🎥 Neuer's breakout: Best goalkeeping display ever? | OneFootball

In football, there are those matches in which young, highly talented players practically flaunt their incredible skills in front of all the spectators. In modern German, one would probably call this a "breakout game."

Manuel Neuer experienced exactly such a game on March 5, 2008—exactly 26 years ago to the day. The young goalkeeper was a guest with FC Schalke in the Champions League round of 16 at FC Porto.

Not even four years earlier, the Portuguese top club had won the Champions League trophy, but on that mild spring evening, the international stars around Lucho Gonzalez and Ricardo Quaresma failed time and again from every possible angle against the then only 21-year-old Neuer.

The Gelsenkirchen native played so outstandingly that day that one could almost believe he was created solely for the art of goalkeeping.

During those 90 minutes, all of Europe witnessed the emergence of the future in the goalkeeper position. Eighteen years later, it’s clear: that assessment was absolutely correct.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Manuel Queimadelos Alonso - 2008 Getty Images