Following the international retirement of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Manuel Neuer has taken the reins as Germany's official designated captain. Although the sweeper-keeper has worn the captain's armband before when Schweinsteiger was unavailable, his debut as first-choice captain came against Norway on Sunday.
Neuer is known for his tendency to wander out into No Man's Land and have a go playing the ball with his feet. While this can be massively entertaining to watch for a neutral, if you have anything at all riding on the game, his antics can prove to be absolutely terrifying.
Causing country-wide panic isn't really what you want from your team's leader, so one might assume that Neuer may have calmed down on this aspect of his game after taking up his new role. However, he made it clear during yesterday's 3-0 World Cup qualifying win that this was not the case.
Fortunately for the health of the German faithful, Neuer's inevitable moment of madness came in the 70th minute with the match was essentially over as a contest with the Germans 3-0 up. In possession at the edge of the box with Josh King closing him down at speed, the keeper opted against hoofing the ball clear and instead went for the obvious move - the Cruyff turn.
https://twitter.com/neuerisch/status/772530473448902657
It's good to see the pressure of captaincy hasn't forced him to abandon his instinct for flair, even in high-pressure situations.
Read more
Only those with elite football knowledge will name them all! Let’s take a trip back in time to that brilliant beautiful hot summer of 2018, when — for the first time in a generation — a men’s England national team looked like world beaters. Gareth Southgate had the nation queuing up for M&S three piece […]
The little known reason goes to the very heart of Spanish history Football fans have been questioning why Spain’s national team players, including the likes of Barcelona star Lamine Yamal and Arsenal’s Mikel Merino, have not been seen singing their national anthem before World Cup clashes with Cabo Verde and Saudi Arabia in North America. […]
You can’t get away with it at this World Cup… Three teams have been knocked out of the FIFA World Cup this week, as back-to-back losses means that neither of them had any chance of advancing from their respective groups. The first two countries to be eliminated were Haiti and Türkiye, and now Tunisia has […]