Dundee United’s Rado Cierzniak has revealed that his penalty shoot-out heroics against Hibs were inspired by thoughts of his five-month-old daughter Nella.
The big Polish keeper helped the Tangerines make it through to the semi-finals of the League Cup in a match of high drama on Wednesday night at Easter Road against Hibs.
With the scores level at 3-3 at the end of normal and extra time, the game was decided on penalties with Cierzniak pulling off the crucial sudden-death save when he dived high to make a superb left-handed stop from David Gray’s well-struck spot-kick to send the United players, management and fans into ecstasy.
The moment was extra special for Cierzniak and he hopes in the future it will be something his daughter can savour when she sees the DVD of the save her dad dedicated to her.
He said: “Of course I was dancing around on the goal line, trying to put the Hibs players off. Every goalkeeper does this. You have to try something.
“To be honest, I was upset with myself because, all the time, I seemed to be choosing the wrong way.
“How many penalties did I face before I saved one? Five, six, seven?
“So I told myself: ‘Come on, I have to help my team. I have to do this for myself’.
“For the last penalty, I thought about my daughter, Nella. She is just five months old, my first child.
“I said: ‘OK, I have to make one more save for Nella’. She is very special to me, so I wanted to do something for her.
“Everything I do is for her and, hopefully, she will be able to watch video of this in the future and I’ll tell her I was thinking of her when I made the last save.”
Both sides initially looked like they would not miss a spot-kick all evening long with Hibs and United each converting their first six.
Cierzniak revealed that penalties are practised often at the Tangerines’ St Andrews training ground ironically, though, they didn’t do that in the build-up to the quarter-final tie.
He added: “We practise penalties a lot. All the time. We have penalty competitions to see who buys the coffees. It’s a very good laugh, with a serious side, because you know it can come in handy.
“Last week though, we actually didn’t practice. We were too busy with a lot of other things. But we do practise them a lot and I think, as a goalkeeper, it’s very helpful.
“I have to thank the players and the staff for helping me practise.
“I don’t have to buy the coffees very often, actually. Sometimes I have to but I like to win! I just have to thank the team, because they give me such confidence that I felt very calm when it came to the shoot-out.
“I never study opponents’ penalties before games. It wouldn’t help much in a shoot-out, when you are facing so many.
“I knew a few Hibs players from last season but, to be honest, I didn’t expect the game to go to extra time and penalties.
“In a shoot-out, or even when practising, I think it’s about what you feel on the line. How you feel the guy is going to shoot it.
“It was a very busy night. The first thing I have to say is that Hibs played very, very well. Both teams tried to play football and Hibs should be very proud of how they performed.
“But I am really proud we made it into the semi-finals, of course.”
United will be in the hat when the last-four draw is made on Saturday evening and Cierzniak admitted he would like nothing better than to play against one of the Glasgow sides.
He added: “For our team, for our club, it’s going to be a good experience for some of the younger guys. We hope to win and then go to the final.
“I’ll be honest, I would like to play against Celtic or maybe Rangers. I like the big games.
“But I really don’t care. We’ll have to play very well to beat anyone left in the draw, Aberdeen are a very good team.
“We have confidence, though. So, if we play well, I don’t care who we play against.”