7 times football fans had their minds blown in the past two weeks. As the cliché goes, always expect the unexpected, cause a lot of that happened in the last fortnight.
Much like life, you never truly know what’s in store for you when it comes to football. A high-profile clash could very well end up being a dud while a thriller or a maybe even a memorable incident could take place in a match you least expected it to.
Also read: Maurizio Sarri explains Cristiano Ronaldo’s angry reaction at being substituted
Fortunately for football fans, they were treated to a host of such moments in the last fortnight. Moments that will be etched in our memories for a really long time. Today we will look back at the 7 times football fans had their minds blown in the past two weeks.
Southampton 0-9 Leicester
The list starts with the earliest of these events. On October 25th, Leicester City kicked off the crazy fortnight the joint biggest win in Premier League history. Both Jamie Vardy and Ayoze Perez fired hat-tricks to help Leicester to their historic win.
Leicester have been impressive this season and currently sit at number 3. They are only 2 points behind Manchester City and a Champions League spot almost looks like a certainty at this point. The foxes will take on Arsenal, who find themselves on this list courtesy their ex-captain, in the Premier League this weekend.
Granit Xhaka tells Arsenal fans to f**k off
Arsenal are currently undergoing a difficult season in the Premier League after struggling to stitch consistent performances together. While almost everyone bar Aubameyang has failed to impress, the supporters of the club decided to, rather unfairly, lay the blame solely on the newly appointed captain Granit Xhaka.
However, Xhaka has done himself no favours by lashing out at the fans after they booed him in the match vs Crystal Palace at home. His substitution was cheered loudly by the fans who then booed him as he walked slowly off the pitch.
Xhaka then cupped his ears, taunting the fans, before telling them to ‘Fu*k off’. The incident has since taken the club by storm and the midfielder has lost his armband as a result with rumours of him leaving the club in January doing the rounds.
Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich are one of only 8 teams in Europe to have won the Treble. They are also the only side not from England or Spain to have won the Champions League post 2010. They have also won their domestic league 7 times consecutively now.
Bayern Munich have not had the best of starts to the Bundesliga this season. They have only won 5 of their first 10 games so far. However, they were still expected to win the match against Eintracht Frankfurt.
After all Frankfurt had failed to beat at home in their last 16 matches. Instead, the unthinkable happened. The German Champions were slain 5-1; their heaviest defeat in 10 years. This would ultimately result in Niko Kovac losing his job.
Kyle Walker’s debut as a goalkeeper for Manchester City
The latest entrant in the list, Kyle Walker started the season with an amazing scissor kick against Liverpool to save a certain goal in the Community shield. Last night however, he took his goal saving duties on another level when he took on the goalkeeping duties.
Walker was forced to don the gloves after Ederson left the match with an injury and Claudio Bravo found himself at the receiving end of a red card. However, his stay between the sticks was rather uneventful. Although there were two moments that left the fans in stitches.
Walker demonstrated how poor he was as a keeper when he almost made a mess out of a rather tame free kick. Sometime later he hilariously went down on the ball long after he had collected him, simply to waste time. Quite the unexpected entertainment.
Liverpool 5-5 Arsenal
Liverpool are now embroiled in a fixture pile-up. They have been forced to play their Carabao Cup and Club World Cup match 24 hours from each other despite the competitions taking place in two separate continents!
However, on this night, a possible fixture congestion was the least of their worries as they scripted a magnificent come from behind victory. By the 54th minute of the match, Arsenal led 4-2. There was no way even Liverpool could fight their way back into the match.
However, that is exactly what they did when Origi scored in the 94th minute to level the scores 5-5. Liverpool rose from the dead to crawl their way into yet another match! The 10-goal thriller ended in a penalty shootout that went in Liverpool’s favour 5-4.
Kepa makes a world class save to thwart Ben Foster’s shot on target!
Off all the players in the Premier League, Ben Foster is not the player you’d have in mind while thinking of players forcing a keeper into a world class save. However, that is exactly what Foster did for Watford vs Chelsea in the Premier League.
Watford were awarded a free kick 40 yards from the goal in the dying minutes of the match. Watford needed to make it count if they were to equalise. With nothing to lose, Ben Foster joined the rest of the team inside the box.
Deulofeu delivered the free-kick towards the penalty spot, Abdoulaye Doucuoure flicked it on and Foster met it with a diving header. The ball made its way to the bottom corner and almost made it behind the net until Kepa plunged to his left to push the ball behind. The whistle was blown immediately after and the two keepers embraced after the match.
Chelsea 4-4 Ajax
Chelsea vs Ajax had everything you want to watch in a football match as a neutral fan. The match had own goals, creative brilliance, blinders, penalties and even red cards! There was everything on the table for every kind of fan.
The first half ended with Ajax 3 goals to 1 despite only registering one shot on target. Off Chelsea’s two own goals, one of them came from a brilliant Hakim Ziyech free kick that found Kepa’s face and found the back of the net.
After half-time, Ajax added yet another goal in the 55th minute to make it 4. However, after that it was the Chelsea show. Goals from Azpilicueta, Reece James and Jorginho helped them make it 4 all. They were also helped by both of Ajax’s centre backs being sent off within seconds of each other leaving Ajax with 9 players on the field.
Chelsea seemed to have won the match when Azpilicueta scored the 5th for them. However, VAR ruled out the goal. The match ended 4-4. A fair result considering the carnage that had just taken place. One side showed remarkable will power to comeback from 4-1 while the other displayed absolute resolve holding their own with 2 players less.
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