Surprising players who scored in big games

[FujiVice]

Thought of this while hearing the news of Darron Gibson being arrested for smashing his car up prior to the Sunderland match today. Gibson scored in the Semi Final of the 2011 Champions League, past Manuel Neuer, of all keepers. Anderson scored twice in that game as well.

Any other players you can think of whose careers just never went anyway, who scored in big occassions?

 

[Raw]

Gibson also scored against Bayern in the 3-2 win where away goals knocked us out.

 

[FootballHQ]

Gotze.

 

[Hansa]

John 'Faxe' Jensen in the final of EURO 92. Think he had about two goals in his entire career.

 

[The Purley King]

Lee Martin!

 

[U99ted]

Macheda

 

[Chipper]

Belletti for Barcelona in the Champions League final against Arsenal.

 

[montpelier]

Trevor Brooking - possibly a header

Bobby Stokes - who was offside

Roger Osborne - Ipswich Cup Final

John O'Shea

 

[dogwithabone]

Lee Martin!

That one will take some beating ! The most unlikely of goal scoring heroes !

 

[VorZakone]

Eder: Euro final.

 

[DavidDeSchmikes]

Lilian Thuram scored twice in the World Cup Semi final in 1998 against Croatia
Mikaël Silvestre scored twice against Liverpool in 2004/05 season
Steve Morrow in the 1993 League Cup Final
Carlos Alberto in the 2004 CL Final, ended up having a bit of a journeyman career after (i think)

 

[Hansa]

Steve Morrow in the 1993 League Cup Final

Could also be in the lot shorter thread "Players hospitalized after unexpected goals in big games".

 

[FC Ronaldo]

Jimmy Glass.

 

[Snow]

Giovanni van Bronckhorst's goal in the semis against Uruguay at the WC 2010. Sure he scored some goals for Feyenoord and Rangers but he was not known for scoring for Arsenal, Barcelona or Netherlands.

Not only did he score the opener but it was one of the better goals in the history of the WC.

 

[fergies coat]

Jimmy glass (goalkeeper) last minute winner. Kept Carlisle in the football league.

 

[Lay]

Ben Watson - FA Cup final winner.

 

[paulscholes18]

Neil Mellor, scored a cracker to beat Arsenal and done nothing since

 

[Henrik Larsson]

Giovanni van Bronckhorst's goal in the semis against Uruguay at the WC 2010. Sure he scored some goals for Feyenoord and Rangers but he was not known for scoring for Arsenal, Barcelona or Netherlands.

Not only did he score the opener but it was one of the better goals in the history of the WC.

Such a sweet goal. He scored a quite similar one with Feyenoord against PSV a couple of months prior. Weirdly enough I can only find this footage

Spoiler

 

[Gazza]

Defenders have a great record for us, goal scoring wise, vs Liverpool. In my lifetime off top of my head:

Rio (2)
Brown
O'Shea
Silvestre (2)
Rafael
Pallister (2)
Bruce
Irwin (3)

 

[Deleted member 101472]

Nothing comes close to this, especially given the amount of stick he was getting at the time.

https://m.youtube.com/results?q=bert konterman goal against celtic&sm=1

 

[Frank Grimes]

Lilian Thuram scored twice in the World Cup Semi final in 1998 against Croatia
Mikaël Silvestre scored twice against Liverpool in 2004/05 season
Steve Morrow in the 1993 League Cup Final
Carlos Alberto in the 2004 CL Final, ended up having a bit of a journeyman career after (i think)

Andy Linighan scored the winner in the FA Cup final(replay) in the same year.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Defenders have a great record for us, goal scoring wise, vs Liverpool. In my lifetime off top of my head:

Rio (2)
Brown
O'Shea
Silvestre (2)
Rafael
Pallister (2)
Bruce
Irwin (3)

Don't forget Carragher.

 

[Dancfc]

Demba Ba had a habit of scoring crucial goals in big games. With us he got winners vs United, PSG, Liverpool, Swansea (buisness end in the title race) and netted at Wembley va City. To cite a random example Beckford had a ace scoring record against Chelsea, not sure about other big teams.

