“Brilliant save! You don’t see that often vs Cristiano;” this is among millions of tweets went viral after Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand saved a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo in a 1-1 draw with Portugal on Monday at Russia 2018 Woeld Cup. If you take a little time searching for Alireza Beiranvand’s name in google, you may find […]
“Brilliant save! You don’t see that often vs Cristiano;” this is among millions of tweets went viral after Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand saved a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo in a 1-1 draw with Portugal on Monday at Russia 2018 Woeld Cup.
If you take a little time searching for Alireza Beiranvand’s name in google, you may find lots of comments admiring his play against Portugal: “Iranian goalie has became an overnight star”; “Iran’s goalkeeper went from being homeless to blocking Ronaldo’s penalty kick”; “Cristiano Ronaldo misses the penalty and Messi fans are currently happier than Iran fans”; No one will give the credit to Ali Beiranvand because the penalty is missed by Ronaldo, a brilliant save against a good player.”
I don’t know how many times I have seen that 2 seconds when Beiranvand saved Iran’s net; It looked like the Iranian keeper wanted to live inside that moment where he saved a penalty from Ronaldo for as long as humanly possible and I don’t blame him; “when I saved that penalty, I did not understand anything. It was as if I was dreaming that someone woke me up,” says Beiranvand who is playing in his first World Cup!
“I waited until the last second to stop that penalty and I feel our hard work could have earned us a spot among the last 16 in Russia,” he said. “But I can definitely see that in the future no one will think of us as a surprise. We played hard, we deserved better and people saw that.”
Earlier, Portugal coach Fernando Santos also had called Iran “the best Asian team at the moment,” and said those who think every match in the World Cup would be easy for Portugal are “certainly not on the pitch.”
Everyone in the online world is talking about his past life, the struggles that he had gone through, saying his epic life story could be an inspiration for millions around the globe. Many in the world, especially the Iranians are calling him a champion for what he did against Ronaldo; however when he was asked what he feels now, he smiled and said “actually I am not boastful about saving a penalty kick from Cristiano Ronaldo; I don’t care about that; I fought for my team, for the whole my country, for my nation, not myself; I don’t care about the fame after the penalty save, I only tried to avoid a defeat for my country and nation.”
Yes! Iran lost chance to advance to the Round of 16 and its 2018 World Cup aspirations came to an end with the 1-1 draw to Portugal, however, Iranian team are feeling as though they are going home as a champion; Iran is proud of her sons!
