Arsenal goalkeeper Karl Hein earned praise from his manager and an 8/10 match rating after the Premier League prospect saved a penalty during Estonia’s 1-0 friendly defeat to Hungary on Thursday night.
At the age of just 20, Hein is already a regular on the international scene. Thursday’s outing at the Puskas Arena was his 18th appearance between the sticks for Estonia, and the talented shot-stopper marked it with a superb penalty save from the much-admired Roland Sallai.
“We need a strong goalkeeper. Of course, the others are also strong, but today Hein made great saves and he is our number one,” Estonia coach Thomas Haberli tells Soccernet, pleased with his charges following a narrow defeat to a team who put four past England last year.
“I am satisfied with quite a few of the men.”
Arsenal have an exciting young goalkeeper in Karl Hein
Hein, who joined Arsenal back in 2018 and had a short-lived loan spell at Reading last season, was recently handed a first-team berth under Gunners boss Mikel Arteta. Arsenal’s number 31 made his senior bow during the 3-1 EFL Cup defeat by Brighton.
He has also been included in the matchday squad on a further eight occasions throughout 2022/23, including once in the Premier League.
And Hein’s ‘8/10’ display against Hungary will give his hopes of further opportunities no harm.
Read Related Also: 'Not happened': Ian Wright says player Celtic sold is struggling in the Premier League
“At the beginning of the game, he made several good interventions,” Soccernet write.
“In the second half, he showed a real level of excellence. Very good at blocking long shots and a real king at saving penalties. In the grand scheme of things, his performance created confidence. The question marks related to the lack of playing time disappeared.”
Hein, meanwhile, put his penalty save down to good old fashioned hard-work.
“A good job in the goalkeeping department. We did enough homework!” Hein adds. “I went to the right side and was able to save.
“A 1-0 loss, you must be disappointed. But it was really a new start, new players together. We can do some small details better. But I believe that we can be satisfied with both the defensive game and the whole game. It was a big step forward towards the modern style of football.”
In other news, Report: Daniel Levy now prefers ‘brilliant manager’ over Postecoglou for Tottenham job
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,script’,
‘
fbq(‘init’, ‘677672980820926’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
