Defending Villa's Martinez: Marseille keeper Rulli praises his character

Rulli is fully aware of the rivalry between his Argentina teammate and France, but he insists that Martinez is simply misunderstood.

He told L'Equipe: "I am very good friends with him, we have a great relationship, and I understand very well what Dibu provokes in others. But if you really know him, he is a great person, a very good person.

:But that's what he was saying: when it comes to competition, he wants to win and he will do everything possible to beat you. I have my own routine, I would not be able to do what he does before a penalty shootout, not because I don't like it, but because at that moment I think about something else.

"We study penalty shootouts a lot, and before this (World Cup) final too, nothing was down to chance, we had trained a lot."