Some Tottenham fans cannot quite believe that Christian Eriksen managed to score directly from a corner kick in Inter Milan’s clash against Napoli on Saturday.
Italian football returned last weekend when Inter travelled to the San Paolo Stadium for their first game back for an all-important Copa Italia semi-final second leg clash.
The visitors lost the first leg 1-0 at home and so needed to start the return leg on the front foot.
Eriksen provided them with a dream start as he whipped in a dangerous corner in the second minute of the game that beat the entire Napoli defence as well as David Ospina in between the sticks to find its way into the back of the net.
Dries Mertens equalised for the home side just before half-time, and Napoli progressed to the final after the game ended level on the night.
Some Spurs fans were astonished at what Eriksen pulled off, having watched him struggled to beat the first defender from his corner kicks in recent times:
?? Christian Eriksen just beat every man and scored directly from a corner…
? 2020 is absolutely mental.#THFC #COYS pic.twitter.com/1v2iILYI8b
— TranSPURS (@TranSPURS) June 13, 2020
So hang on… Eriksen spent years at Tottenham smashing corners into the 1st man and now iv just seen him score 1 for Inter ??♂️
Maaaate!— Lee Roper (@leeroper2) June 14, 2020
Eventually.
After 746 corners.
Eriksen beats the first man.
And it goes in.
Further evidence the world has gone f*cking mad. pic.twitter.com/G6IOCk1NXd— ᴅᴀᴠɪᴅ ᴇʟʟɪs (@fullback03) June 13, 2020
If 2020 wasn’t weird enough already, Christian Eriksen just scored from a corner pic.twitter.com/GTVvCAKBv7
— Ryan (@ryangoIdy8) June 13, 2020
Eriksen beating everyman and scoring direct from a corner ? pic.twitter.com/R2ZA5bPetk
— Lilywhite Rose (@Lilywhite_Rose) June 13, 2020
Eriksen couldn’t kick it further than 10 yards for us but manages to score directly from a corner for Inter pic.twitter.com/rXen7zvJQh
— Aidan Bunker (@AidanBunker) June 13, 2020
Eriksen scores directly from this corner. Yep the end of the world is near pic.twitter.com/h0aTen9xTQ
— Hols (@HollieAgombar) June 14, 2020
2020 keeps on giving us weird things to witness. See how Christian Eriksen just scored from a corner. Inter Milan's celebration tho ?? #NapoliInterpic.twitter.com/ha4JYN0W9S
— Trouble Will Find Me (@queeninghere) June 13, 2020
Eriksen just scored from a direct corner kick
…in the same league where a certain GOAT hasn't scored a direct free kick goal.
— TheFirst (@_jamesamoo) June 13, 2020
Just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any weirder, Christian Eriksen has just scored directly from a corner.
— Simply (@Simply_Spurs) June 13, 2020
Eriksen used to be my favourite player but saying i thought he couldn't beat the first man when he literally didnt in 18 months at spurs because he scored a flukey corner is ridiculous, come on now
— Alex Smith (@RedemptionDele) June 13, 2020
Spurs Web Opinion
In fairness to Eriksen, accusing him of not being able to beat the first man at Spurs, is rather unfair. It would have been quite easy for the midfielder to attempt to a middle post or deep corner but the decision to hit the near post area was clearly strategic.
We had great success from his corners until around 2017, with the likes of Dier and Alderweireld capitalising on the Denmark international ability to whip the ball into the near post area. It was a high-risk/high reward corner routine as opposed to floating the ball into the middle of the area.