Panenka was planned says Celtic's penalty taker Josep Juranovic

Celtic defender Josip Juranovic has revealed that it was no spur-of-the-moment decision to produce Panenka-style penalty with which the Croatian netted in last Thursday’s 3-2 defeat away to Bayer Leverkusen.

Croatian defender Josip Juranovic clips his Panenka-style penalty in off the crossbar against Bayer 04 Leverkusen. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)

Instead, the plan to do so was hatched over dinner with his team-mate Joe Hart a fortnight earlier.

And Juranovic downplays the audaciousness involved in adopting such a high-risk strategy from the spot – rewarded with the 26-year-old effectively chipping the ball off the underside of the bar. It extended his 100% career record from the spot, in marked his third such conversion in Celtic colours, but the £2.5m summer signing from Legia Warsaw is circumspect about being handed the duty should Ange Postecoglou’s men win a penalty against Hearts.

“The [Panenka] is just a penalty, it’s nothing special,” Juranovic said. “I decided before the whistle of the referee what I would do. I decided in my head that I would take a Panenka penalty.

“I was speaking with Joe Hart maybe two weeks over dinner and told him I would do it next time I had the chance. The chance came up in Germany and I took it. Joe was like, ‘ah, you came up with a big performance...’ [But] it’s up to the coach who takes the penalties. If he decides to give the responsibility to someone else I will respect that. That’s it.”

Meanwhile Ange Postecoglou has railed against suggestion from Australia coach Graham Arnold that he was ‘forced out’ of his post in charge of the Socceroos in 2017 after qualifying for the World Cup.

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