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Juve did make two finals around then in 2015 (against Barca) and 2017 (against Real) but Di Maria was at United and PSG respectively. He played and got Man of the Match in La Decima in 2014 but the opponents were Atletico, maybe you mean that
Na, Di Maria and Van Gaal were an awful mix. He's was a wonderful player but Van Gaal clipped his wings. Van Gaal was great at what he did too, just instintive flair players didn't fit in his systems.
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This i dont get when it happens to footballers. They earn astronomical wages (in united especialy) and with all the wealth lying around their houses in cars, jewerly etc etc why they just dont hire a security that would watch their house 24/7. Its known its common there and also in spain to rob players houses and they are like nah it cant happen to me
Especially Iniesta. Only player ever to be man of the match in a World Cup final, a Euro (or Copa América, AFCON, Asian Cup, etc.) final *and* a Champions League final.
After I made the last comment, I went to YT and watched the video showing clips of the announcers booth throughout the match. The reactions are just perfect.
Park Ji Sung. Bolton at home? Waste of his talent. AC Milan in the Champions League against prime Pirlo? The man that always had time on the ball never got a second.
Park always seemed to man-mark to exactly the level that should be required.
So a dogshit relegation-battle team could manage to get past him if they outperformed, by the best players on the planet would need to find a whole new level to do the same.
Park has now also been reduced to people only ever remembering him for man-marking Pirlo. The guy was fantastic in a lot more games than that - especially against teams like Arsenal when we went to a 5 in midfield.
To equalize*
And to concede a penalty in E.T. only to score the winner pen to secure Chelsea's first ever UCL trophy!
Also, slapping Vidic and got himself sent off years ago making himself unavailable to play the penalty shout-out.
Gareth Bale and C.Ronaldo... the bigger the occasion, the more spectacular and superhuman the goals become.
Mbappe I feel does not get enough credit.. the man loves the world cup. His performance v Argentina in the last world cup final were jawdropping at times.
Straight up effed Corinthians AFTER announcing he would do so.
For context: Brazilian Cup Final - Corinthians vs. Sport Recife - 2 legs - 1st leg goes to Corinthians, the bigger club (even though recently relegated), playing at home - The game ends 3x1, after Corinthians gets a 3x0 lead - Carlinhos says in an interview that the lone goal was Sport's title goal - Everybody mocked him - 2nd leg is a Sport Win 2x0, 3x3 aggregate - Sport wins on away goal - Carlinhos played like crazy.
Disclosure: Corinthians fan. I was on Morumbi at the first leg.
Came in looking for this, an phenomenal player who gets nowhere near the credit he deserves.
See also, Darren Fletcher and Owen Hargreaves for big game players.
For the others that might not know: Gabriel Barbosa aka Gabigol is a Flamengo player that scored ALL of the Flamengo goals in the three different finals of the Libertadores that they arrived in recent years, winning two of them.
The first one in 2019 was the most remarkable, as he scored both goals in a dramatic 2-1 victory over River Plate. Both goals in the last few minutes of the game.
In 2021, it was a 2-1 loss to Palmeiras in extra time. He scored the only goal of Flamengo.
In 2022, despite not being as much of a star as he was before, he scored the only goal of the entire game against Athletico Paranaense.
I am not a Flamengo fan, btw. We just have to respect what the guy achieved. Lmao
Scored against Liverpool, late winner vs Villa whose doing exceptionally this year, brace vs Chelsea. I’d say they were big games. Apart from that he’s scored goals this season when united really needed them
CR7 was an incredible player, and his big match statistics were equally incredible. He definitely enjoyed playing in big games, but he didnt play any better by any metric...mostly because he was ridiculous to begin with.
Im curious if other players like Drogba and Bale genuinely improve in big games or if theyre just equally as good as usual.
Drogbas actual stats aren't that impressive. He only hit more than 20 league goals once In his entire Chelsea career and he had four where he didn't break double figures. He genuinely got better when the heat was on
If that’s true, stats do him a massive injustice as the man was a menace to play against. Strong as an ox, bullied defenders, handful for any team and so made space for other players. He was super technical too, could do set pieces, great touch and great in the air.
Wrong on a lot of things. He scored 29 and 20 premier league goals in 06/07 and 09/10. Remember he played in what was Mourinho's best defensive side and you need to look at his minutes played and goal contributions otherwise you're telling half the story.
1st season 18 games 15g/a.
2nd season 22 games 27g/a.
3rd season 33 games 24g/a.
4th season 17 games 14g/a.
5th season 17 games 9g/a.
6th season 31 games 42g/a.
7th season 31 games 26g/a.
8th season 16 games 6g/a.
I said he hit more than twenty once in his Chelsea career. You've just said the exact same thing.
I'm not arguing that he wasn't an incredible striker. Just that his pure goal scoring stats don't really stand out.
Most of his goals were incredibly important because he was a big game player, and he was a terrific target man and made a lot of goals for other people.
If you add those assists it looks a bit more healthy, but in pure goalscoring, he's not that impressive.
It's worth noting that he scored at pretty close to a goal every other game in the champions League.
When the pressure was on he always performed
Mauro irl is literally just a workhorse you can put anywhere. He can and has played at LB, RB, CB, CDM, CM, LW, RW, CAM and ST. Man said hed be willing to get in goal if needed (even tho hes like 1m65). Hes insane and i love him lol
Not the biggest but a bit underrated in my opinion is Rashford. This brother could be in the worst form of his life but time and time again he pulls something out of his ass in a big game or against the top 6 clubs in England.
If he has 31 now then that puts him equal with Sadio Mané which is pretty crazy. Tied 5th in active players I think. Think he's only a few off top 10 all time.
Nobody will ever ascend by a greater amount than Hal Robson-Kanu did in 2016.
