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Arshavin’s back-heel beauty

AndreiArshavin (Reuters)

If you weren't able to catch Tuesday's UEFA Champions League action, you might have missed a pretty sweet back-heel goal from Arsenal star Andrei Arshavin.

Now, we realize that he was offside, and the goal shouldn't have counted, but you can still appreciate the skill.

Enjoy:

Comments

  1. who cares about the goal celebration? Seriously. If you care about the goal celebration, go watch Cirgue du Soleil.

    He is a sick player. Wish the US could have someone of his caliber. A very cheeky finish. Him/HealthyRosicky/RVP/Fabregas/Healthy Walcott=top four finish. Screw Man City, they will mess it up somehow.

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  2. i saw this move several times today during the champ league matches! i bet everyone saw Arse-shavin’s goal and tried to copy it. no joke i know for sure i saw it in the Beshiktas game – right at the top of the box some dude did a give and go, and his go was this back heel move into a defender though. they wish they were arse-shavin

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  3. Same old Arsenal
    always cheating

    Seriously, nothing impressive about that. He could have scored that any of a million ways with his eyes closed. Any one of us could have pulled that off.

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  4. Arshavin’s a Witch… The Russian ‘Brujita.’ Arsenal are going to the Final this year. Just wait till Theo and Nasri are back.

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  5. @Mcjones

    Have you considered changing your name to Mctwat? Sounds good on you.

    Baseless generalizations and xenophobia based on no facts is stupidity personified. For someone of your intelligence level, I’ll simplify — you’re a stupid twat and it’s understandable if anyone would hate you, regardless of their heritage.

    The goal was not that impressive at all. Arshavin looked shaky the whole match and showed one piece of skill that was saved at the near post by the Greek shotstopper. The Greek goalie was impressive.

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  6. Yo, Andrei, I’m really happy for you and I’m gonna let you finish but Peter Crouch had one of the best backheel finishes of all time. One of the best backheel finishes of all time!

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  7. Gawd — he could score a World Cup-clinching goal from 80 yards out and all I would think is: “What a bad goal celebration.” By the way, isn’t the heel the back of your foot? Why isn’t that type of shot just called a “heel”? Why a “back-heel”?

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  8. Sharpe back-heel…..whoa. Haven’t seen that before. There were 3 amazing bits of skill in that (and I’m afraid I can’t name the players): the first guy who jukes two defenders before making a perfectly weighted lay-off to the right wing; the cross into the middle that nutmegs the defender to find a very well-marked Sharpe, then the finish. Very nice.

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  9. He was offside, unmarked and he still hit it into the keeper! Nothing beats the backheel goal scored by Lee Sharpe for Man U against Barca in 94 or 95 I think.

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  10. Yeah he was offsides, but it still doesn’t mean I can’t rue the decision to not start him in fantasy because I’d read he was injured and likely to not play.

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  11. Although I suppose it was entertaining, I wouldn’t call that a beautiful goal. He could have easily finished the ball into the corner if he kicked it normally, but doing a back-heel sent the ball into the keeper, almost allowing him to make the save. Honestly, I agree with tippos. I think he knows that he is in an offsides position and doesn’t expect the play to count so he f**ks around with the finish.

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  12. Great finish, terrible officiating. Arshavin’s the perfect player for Arsenal. He’s as skilled as anybody they’ve got and likes to play entertaining soccer, but he brings an aggressiveness to their attack that’s otherwise lacking.

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