Anatoliy Trubin’s mother does not watch football but she checks the results. Some time after Benfica’s win over Real Madrid, there it was. Trubin 90+8. “She was thinking maybe she was being stupid or something,” Trubin tells Sky Sports. “It was a funny moment.”
It is just one memory among many for the 24-year-old Ukrainian goalkeeper who provided one of the great Champions League stories by heading Benfica into the knockout stages with a stoppage-time goal against the 15-time champions of Europe.
Did the events of that evening in Lisbon change his life? “I think so,” he agrees. Even now, four months on from those wild scenes inside the Estadio da Luz, the goalscoring goalkeeper receives regular messages about it. “Barcelona fans with funny comments.”
Anatoliy Trubin scored a goal for the ages when he netted for Benfica against Real Madrid
But there were lessons too. Thibaut Courtois’ sportsmanship that night has stayed with him. “He came up to congratulate me right after the game. That was a huge moment for me. Even when his team had lost the game, he still had the strength to do that.”
Courtois is a favourite of Trubin’s. “We are kind of a similar height and everything.” He picks out Barcelona’s Joan Garcia as another goalkeeper he admires. But he stops short of calling them role models. “I am Anatoliy Trubin. I have my own way, my own style.”
That is the message now. There is more to Trubin. Speaking to him now his season is over, it is a chance to reflect on a campaign marked by highs and lows – perhaps best summed up by the fact that Madrid knocked Benfica out of Europe a few weeks later.
It was a year in which Trubin technically became an ‘invincible’ with Benfica. They did not lose a league game all season, the first time the club had done that since 1978. But they still finished third under Jose Mourinho. Nobody at Benfica is celebrating that.
“Not losing and winning are two different things,” says Trubin. “Not losing is not enough for a huge club like Benfica. Our fans do not accept any other result than winning and being in first place.” It was the 11 draws that cost them. “We need to be much better.”
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The Soccer Special panel react to Anatoliy Trubin’s dramatic goal for Benfica
But Trubin is improving. Ironically, given that his most famous moment saw him careering around the pitch in confused ecstasy, he points to his calmness as his key trait now. “I like that in difficult moments, I can still keep a cold head,” he explains.
“I have more experience now. In moments where I made a mistake, I did not give up. I just continued to play. You never know when the next moment is coming and you need to be ready. I think that is one of the most important elements of being a good goalkeeper.
“You know that you can be a hero and then you can be the worst person on the planet. And that is in one game. So you need to always focus on the next action. It does not matter whether you made an amazing save or a made a mistake, you go to the next one.”
Mourinho knows exactly what to say
He credits Mourinho for adding elements to his game. “I am very lucky to have had the chance to work with one of the best coaches in history.” In another twist, Mourinho is set to move to Real Madrid himself. But not before leaving his own mark on Trubin.
Anatoliy Trubin has learned a lot from working with Jose Mourinho at Benfica
“I really like that he does not talk too much but knows exactly what he needs to say to every player in every moment. Just a few sentences, right to the point.” So, what were the words that Mourinho offered Trubin that he will take with him into next season?
“That I need to communicate more, demand more from the team. He told me that I see a lot but I am the kind of person who keeps things inside. He wants me to organise the defence better. And I agree with him. It is not just about my skills on the pitch.”
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Pep Guardiola spoke about Benfica’s shock win over Real Madrid
If Mourinho stands out for his psychology, it is another coach who has made the biggest impact in terms of how the game is played. Initially, Trubin just smiles at the mention of Roberto De Zerbi. “I can say one word about him. Crazy. But he is crazy about football.”
De Zerbi opened my eyes
As it turns out, Trubin can say rather more about the man who helped develop his game during their time together at Shakhtar Donetsk. “He opened my eyes to another way of playing football for me, even as a goalkeeper.” But what makes De Zerbi so different?
“I remember one situation where I played a good ball but it was not the way how we needed to do it and he screamed a lot,” Trubin, who was then just 20, explains. “He wants everyone to know their role, how we need to play, one idea for the whole team.”
“Sometimes with my friends who also worked with him at Shakhtar, we still wonder how we could play football before him because he opened up a new way of playing. And you can see now the spirit, the encouragement, the energy that he demands. It is amazing.”
Roberto De Zerbi pictured during his time in charge of Shakhtar Donetsk
A reunion with De Zerbi is something he would welcome one day. “He could still teach me a lot.” But Trubin will not have to wait too long to meet up with some of his pals from Shakhtar. He is about to return to Ukraine for a training camp with the national team.
It will be the first time they have done that in a long time given the conflict in the country. Trubin himself has not seen his own family on home soil for three years now. “We really want to start playing our games in Ukraine again. It will be something unbelievable.”
Does it worry him that the eyes of the world are often elsewhere? “I cannot judge others because they have their own lives and problems, so it is not always possible to think about Ukraine. But the war goes on. Drones at night, alarms, everything. It is difficult.”
It is forever in his thoughts, helped by his wife gifted him pictures of Donetsk and Kyiv for the walls of their home. “A small piece of Ukraine. I have my dream to play in the Donbass Arena, a full stadium of our people singing our anthem. That would be special.”
For now, his club career is in Lisbon. “Ten months of sun. It is perfect.” But who knows where football will take him. England? “There is no young player in the world who does not want to play in the Premier League. But I must keep working hard to get better.”
Of course, whatever he goes on to do in the game, Anatoliy Trubin is well aware that there is one moment that he will always be asked about. He can smile at the thought. “All the people I meet, do you know what they say to me? ‘When are you going to score again?'”
