Greatest Own Goals of All-Time No.22
This week’s ‘Greatest Own Goal’ is a bit of an odd one in that the scorer of the own goal didn’t face the negative press or face the backlash of the own goal. On this occasion, it was the goalkeeper who had to take the blame for the error.
Although it was officially Gary Neville who scored an own goal for England against Croatia in 2007, goalkeeper Paul Robinson was left to bear the brunt of the blame. It would be a moment that Robinson would forever be remembered for and despite once scoring a goal in a game, (something that a goalkeeper can rarely lay claim to!) this incident will be one of the most talked-about moments of his 19-year career.
England had travelled to Zagreb to play Croatia in a crucial qualifying match for the 2008 European Championships. The hosts were England’s toughest opponents in a group with Russia, Israel, Macedonia, Estonia and Andorra.
They had opened their qualifying campaign with a resounding 5-0 win over minnows Andorra before playing out a hugely disappointing goalless draw at home to Macedonia.
Croatia had beaten Andorra 7-0 on the same day as England’s game against Macedonia. Four days later, England travelled to Zagreb, desperate for a result to kickstart their qualifying campaign.
Eduardo gave Croatia the lead on 61 minutes with a looping header from a cross by Nico Kovac. Seven minutes later, things got a lot worse for England and more notably, Gary Neville and Paul Robinson.
Manchester United right back Gary Neville picked up possession of a loose ball on the right hand corner of the penalty area and played a soft rolling backpass to Paul Robinson.
The England goalkeeper was stood inside his six yard box and as the ball rolled to the edge of the six yard area, Robinson swung his right leg out to hoof it downfield.
The ball took an awkward bounce off a divot on the pitch, hopped over Robinson’s right foot and into the back of the net. To compound Robinson’s misery, he probably caused the divot when he took goal kicks from that part of the six yard box earlier in the second half!
England lost the match 2-0 and In the days after the match, the finger of blame was pointed directly at Robinson. Gary Neville didn’t get any abuse despite it being his name that appeared on the scoresheet!
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