Hooded, his arms and legs chained behind him so that his spine arched backwards, he received a visit from the men who had just told him he would never see his children again.
The Everton goalkeeper stopped a Carlos Tévez shot at point-blank range five minutes later, saved again from Tévez after Cristiano Ronaldo had hit a post from the edge of the area and arched backwards to tip a dipping effort from Ronaldo over the bar just before the half-hour.
The 86th minute winner, in which Kane was obliged to arch backwards to meet Nabil Bentaleb's deep cross, befitted the occasion.
But again Cudicini was equal to the moment, flinging himself up and arching backwards to touch the ball over the bar.
Howard was in action again at the start of the second half, acrobatically arching backwards to tip over Mertens' goalbound header from De Bruyne's cross.
Some of the momentous things happen out of the corner of your eye, a women thrown lightly into the arms of a running man, as her original partner falls to the floor, another women suddenly arching backwards out of a poised balance, the piercing stress of the music suggesting abandonment or despair.
Only when Steve Harmison cranked up his pace - one delivery had Lara leaping and arching backwards as the ball passed his nose - and later, when Flintoff tempted him with width outside off stump and he was over-vigorous in his drive, was he in danger.
Their bodies arch backwards, away from her, recoiling in recognition of her power.
The Blues stopper pulled off the save of the match in the 67th minute, arching backwards to turn a clever Desiree Scott lob on to the crossbar.
When a larva is touched on the head, thorax, or anterior abdomen, it typically jerks or crawls away, threatens with open jaws without arching backwards, contracts its body into a sinuate death-feigning pose, or regurgitates.
In the mechanical section 'Pain on repetitive bending' (74%, n = 37), 'Pain on lifting' (70.8%, n = 34) and 'Pain on arching backwards' (70%, n = 35) were the most prevalent.
