Former Southampton player shone against Liverpool in Champions League

In partnership with

FanSided World Football

·12 December 2024

Former Southampton player shone against Liverpool in Champions League

Former Southampton player Paulo Gazzaniga shone for Girona in their unfortunate Champions League loss against Liverpool on Tuesday night.

Liverpool are performing excellently this season. Southampton fans know all about their winning mentality in the Premier League, considering the Saints came annoyingly close to beating them last month.

OneFootball Videos

However, it is not only domestically where Arne Slot is seeing his formula work. Indeed, in the Champions League, Liverpool have had a perfect start and they are now heavily tipped to finish top of the league phase.

Their perfect start was almost halted by a former Southampton player this week, though.

Former Southampton player shone against Liverpool in Champions League

Former Southampton goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga performed exceptionally well between the sticks as Girona welcomed Liverpool to Estadi Montilivi on Tuesday night.

He failed to keep a clean sheet but he did everything in his power to do so. In fact, it was only a penalty after the hour mark, converted by Mohamed Salah, which left Gazzaniga on the losing team.

As pointed out by TBR Football, there are only four goalkeepers in the Champions League who have made more saves than Gazzaniga.

Girona might not be performing the best in the Champions League but let's not undermine them. The very fact that they are in the Champions League is incredible and Paulo Gazzaniga is doing everything in his power to keep them there.

As per FotMob, Paulo Gazzaniga made an impressive six saves in the Champions League night. He was faced with 1.54 xGOT (expected goals on target), meaning he prevented 0.54 xGOT.

Since leaving Southampton in 2017, it has taken Gazzaniga a few years to find his feet. He was the backup option for Tottenham Hotspur for some years, he then moved to Fulham. However, it is outside of the Premier League with Girona where he has really begun to make a name for himself.