‘Wow’ – Alan Shearer was mindblown by ‘incredible’ moment in Liverpool defeat on Sunday
Alan Shearer was left in awe of an ‘incredible’ moment during Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester City on Sunday.
An eventful game at Anfield will be remembered for a chaotic final few minutes in which Erling Haaland scored a stoppage-time winner from the penalty spot and Dominik Szoboszlai was sent off for denying the Norwegian a goalscoring opportunity as he raced back to try and prevent a long-distance Rayan Cherki shot from crossing the line.
Less than half an hour before that red card for the Hungary midfielder, he looked poised to be the headline act for a much different reason as, with the deadlock yet to be broken in the 74th minute, he crashed a thunderbolt of a free kick from distance into the visitors’ net, opening the scoring in style.
Lineker and Shearer wowed by Szoboszlai free kick
While ultimately that show-stopping goal was of no lasting consequence, the pundits on The Rest Is Football rightly heaped praise on the 25-year-old for his phenomenal strike.
Gary Lineker gushed: “The Szoboszlai free kick – oh my God! The speed of it and the way it just bent dramatically at the last minute…cor, what a hit, and it’s not the first time he’s done it. He’s a pure striker of a football.”
Shearer was equally mindblown, saying: “Wow…that doesn’t just happen. That takes so much time on the training ground to do that type of thing and he’s obviously brilliant at it and spends a lot of time practising. Goodness me, what a strike. Incredible goal.”
Micah Richards was at the match and he added that witnessing the goal in first person was ‘madness’.
A moment of pure brilliance from Szoboszlai
The goal was effectively a carbon copy of Szoboszlai’s stunning free kick against Arsenal in the early weeks of the season – that too was scored into the Kop – but on this occasion, his moment of magic didn’t win the game and ultimately wasn’t even enough to ensure a draw.
That still takes nothing away from how jaw-dropping a strike it was, with one of the world’s best goalkeepers in Gianluigi Donnarumma reduced to the role of spectator as he watched the ball fly into his net.
It’s a crying shame that a goal of such pure brilliance now counts for nothing in the greater scheme of things due to what unfolded thereafter, and the Hungarian won’t be on the pitch if Liverpool have a similar situation at Sunderland on Wednesday due to the suspension arising from his red card.
Szoboszlai would be a sore miss for the Reds in any event, considering his qualities as a player, and his absence will be felt even more amid the injury crisis which prompted Slot to deploy the midfielder as an emergency right-back yesterday.
The already daunting task of becoming the first visiting team to win a Premier League game at the Stadium of Light this season has been made even harder by not having our marvellous number 8 to call upon.
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