Football’s Greatest Goals No.24
This week’s ‘Greatest Goal’ comes from Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud against Crystal Palace on New Year’s Day 2017.
The game was a late kick off and I watched it with friends at the pub after coming back from watching my team Aldershot Tow beat Woking in a local derby. Arsenal are my other team and we just sat in awe for quite a while after the ball had hit the back of the net!
Olivier Giroud’s fantastic goal was the first of Arsenal’s two goals in the game as they won 2-0 and they climbed to third place in the table. They would finish the season in fifth position.
The goal started when Arsenal striker Lucas Perez tracked back to intercept a pass from a Palace forward about thirty yards from the Arsenal goal.
The ball fell to Hector Bellerin who took a touch before playing the ball forward to Olivier Giroud. The French striker backheeled the ball to Granit Xhaka and turning to run forward.
Arsenal started a blistering counter-attack with Xhaka passing first-time to Alex Iwobi who took a touch and ran into the Palace half. He played the ball into the path of Alexis Sanchez down the left wing into space.
Sanchez steadied himself, controlled the ball before chipping it delicately at head height and almost at the penalty spot. Giroud had come rushing in and the ball was behind him so he stuck out his left leg behind him to try and get a connection.
He caught the ball perfectly and it flew over his head and the outstretched arm of Palace goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey before clipping the underside of the crossbar and into the back of the net.
The goal was rightly given the praise that it deserved from Giroud’s fellow professionals and pundits alike. It showed skill and confidence, as well as a fair bit of ingenuity too. It didn’t win the BBC Goal of the Season Award though; that honour went to Liverpool’s Emre Can for a goal against Watford a few months later.
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