All Erling Haaland could see was a wave of dark blue shirts. In front of him on the right, just inside the box, bristling like a matador trying to tame the bull was the fizzy-crowned Marc Cucurella. Haaland paused and surveyed the goalmouth. Reece James and Moises Caicedo penned Bernardo Silva at the centre. Wesley Fofana and Malo Gusto screened Nico O’Reilly rushing down the flanks. Chelsea’s backline had blocked potential paths and receptors. Jorrel Hato was ambling in for reinforcement. Then there was Antoine Semenyo. He was the nearest man to Haaland, but Levi Colwill had confiscated him like an angry customs officer. He could not slide to the left because there was little space to run through on the ball; he could not swivel to his right, or half turn, because he would run straight into a blue wall. Haaland too seemed confused (or did he foresee Semenyo’s wizardry?). His cut-back seemed misdirected, as though he had scuffed it. The shot seemed passing benignly, before Semenyo intervened. He held off Colwill, waited for the ball to almost pass through his legs before deflecting it on the volley with the instep of his back-heel, imparting the momentum with a pirouetted flourish towards the far corner of the post. Artfulness stood out as much as courage. Foremost, back-heeled brilliance requires killing the fear of failure, not least in a final. He would look silly and indulgent, and be blamed for losing the ball in the opposition box. Like a batsman’s attempted scoop that sees the stumps splayed. Semenyo, with his back to the goal, had to imagine the ball’s path, adjust to its flight, impart it with the ideal weight, pace and direction, and wrestle with a defender almost smothering him. It’s as though he had a rearview mirror latched in front of him that shows the space and movements behind. But back-heel virtuosos often admit they don’t. Imagination strikes in an instant. The legendary French striker Thierry Henry (the Charlton goal in the 2004-05 season) would say: “You don’t go into a game thinking you would score a back-heel goal or assist. It just happens, sometimes you realise it after you have played it.” Semenyo spoke in a similar way: “Everything happened so fast to be honest. It came straight to me and I had to improvise myself as quickly as I could. I can’t lie.” He had a sense of space and geography, though. “The ball was behind me and as long as I got contact on it towards the goal, I was hoping it would go in,” he revealed after the game. He, though, used to finesse it in practice sessions. “It has happened a couple of times in training – it happened perfectly today,” he said. A deceptive form of football improvisation, often it is a caress, or a graze. But a well-executed one could split defences cruelly and batter the defending team’s morale, rendering them spellbound and feeling foolish. It’s football’s sleight of foot that unlocks impregnable defences. Little wonder that some of its finest exponents were either Italians or that played in Serie A in the 80s and 90s, where defences were waterproof and tactics restrictive. Former Manchester City manager and Italy forward Roberto Mancini netted the most famous of them, a near-post backheel volley on the run for Lazio against Parma. Three defenders had marked him during a corner. But he swished to his right and directed the ball over the fourth defender’s head. Gianfranco Zola, Pablo di Canio, both rare Italian forwards that thrived in England, dizzied fans with this exceptional piece of skill. The reel of the most stunning backheel goals involves many legends of the game. A not-so-famous one too makes the top pile. The Northern Ireland midfielder was not even credible enough to be considered for his national team and had a modest league career with a clutch of mid-table clubs, for which he made less than 100 appearances. But he scored a goal that would be considered for the 2010 Puskas Award, which honours the player judged to have scored the “most beautiful” goal of the year. He missed out narrowly in the end, but the goal won him fans and fame on Youtube. Story continues below this ad Two minutes into the injury time, with his team Glentoran scrapping a draw against Portadown, he got a wild cross from the left flank. He stole a few yards on his marker, rushed to the ball, and his back still to the goal, leapt and conjured a right-footed back-heel volley floating over the goalkeeper, 18-odd yards away from him. “I could maybe try to do that 100 times and it would only come off once – I caught it perfectly,” he would say. A few days ago, Semenyo was the beneficiary of a gorgeous backheeled assist from teammate Phil Foden against Crystal Palace. As the game gets more physical and defensive in England’s top league, back-heeled assists and goals would gain more currency. It’s the ultimate defence-shredder, touched with as much madness as magic. The goal won City a trophy, and if indeed is the last silverware Pep Guardiola holds aloft with the sky blues, it would be a fitting tribute to the man who remoulded the Premier League with his ideals.
Antoine Semenyo joins the band of back-heel bamboozlers
