Goals

Although England’s performance against the Czech Republic was thrilling and Scotland’s humiliation to Kazakhstan was funny, there’s not a lot to get excited about in Euro 2020 qualifying as nearly half of the competing nations will ultimately earn a place at the 16th European Championship. 

The reigning World Cup champions were always expected to trounce little Moldova to open Euro 2020 qualifying on Friday. But the class and beauty on display in France’s first goal was another stunning reminder of the quality of the best team in the world.

France was marvelous in its run to the World Cup title last summer and pretty much the entire roster was back for the start of Euro 2020 qualifying this week. Chief among those were Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba, who combined for the opener against Moldova on Friday. 

You gotta feel bad for Cagliari regista Luca Cigarini. 

During a Serie A match against Fiorentina on Friday, Cigarini scored what could have been the best goal of his career, launching a free kick from his own half into the back of the net.

But the goal didn’t count.

No, it wasn’t the result of VAR or suspicious refereeing (well, maybe a little of the latter). Instead, it was a case of a direct vs indirect free kick scenario. 

As a striker, you’ve gotta do whatever it takes to score. Sometimes that means bending the rules and using your hand. Sometimes that means using every inch of your body, like this Edin Dzeko goal vs Frosinone on Saturday.

AS Roma had a wild trip to Frosinone’s Stadio Benito Stirpe on Saturday night. The home side led after five minutes, Roma took the lead with two goals in 72 seconds and Frosinone equalized in the 80th minute. 

It’s tough being a soccer fan, sometimes. You spend all your effort and energy trying to keep an eye on two tantalizing Champions League Round of 16 matches and then the best goal of the day is scored in a league match in France. But damn, did you see that Angel Di Maria free kick?

Claudio Pizarro became the oldest Bundesliga goal scorer of all time on Saturday. He has an 18-year-old American to thank for it.

Pizarro, a 40-year-old Peruvian, has seen it all. He’s played for Bayern Munich and Chelsea and is in his fourth stint with Die Grün-Weißen. He’s even become a voice actor with a role in the German version of “Coco.”

It’s been a good week for Hungary. On Thursday, the country was included in the landmark strategy game series Civilization the first time. On Saturday, an 18-year-old kid reminded the world they can still play some football in Hungary.

In a sequence of events that involved one man taking a ball to the face, another shanking the hell out of an overhead kick and a third connecting sweetly with a chilena of his own, we witnessed football’s most spectacular sight three times inside five seconds in the video above.

It’s not often you encounter a team with this kind of chutzpah. Usually, someone would opt for an approach other than the most notoriously advanced skill in the game, but these boys showed that anything other than a bicycle kick is simply a waste of time.