How an unusual groin led to a ‘unique’ Premier League goal | OneFootball

Alex Iwobi produced a finish that felt genuinely new against Tottenham on Sunday, a side-footed strike fashioned from an improbable body shape. He suggested it owed something to how he can open his hips.

He exchanged a one-two with Harry Wilson just outside the Tottenham penalty area then swept low into the far corner from around 20 yards. From the right side of the area and angled towards the far post, his body shape implied a short pass, a clipped cross towards Raul Jimenez or a touch right to create room. Each option looked crowded by three or four defenders.

Instead, he reshaped mid-stride, opening his hips and turning his right foot almost at a right angle to side-foot first time. The ball kissed the inside of the post and went in with startling precision.

"I don't think anyone has groins to open up their hip and side-foot it like that. When H (Harry Wilson) passed to me, I had one thought: to side-foot it. I do it in training, so my team-mates weren't surprised," he told Sky Sports.

Team-mates have long teased that he prefers the side-foot, and there are precedents for such strikes, from Loic Remy for QPR against Wigan in 2013 to Hector Bellerin for Arsenal against Aston Villa in 2015. Yet finishes of this type remain rare, which is why Iwobi’s felt, as he put it earlier, unique.

Source: NY Times