On average, about one in every 30 corners leads to a goal. The success rate tends to go up dramatically, however, when the goalkeeper and his entire defence are standing outside the six-yard box when a corner is taken.
That was the remarkable scene during the UEFA Nations League quarter-final in Dortmund on Sunday night, when Germany’s Jamal Musiala turned the ball into an empty net against an Italy team who acted like they thought the game would stop for them to hold a debrief into where everything had been going wrong during the first half.
Joshua Kimmich had other ideas and the combination of his brilliant quick-thinking and Musiala’s goal-hanging, allied to a ball-boy who was, well, on the ball, led to Germany doubling their lead from a highly unusual corner and making fools out of Italy in the process.
Musiala celebrates scoring a highly-unusual goal (Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)
It was a goal that evoked memories of Liverpool’s fourth against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final second leg at Anfield in 2019, when Divock Origi swept home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner to take the Premier League club through 4-3 on aggregate. On that occasion, though, there was a goalkeeper standing between the posts. Gianluigi Donnarumma, in contrast, went AWOL in Dortmund.
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It wasn’t just the Italian goalkeeper who was caught out. Amazon Prime, who were showing the game live as part of a pay-per-view package, almost missed the goal completely too, with viewers only able to see exactly what had happened when the replay was eventually shown.
The bizarre chain of events started with Donnarumma producing an exceptional one-handed save, when he clawed the Germany striker Tim Kleindienst’s twisting header behind for a corner. Italy were being outplayed at the time, trailing 1-0 on the night following a Kimmich penalty and 3-1 on aggregate. In that context it was not surprising that their players were annoyed.
As Kleindienst turned away holding his head in his hands in a mixture of disbelief and disappointment, Kimmich (circled below), quickly made his way to the corner flag.
Pointing with his right arm and looking in the direction of his team-mate Alessandro Bastoni, the Italy defender Giovanni Di Lorenzo started the inquest. Bastoni, with his back turned on play, was gesturing too as he walked towards Di Lorenzo.
It was at this point that Donnarumma decided to get involved as well. Wandering outside of his six-yard box with his arms outstretched, Donnarumma was oblivious to the presence of Musiala behind him, the midfielder as free as a bird in the six-yard box after he had followed up Kleindienst’s header.
By now some important work had already taken place off the pitch. A steward (circled behind the goal below) was busy trying to retrieve the ball that Donnarumma had tipped behind.
As the steward bent down to pick it up and motioned to throw it back, he realised that a ballboy (also circled) close to the corner flag was already delivering a chest pass that had pre-assist written all over it (think Callum Hynes, the teenage Tottenham Hotspur ballboy who got a high five from Jose Mourinho after his quick-thinking led to Harry Kane scoring in the Champions League against Olympiakos in 2019).
As Musiala signalled to Kimmich to take the corner quickly, Donnarumma carried on walking and joined what was now a group of five Italian players, who had also congregated outside the six-yard box to dissect their problems. The only thing missing was a tactics board and a table and chairs.
Alessandro Buongiorno, who also had his back to play, was among that group, as was Federico Gatti, who was busy wiping his face with shirt. The rest of the Italian players may as well have been covering their eyes too.
Late for the meeting, Samuele Ricci (circled below) was about to become the sixth Italy player to offer his thoughts until he saw Kimmich out of the corner of his eye and sounded the alarm. Unfortunately for Italy, it was far too late.
After placing the ball, Kimmich had spotted Musiala on his own — it was hard to miss the Bayern Munich midfielder, especially when he was waving his arms about like an aircraft marshal on a runway — and the corner was on its way, arcing towards the edge of the six-yard box.
Although the ball was slightly behind Musiala, forcing him to retreat a little, there was plenty of margin for error on the delivery; six yards to be exact. As Musiala shaped to swivel and strike the ball with his right foot, Donnarumma pivoted too, in a state of blind panic. Musiala’s shot was en route to the back of the net before the goalkeeper had a chance to get reacquainted with his own six-yard box…
… and Germany were 2-0 up.
Italy, to their credit, staged a superb fightback to come back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 on the night (losing 5-4 on aggregate). But the damage — some of it self-inflicted — was done during a chaotic first half.
“Everyone knows we struggle from set plays, but we cannot keep talking about it, or this will turn into an obsession,” the Italy coach Luciano Spalletti had said a few days earlier.
And thanks to Musiala’s bizarre goal, that topic of conversation is here to stay for Italy for some time yet.
(Header photo: Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
