Thread by @Metro_Sport

The two men who defined the 2018 #UCL final between Liverpool and Real Madrid won’t be taking part this time 🔴⚪ #LFC #RMCF

We took a look at the errors, the overhead kick, and the weirdly similar careers of Karius and Bale since then 👇🧵

metro.co.uk/2022/05/28/why…

In Kyiv, Gareth Bale swivelled rearward, propelled his left leg at a right-angle towards the heavens, and hit a shot into the top corner so unerring, so perfectly timed, so wrought with wrath, that it could have burnt a searing hole through a literal iron curtain ⚽

As football analysis and punditry have evolved in the information age, elite-level players are increasingly judged on their data, the numbers they produce both in front of goal and in their season-long all-around play, rather than on their moments of brilliance 📈

But the moments where a footballer produces a morsel of talent so unquantifiable, so incomprehensible to a mere mortal, are the reason they are so adored and why their legacies outlast not just their sporting careers but their time on this Earth 🤯

That overhead kick in Kyiv, on the night Real Madrid beat Liverpool 3-1 to win a third consecutive European Cup, deserves to be remembered as the finest moment in the illustrious history of one of the most riotously talented forwards to have played the game in the 21st century 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

It is a spellbinding goal. A spectacular, stupefying, stomach-churning punch in the gut. I have never seen the goal back, not because it hurts too much to watch, but because I do not want my memory of its brilliance to be merged with stylised TV replays and slo-mo footage 🚀

Bale scored a second goal that night, of course, which sealed the win and doomed Liverpool to their fate. That was a pot shot from distance, struck directly at goalkeeper Loris Karius, who lost concentration and allowed the ball to slip between his hands and into the net 😬

If Bale's performance and sublime piece of skill should be immortalised as the defining moment of his sporting life, then those errors must also rank and Karius'. He crumbled on the biggest stage of all on a scale that in truth has never been seen before or since in football 🇩🇪

What is peculiar, though, is that Bale's career followed a very similar path 🤔

Both will be watching on as their team-mates compete in the showpiece event that men both defined only four years ago, their two club football careers essentially ended on the same night.

What Bale and Karius' not too dissimilar career paths show is that footballers themselves can only enjoy their careers moment to moment, because whether they are coming off the ultimate high or the most dejecting of lows, they have precious little control over what follows 🏆

But for Bale at least, the power of his glorious goal should be more than enough for him, Real Madrid supporters, and football fans everywhere to revel in for the rest of time ⚽

You can read the full feature from @_dan_austin here 👇

metro.co.uk/2022/05/28/why…