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For a player who is not even considered good enough to be first choice in Tottenham Hotspur’s front three, Richarlison showed the world he does not lack confidence on his World Cup bow.
The 25-year-old, who has had to kick his heels on the bench behind Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski since moving to Tottenham from Everton in the summer for £60million, scored the goal of the tournament so far against Serbia.
He had opened the scoring with a 62nd-minute tap-in to break Serbia’s stubborn resistance. Eleven minutes later, he sealed victory with a goal that will live long in the memory.
With Brazil buoyant, Vinicius Jr surges down the right and substitute Darko Lazovic fails to close down the Real Madrid winger. Vinicius spots a gap and crosses with the outside of his right foot. Richarlison does the rest.
After finding space between Milos Veljkovic and Strahinja Pavlovic, he controls the ball with his left foot. With the ball fizzed into him on the volley, Richarlison’s touch takes the ball into the air, some pundits say he has miscontrolled. Yeah, right.
With his back to goal and three defenders converging on him, in one movement the Brazil No 9, who has now scored 19 goals in his 39 international appearances, spins in the space he has been allowed to have.
While his body is in mid-air, he contorts himself to get his right leg above his head and his left hand almost touching the floor.
His balance is outstanding and his eyes never leave the ball. Quick as a flash, his right boot, with Veljkovic knowing what is coming and eyes closed, connects perfectly with the ball.
The defenders in the box cannot do anything, while the arriving Sergej Milinkovic-Savic has the best view of all from behind Richarlison as the ball travels towards his brother Vanja in goal.
With the ball travelling at speed towards the left side of the net, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic can only dive despairingly. The ball has still not hit the ground — and does not until it hits the net — with the stadium in thrall to Richarlison’s brilliance.
As the Serbia players sink to the floor, Richarlison’s celebrations take over as he is joined by the entire bench. The celebrations were lengthy but fitting for a goal of such quality.
Richarlison is mobbed by his team-mates (Photo: Hector Vivas – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Richarlison admitted after the game that he was proud of similar goals for Fluminense and Everton but this one topped it. Quite.
Who needs Neymar…
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
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