Football’s Greatest Goals No.23
This week’s greatest goal comes from Gianfranco Zola for Chelsea in the 2002 FA Cup against Norwich City.
The goal has been rightly considered one of the greatest in Chelsea’s 105 year history and showed a real sense of skill, initiative and class by the diminutive Italian.
With the score at 2-0, Chelsea won a corner out on the right. Graeme Le Saux whipped in an inswinging corner towards the near post with his left foot and Zola ran in unmarked towards the near post after starting his run from the edge of the penalty area.
As Zola reached the corner of the six yard box at the near post, he jumped up and swivelled slightly to turn his back to goal. He lifted his left leg slightly and swept the ball towards goal with his right.
Norwich goalkeeper (and future England international) Robert Green had left a small gap between himself and the near post. Zola managed to squeeze the ball in this space and the ball crashed into the back of the net as he landed back on his feet.
It’s quite interesting watching the goal in the video below as the commentator wasn’t entirely sure what had happened or how Zola had scored! It was only when he watched the replay on his screen that he could fully understand and appreciate the true greatness that he had just witnessed.
Gianfranco Zola was 35 years old when he scored that goal against Norwich and it goes to show that no matter how old you are, you can still have the talent to produce something ridiculously sublime!
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