Justin Kluivert reveals practice made perfect for ‘beautiful’ penalty record
The Bournemouth forward became the first player to score a hat-trick of penalties as he fired his side to a 4-2 win at Wolves.
Justin Kluivert reflected on the “beautiful” moment he entered the Premier League record books.
The Bournemouth forward became the first player to score a hat-trick of penalties as he fired his side to a 4-2 win at Wolves.
The Dutchman scored his first two spot-kicks inside the opening 18 minutes, with Milos Kerkez adding a third in a whirlwind first act which also saw Jorgen Strand Larsen score for Wolves.
After Strand Larsen brought it back to 3-2 in the second half, Kluivert completed his historic treble.
“That sounds beautiful. To go in the history books, that’s amazing, super happy with it,” he said.
“I train them [the penalties]. We have a great keeper with Kepa (Arrizabalaga).
“We try some stuff, the first one I stop, and look at the keeper, what is he doing? I switch it up for the second one. Then the third, he doesn’t know what I’m going to do. I waited and he chose for me. Easy as that.
“We have shown we can beat a lot of teams in this league. I am happy.”
Wolves’ afternoon was ruined when they were 3-1 down after only 18 minutes on the clock and they conceded again just minutes after bringing it back to 3-2 in the second half.
Strand Larsen was left scratching his head.
“I’m lost for words, to be honest. A crazy game,” he said on the club’s official website. “We didn’t get the start we wanted and I think this is the real answer of the Premier League.
“I have the feeling that I can’t play any more crazy games than I’ve been doing the first months here.
“Unfortunately, it hasn’t gone our way in those games and we didn’t do it well.
“It’s not what we expected before the game, obviously. We were in good form, I thought we were a bit better than we showed today, but that’s football.
“There will be setbacks. We know Bournemouth are really direct and a strong team. They do what they do very well.
“We managed to come back and we believed, I believed, all of us believed. We had the momentum and then it takes only a few minutes again until that’s dead again.”
