Match Rewind: Games with amazing United goals
WAYNE ROONEY (UNITED 2 MANCHESTER CITY 1, 2010/11)
Unless you spent the last decade meditating under a desert rock, you’ll be familiar with this one. It’s been voted the greatest Premier League goal ever and, unsurprisingly, triumphed in our own Goal-of-the-Decade poll at the turn of the year. An overhead kick that nobody – nobody! – in Old Trafford that day ever expected, it won a vital match for the Reds on the way to our then record-breaking 19th title, and delivered a very tasty win over our cross-town neighbours.
What elevates this goal, for me, is that up until this moment, Rooney was having an unusually underwhelming game. Vincent Kompany was doing an excellent job of shackling the legendary forward and it was clearly bothering Rooney – just look at his bumbled attempt at a pass to Darren Fletcher in the build-up! But when Nani’s subsequent cross was deflected, very few players could have located the imagination or self-confidence to even conceive of smashing that limp, falling ball into the net with their back to goal. Rooney did, and that’s one of the reasons he’ll always be remembered among the greatest players and characters to ever grace the Old Trafford pitch.
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