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The stick of Pinilla, that hazardous action that saved Brazil from a premature elimination in the 2014 World Cup against the Chilean team most winner in history, it continues to spin in the head of its protagonist. And of all the fans.
Mauricio Pinilla From time to time he takes up the memory of June 28 of that year at Mineirão, although each time he adds new details that give him touches of legend, as he did in the interview that the attacker gave Cristián Sánchez via Instagram.
“It was a kickoff from Claudio Bravo. Luiz Gustavo is going to pressure me to jump to head with me. I hit him a bit, I control the ball with my right foot, I am just forward. I see Alexis (Sánchez), he takes it. I give, I make a wall and he gives it back. Thiago Silva goes to score me, I take it off with my arm, I make just enough space to finish it off and there I hit him and … “, recalls Pinigol.
Reflection on the ball also has its place. “The ball we played with in the World Cup always had very strange trajectories. It literally vibrated. And I expected the ball to go down. And I expected it to go down. I gave it a lot of strength, because I knew that that ball could go down and not. The ball he did not make any trajectory, he continued like that uuuuh, right up to the stick “, he describes.
Pinilla: We could reach the World Cup final
The former goalscorer from Universidad de Chile has the vivid image of those minutes, just before the end of extra time and the game was resolved with kicks from the penalty spot, in which Chile suffered the defeat.
“He felt on the court, boom! How the shots to the sticks sound and then Huaso (Mauricio) Isla has left to the right. At 30 seconds the game ends and we could not believe it. Emotionally we were super affected,” he acknowledges Pinilla.
Mauricio Pinilla wrote a legend with the stick that hit Brazil and saved them from being eliminated at the 2014 World Cup. Photo: Agencia Uno
“But not because we were eliminated, but because we knew that we could go to the bottom. That we could go all the way. That was our possibility. The team was incredible, physically, soccer, mentally,” he reflects.
“We knew we were going for everything and unfortunately Brazil was our turn once again. We know that Brazil was not the best, but if you saw the names it would be a great team. They did not play collectively like other Brazilian teams and we knew we could reach the final. That was what affected us the most in our heads “, assumes the retired attacker.
The Pinilla stick is a legend in the history of the Chilean national team and Pinigol always has something new to tell. Photo: Getty Images
The illusion was shattered. “Imagine, I spent almost five days without being able to sleep, it was very difficult. On the court, at the moment you don’t realize it, because the game continues, penalties come. But at night you take the weight you could. have happened, “he explains.
“It was tough because the whole panorama opened up for us and we have that little thorn of believing that we could reach a final, because we had already faced Germany in a warm-up friendly. A few months before we played them an impressive game: we lost 1-0 but they won. we hit the stick four times, the team knew they could beat anyone and compete “, completes the former player from Chievo Verona, Atalanta, Genoa, Cagliari and Palermo.
