When the vital semi final of the FIFA Confederations Cup between the reigning European Champions and South American Champions went down to penalties, the stage was set for the man who wears the iconic number 7 for Portugal to score the decisive penalty and perform a celebration which we are getting used to, over the years. However, fate had other ideas as the opposition captain, ripped apart with criticisms after a pathetic season in club football, took the matter into his own hands as he saved a hattrick of penalties to send Chile into their third major final in three years and making Cristiano Ronaldo look like a mere spectator.
Bravo, a man who denied two of the greatest players of this generation from international glory in the last three years, is it possible to label the achievement as a fluke and forget about his gigantic presence? Due credit should be given to the Barcelona management who bought the shot stopper from Real Sociedad back in 2014 after a decent showing in the World Cup, the Chilean proved his haters wrong as he conceded only 19 times out of the 37 matches he featured for the Catalan outfit, en route to win the Zamora Trophy. Bravo also created a la liga record by not conceding a goal for a whopping 754 minutes during the start of the 2014/15 season, which laid the foundation for the league triumph. Then, he led his country to their first ever international trophy as Chile won the 2015 Copa America in home soil and Bravo emerged as the best keeper of the tournament with four clean sheets and a vital shootout save of Ever Banega in the final. Both Chile and Bravo retained their awards in the 2016 Copa America Centenario as Chile successfully defended the title by once again beating Argentina in the finals and Bravo saved yet another vital penalty in the shootout, this time off Lucas Biglia.
However, it wasn’t a cakewalk for Bravo in club level as he was transferred to Manchester City as Barcelona kept faith on young hands of Marc Andre Ter Stegen. He had a poor outing with the Manchester outfit, making a mistake in his debut match from which Manchester United got the lead in the Manchester Derby, and getting controversially sent off against his former club Barcelona in the Champions league. He was then subjected to a second choice role as Willy Caballero was preferred ahead of him in majority of the matches last season. However, as they say, Champions save their best for the grandest stage and proves their critics wrong, Bravo, alongside a rejuvenated Chilean side pulled off a towering display against Portugal as he pulled out an outstanding save of Andre Silva, which denied the European Champions an early lead and finally in his favourite graveyard, he annihilated Portugal with three back to back penalty saves during the shootout.
Years after years, two of the greatest players of this generation, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo tries their best to replicate the success ratio they’ve had in the club level as they thrive for international glory, and finally a David named Claudio Bravo comes out of the syllabus who pounces onto Goliath and ends the cheesy fairytale dreams in a destructive manner. This has been the story since 2015, it is too be seen that if both Ronaldo and Messi can break the “Bravo Curse” at the grandest stage of them all in Russia next year. Till then, story of the lion-hearted Chilean will remain in our memories, maybe forever.