“Right lads, let’s keep it tight for the first… ah sh*te.”
If practically every single football co-commentator known to man is to be believed, ‘keeping it tight for the first 20 minutes’ is one of the golden rules of the game, particularly for underdogs coming up against a bigger side or for a home side in a European tie where the need to avoid the concession of an away goal is paramount.
Ignoring that sage advice, Almeria couldn’t even keep it tight for the first 20 seconds of their meeting with Valencia in La Liga last night, with a calamitous mix-up between an Almeria defender and goalkeeper allowing former Barcelona man Keita in to score his first ever goal for Valencia and the fastest goal ever scored in the Spanish top-flight. 7.6 seconds is all it took.
Almeria fell two behind before half-time but scored twice in the space of two minutes in the second-half to recover a draw, but it goes without saying that the aforementioned ‘keeping it tight’ cliché will be ringing in their ears the next time they take to the pitch.
Hat-tip: 101 Great Goals
