“Don’t shoot! Pass the ball, pass the ball!,” were the thoughts wandering inside Pep Guardiola’s head just before Vincent Kompany lined up to shoot from distance.
With Manchester City heading for a frustrating evening at the Etihad Stadium on Monday after failing to find the back of the net against Leicester City, it was Kompany’s moment of brilliance that secured a narrow 1-0 win for the home side in the end.
Guardiola’s men have now scored 157 goals this season but there will not be a more spectacular or unexpected one than that which may deliver the title.
No one saw it coming, but Kompany well knew what he was doing. The Manchester City captain took his time before unleashing a swerving 25-yard screamer from outside the box with 20 minutes to go on the clock, his first goal of the campaign.
Although Leicester City keeper Kasper Schmeichel had denied Sergio Aguero on multiple occasions earlier in the game, there was no way he could manage to stop this one.
Kompany had scored most of his goals for City mostly from inside the box through set pieces but this one left everyone stunned. Even Twitter.
Not a good time to go to the toilet..
Kompany after the match said he had lived up to a vow to “one day” score a long-range goal.
“I hadn’t scored this season but I always feel in big moments that I’m going to do something,” Kompany told Sky Sports.
“Today was a little bit of frustration, everyone was saying ‘don’t shoot, don’t shoot’ and I could really hear it; I thought hold on a second, I’ve not come this far in my career for young players to tell me if I can take a shot, and I just had a go!”
The Belgian last hit the target from outside the area back in 2007 but Kompany insisted: “I’ve scored goals like that in training!
“It’s 15 years I’ve been in top-level football, midfielders telling me ‘don’t shoot, play the ball wide’ and every time they miss, for 15 years I’ve been saying ‘I promise you, one day I’m going to have a shot from outside the box and I’m going to score a goal and you’re going to be really happy with that one’.”
(with AFP inputs)
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