3 weeks ago
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David Raya accepted that the new Premier League ball made it even harder for him to try and save Dominik Szoboszlai's brilliant free-kick on Sunday.
The game between Liverpool and Arsenal looked to be heading for a goalless draw when Szoboszlai stepped up to curl home from around 30 yards out. The Hungarian's brilliant effort couldn't have been placed in a better area of the goal as the ball struck the post before hitting the back of the net.
Few goalkeepers in the world would have been able to keep the ball out of the net, and Raya said that his task was made even harder by the new Premier League ball.
After 25 seasons, Nike was replaced by Puma as the Premier League's ball supplier for this season, and Raya said: "It's just a really good strike, especially with the new balls we still have to adapt, especially the goalkeepers, I think everybody would say the same.
"It's going away from me, so it's a little bit harder to gauge and to get there.
"It's disappointing not to save it and not to help the team in the way of at least getting a point."
Asked if it feels like the new balls are moving differently, Raya said: "They're very different to the Nike balls, so we still have to adapt to it.
"Especially for us, the grip is different, kicking it is different, when they kick it it's different.
"With time we will adapt. We've been playing with the Nike balls for so many years and just changing to Puma now it's different but it's like that for everybody."
Szoboszlai will no doubt be sticking on free-kick duty for some time after his winner against Arsenal, after the Reds' previous free-kick taker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, departed the club at the end of last season to join Real Madrid.
The former RB Leipzig star was asked by Sky Sports whether he knew from the moment he struck the ball that it would end up in the back of Raya's net.
"Well, luckily since we started the season we could practise some free-kicks," Szoboszlai said. "I felt this was a little bit further. I was like, ‘I’ll take a risk.’ I was confident in myself so I tried it. Finally! Long time ago.
"It was a long time ago [I last scored one], when you practise all the time. To be honest, I should mention Trent [Alexander-Arnold] because, as you know, he was taking the free-kicks because obviously he has an unbelievable shot.
"But finally I could have my chance and did it."
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