Moment female footballers are ‘flashed’ by cheeky mascot during penalty shootout

A CHEEKY football mascot used every trick in the book to help their team overcome rivals during a penalty shootout, including “flashing” them.

Hamburg SV and Bayer Leverkusen played out a 1-1 draw in normal time of their DFB-Pokal Women’s last-16 clash on Sunday.

The tie therefore needed to be decided by a penalty shootout in front of almost 4,000 fans at the Volksparkstadion.

Players stepping up to take penalty kicks are no strangers to the antics of fans and even goalkeepers trying to get into their head before the decisive moment.

However, the visiting Leverkusen players were forced to deal with a T-Rex, or rather a mascot of one, who then “flashed” them from behind the goal.

Hamburg’s mascot, named Dino Hermann, “hatched from his egg” in 2003.

And during Sunday’s match Dino pulled out all the stops to try and help Hamburg win.

For the opening Leverkusen spot kick taken by Kristin Kögel, Dino was seen to the side of the goal waving his arms in the air.

That attempt at disruption failed.

But for kick two taken by Julia Mickenhagen, who had scored during the game, Dino changed approach and went up into the vacant stands behind the goal, where he repeatedly lifted up his apron to show off his red underbelly before dancing around and waving his arms once again.

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This time the spot kick was saved by Hamburg goalkeeper Larissa Haidner, to the jubilation of the home crowd.

Dino repeated the trick for Ruby Grant in kick three, but the former Arsenal and West Ham midfielder could not be deterred in making it 3-2 in the shootout.

The dinosaur mascot changed approach again as Caroline Kehrer stepped up for kick four with a miss meaning Leverkusen would be eliminated.

Dino had climbed on to the railings and was seen waving and showing off his tail before Kehrer crashed her shot against the crossbar to send Hamburg through into the quarter-finals.

Fans found the situation hilarious, with one saying: “Lmao that’s fantastic.”

A second said: “Hermann is a true king.”

A third added: “Mascot is phenomenal.”

Another joked: “Don’t let [Mikel] Arteta see this,” with a fifth fan replying: “We all need more Gunnersaurus in our lives.”

Gunnersaurus is the mascot of Premier League leaders Arsenal, and is coincidentally the mascot Dino wants to meet the most, according to his profile page on Hamburg’s website.

Ironically, Dino also hates “unfairness”, yet did not seem to have too much issue using the dark arts to help his side achieve victory.

The profile adds Dino’s favourite food is pizza and his favourite car is the Dino-Mobil.

Gunnersaurus was made in 1994 before the original performer, Jerry Quy, was made redundant in 2020 due to cost-cutting measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the club brought Gunnersaurus back from extinction after an outcry from fans.

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A club spokesperson said at the time: “As we’ve always said Gunnersaurus is an important part of Arsenal and a popular figure for our fans around the world.

“Gunner never went away but due to the virus restrictions there have been limited opportunities for him to appear in public.”