 

[Invictus]

Bruno Bellone scored only 2 goals in his international career spanning 30+ matches, but one of them was in the Final of EURO 1984, so I guess it was pretty surprising for a big game:


Amusingly, he was also the only striker to score for France in the entire tournament (11 goals by the #10 and midfielders, and 2 by Jean-François Domergue - a defender).

 

[Minimalist]

Shocking lack of Luis Garcia in this thread.

Scored this and a few others:

And then fecked off into the horizon.

 

[Get In Scholesy]

Whenever Higuain scores in a big game.

 

[Mciahel Goodman]

Vardy. Every goal he's scored since arriving in the Premier League.

 

[matherto]

Lars Ricken scoring in a Champions League final.

A beautiful goal at that.

Basile Boli and Desailly the year before him.

 

[Devillish]

Scottish defender Bobby Moncur played 296 games for Newcastle but only scored three goals in total, all of them in the Fairs (UEFA) Cup final!

 

[SER19]

Oshea scored in a champions league semi final v arsenal, and also a last minute winner at anfield, the clincher at Highbury in the 4-2 and the goal to get us back into it when 2-0 down away at Everton in 2006/2007. That game put one hand on the trophy.

Good record of big game goals

Steve mcmanaman scoring in a champions league final for real Madrid has always felt odd to me

 

[Dorian Gray]

For me, the biggest one would always be Thuram for France in '98 World Cup. Scored twice against Croatia in the semis. France were behind by a goal and his 2 goals won them the game 2-1.
Lilian Thuram went on to play for 10 more years for the club and country. He just scored once again for his club and those 2 goals remain his only goals for France.

 

[SER19]

For me, the biggest one would always be Thuram for France in '98 World Cup. Scored twice against Croatia in the semis. France were behind by a goal and his 2 goals won them the game 2-1.
Lilian Thuram went on to play for 10 more years for the club and country. He just scored once again for his club and those 2 goals remain his only goals for France.

Laurent blanc got their winner in extra time in second round too. Not prolific. Not in keeping with the thread as blanc is a player that player in lots of big games but France had their share of surprise scorers then. Even petit in the final.

Didn't Marco materazzi score in the 2006 world cup final?

 

[Dorian Gray]

Laurent blanc got their winner in extra time in second round too. Not prolific. Not in keeping with the thread as blanc is a player that player in lots of big games but France had their share of surprise scorers then. Even petit in the final.

Didn't Marco materazzi score in the 2006 world cup final?

Yup. And Blanc's goal was a golden goal and if I remember correctly, the only golden goal in the WC history. France had a good slice of luck in the tournament

 

[Speedy30]

Florent Sinama Pongolle. Scored in a crucial make or break CL group match against Olympiakos and I don't know what else he ever did for us

 

[harms]

Laurent blanc got their winner in extra time in second round too. Not prolific. Not in keeping with the thread as blanc is a player that player in lots of big games but France had their share of surprise scorers then. Even petit in the final.

Didn't Marco materazzi score in the 2006 world cup final?

Blanc was very prolific for a defender. Scored more than 100 goals in his career

 

[SER19]

Blanc was very prolific for a defender. Scored more than 100 goals in his career

Yeah like I said it's not in keeping with the thread just a separate point that in the knock out games France got goals from blanc, thuram and petit - not players they'd necessarily expect to come up trumps

 

[roonster09]

Thuram scored only 2 goals for France and both in Semi finals of world cup.

 

[Cassady]

Shocking lack of Luis Garcia in this thread.

Scored this and a few others:

And then fecked off into the horizon.

He scored in big games though . An FA Cup Semi against Chelsea and the wonder strike in 2005.

 

[Bole Top]

Gibson also scored against Bayern in the 3-2 win where away goals knocked us out.

he also scored the only goal against City when Everton beat them 1-0, helping United to catch them.

 

[njred]

Smicer- Istanbul