On average, about one in 30 corners leads to a goal. However, the success rate goes up dramatically, but when the goalkeeper and their entire defense are outside their six-year box when a corner is taken.
That was the remarkable scene during the quarterfinals of the UEFA Nations League in Dortmund on Sunday. The Jamal Musiala of Germany turned the ball into an empty net against an Italy team that traded as if they thought the game would stop for them to hold a debrief in where everything had gone wrong for them in the first half.
Joshua Kimmich had other ideas and the combination of his brilliant rapid thinking and Musiala’s goal-hanging-connected to a ball boy who, well, drew on the ball that Germany doubled their 1-0 lead from a very unusual angle at 36 minutes and fools in Italy in Italy in the process.
Musiala celebrates scoring in a very unusual way (Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)
The goal evoked memories of the fourth of Liverpool against Barcelona in the Semi-Final Second-stage of the Champions League in Anfield in 2019, when Divock Origi Trent Alexander-Arnold’s Hoek Taken Taken Taken at home to take the Premier League club up to 4-3. On that occasion, however, there was a goalkeeper between the posts. Gianluigi Donnarumma went AWOL in Dortmund last night.
It was not only the Italian keeper who was caught. Amazon Prime, who showed the game live as part of a pay-per-view package, almost also missed the goal, whereby viewers only saw exactly what had happened when a repetition was eventually shown.
The bizarre series of events began with Donnarumma that produced an exceptional rescue with one hand to make Tim Kleindienst striker the winding buyer behind a corner. Italy was surpassed at the time, behind a goal in the night after a kimmich fine and 3-1 aggregated. In that context it was not surprising that their players were irritated.
While Kleindienst turned around and kept his head in his hands in disbelief and disappointment, Kimmich (circled below) went quickly to the corner flag.
Italy Wing-back Giovanni di Lorenzo (no. 22) started the investigation, pointing with his right arm and looked in the direction of his teammate Alessandro Bastoni in the central defender. With his back to the piece on, gestured Bastoni also while he walked to Di Lorenzo.
Donnarumma also decided to participate. The Paris Saint-Germain keeper wandered outside of his six-year box with vast arms, was not aware of the presence of Musiala behind him, free as a bird in the six-year box after following the original header of Kleindienst.
In the meantime, important work had already taken place on the field. A steward (around the goal below) was busy picking up the ball that Donnarumma had tipped.
While the steward bent over to pick him up and gestured to throw it back, he realized that a ball boy (also circled) was already delivering a breast pass close to the corner flag that had written the pre-assist everywhere (think Callum Hynes, the Teenage Tottenham Hotspur Ballion against Olympias, got League’s Lagympias in the Champions League’s Lague’s Lague’s Lague’s Champions In the Champions League against the Champions League against the Champions League against the Champions League against the Champions League against the Champions League against the Champions League in the Champions League in the Champions in the Champions, 2019).
While Musiala signaled to Kimmich to quickly take the corner, Donnarumma continued walking and joined what was now a group of five Italians who had gathered outside the six-year box to dissect their problems. The only thing that was missing was a tactic board and a table and chairs.
Central defender Alessandro Buongiorno, who also had his back to play, was one of that group, just like fellow center-back Federico Gatti, who was busy wiping his face with his shirt. The rest of the team might as well have covered their eyes.
Late for the meeting, midfielder Samual Ricci (circled below) was about to become the sixth Italian player who offered his thoughts until he saw Kimmich from the corner of his eye and the alarm sounded. Unfortunately for Italy it was much too late.
After he had placed the ball, Kimmich Musiala had seen it alone was difficult to miss the Bayern Munich-Jongeer, especially when he waved his arms when an airplane butter was launched on a runway and the corner was launched to the edge of the six-year box.
Although the ball was slightly behind Musiala, so he withdrew a little, there was enough margin of error at the delivery; Six meters to be precise. While Musiala was formed to turn and hit the ball with his right foot, Donnarumma also turned in a state of blind panic. The shot of Musiala was en route to the back of the just before the keeper got the chance to learn again with his six-year box …
… and Germany stood up 2-0.
Italy, to their merit, organized an excellent fightback to come back from three goals to draw 3-3 in the night (5-4 losses on aggregated). But the damage of it itself caused by itself during a chaotic first half.
“Everyone knows that we are struggling with regular plays, but we can’t keep talking about it, or this will be an obsession,” the head coach of Italy, Luciano Spalletti, had told reporters a few days earlier.
And thanks to the bizarre goal of Musiala, that topic of conversation is here for a while for Italy.
(Top photo: Alex Grimm/Getty images)