and that is winning games.”