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 their entire defence are standing outside their six-yard box when a corner is taken.
That was the remarkable scene during the UEFA Nations League quarter-final in Dortmund on Sunday. 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 for them 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 1-0 lead from a highly unusual corner on 36 minutes, and making fools out of Italy in the process.
Musiala celebrates scoring in a highly unusual way (Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)
The goal 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 swiftly-taken 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 last night.
It wasn’t just the Italian goalkeeper who was caught out. Amazon Prime, which was showing the game live as part of a pay-per-view package, almost missed the goal completely too, with viewers only seeing exactly what had happened when a replay was eventually shown.
The bizarre chain of events started with Donnarumma producing an exceptional one-handed save to claw striker Tim Kleindienst’s twisting header behind for a corner. Italy were being outplayed at the time, trailing by a goal 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 disbelief and disappointment, Kimmich (circled below), quickly made his way to the corner fl…