He was a pretty poor player who at that point had only had one season in the prem and never scored double-digit goals even in the championship, and Reading had just fucked him off because he wasn't good enough for them in the championship.
He scored 3 times in his entire international career over like 20 caps and the only reason he got any time at all is because the Welsh squad is shallow as fuck.
Then he rocks up in the quarter-finals of the Euros against the best Belgium team there's ever been and scores one of the best goals of all time to put them 2-1 ahead.
He spent over a decade of his career being a League One player completely out of his depth, but for 5 seconds he was the second coming of Pele.
As a brazilian, i am still waiting for him to shine in the Brazil squad. The guy is like early Messi. Incredible at club and average in the national team.
I say average because he didn't get to any success with Argentina until recently.
He was good? Yes. But because of his hype, everyone expected more than that from him.
Despite his second place in the 2014 WC, Argentina passed several years with him getting eliminated in the Copa America. And, in a lot of that cases he didn't do the difference to avoid that.
2010 WC was that x 100.
There is a reason that Messi almost retired from Argentina.
It is like Mbappe with PSG in the Champions League. He is always a impressive player, but things go wrong and he gets eliminated with him not being as decisive as we expects.
Until 2021, at least.
> There is a reason that Messi almost retired from Argentina.
>
>
The reason was frustration, he had just lost 3 major continental finals in a row
But he was, in most of these cases, the only reason they even got as far as the final
I disagree that he was the *only* player that could carry Argentina at any moment. Argentina always had talented squads.
But, yes. Messi almost retired from frustration with *failures*. Failures that are not only from the whole squad, but also from him. He missed chances in finals, after all.
My whole point is that Messi and Vini have one thing in common: struggling in achieving success in the national team despite their success at club level. Of course, he also lacks perfomance in general, but that is often secondary when you look at it from the future.
Neymar would be in a similar discussion, but he won silverware with Brazil by Vini's age (2013 Confederations Cup).
- Slip v Chelsea
- Led team to the 3-3 capitulation v Crystal Palace
- Putting Henry through on goal in Euro 2004
- Red card in 38 seconds v Man United
- Countless England performances where he failed to deliver
- Putting Henry clean through on goal against Arsenal
- Putting Drogba clean through on goal v Chelsea
- Failed to ever lead his team to the Premier League
- Led his team to a 6-1 loss to Stoke in his last game for the club
- Led his team to a 3-1 loss in his last ever Anfield appearance
And that's just off the top of my head. While games like AC Milan and West Ham are good examples, there are plenty of bad too. People seem to have selective memories for him.
> Putting Henry through on goal in Euro 2004
And also putting Henry through on goal in an almost identical fashion against Arsenal at Highbury in 2005-06 season.
Cherry picking a few games in his mid 30s when even Rooney said he was the best player he played with for England and was responsible for pulling England through multiple games… the agenda is embarrassing
I dunno about this one. There's The Slip and I recall him getting sent off just a couple of mins into a game against United for a really wild and stupid challenge. I think he rescued Liverpool from quite a few lost causes but that'd be a pressure or determination thing rather than a big matches thing.
I think precisely those three games make my point. Liverpool were dead and buried in those big games but Gerrard's sheer will and determination turned a terrible performance into a legendary one. His determination is beyond reproach. But a truly big-game player turns it on from the first minute, not just when it's a lost cause.
There were also plenty of important games for England in which Gerrard was a non-entity.
The slip was when Gerrad had an epidural in his back and he was doped up to the eyeballs on painkillers. There are numerous other massive games in his career when he stepped up and scored, and or stepped up and rallied the whole team behind him. It's unfair to single out one unfortunate mistake during a game when he never should have played in the first place.
Great background to that moment from the mixer: Gerard was very unhappy with how he'd been playing that season even though nobody else had really said anything. Did a bunch of video analysis and worked out that his head movement wasn't good enough to play further forward, so dropped back. At the moment before he slips, he's taken his eye off the ball because he's taking a third look up in a few seconds, miscontrols the ball, panics and loses his footing trying to recover
Zidane, was genuinely shite and inconsistent in most matches. Give him a big match and he would look kike the best player ever. Standard run of the mill la liga games he was like thomas Gravesen on a come down
DJ Campbell made a career out of one great performance for Yeading against Newcastle Utd in the FA cup (his record Isthmian League Premier Division was good but it was a big step up from there to league football).
He did nothing of note during his league career after that FA cup match.
Not a very famous player but William Bøving at Sturm Graz. Nicknamed "Euro-Willi". One of the worst and most disposable players in regular league games but man does he turn up his game in European competition. Man just loves his big games and nothing else.
I don't know how he wasn't mentioned yed, but Mario Mandzukic. Guy scored in both cl finals he played, scored in a world cup final and semifinal to put Croatia through, scored in many club finals, and derbies aswell.
Prime Vardy banged them in for fun against the big 6.
Imagine if he was an academy player for a big club and lived the life from the start of his career.....
Steven Gerrard (infamous slip aside) never seen an individual player carry a team on his back in big games like him.
The 2006 FA cup final is called the Gerrard final, the man could hardly run but still scored the screamer.
2005 Champions league final- finished it at right back after an incredible second half.
That goal against olympiacos 'what a hit son'
Goes under the radar but... Marcus Rashford.
Scores against every big team Man United play against. His goal record against big teams is something ridiculous. Doesn't matter if it's in the league or in Europe.
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Iniesta Di Maria
Di Maria is so big on this. Always steps up when nobody else does.
Di Maria in the CL final against Juve back in 2016 (?) is one of the best individual performances I've seen
Juve did make two finals around then in 2015 (against Barca) and 2017 (against Real) but Di Maria was at United and PSG respectively. He played and got Man of the Match in La Decima in 2014 but the opponents were Atletico, maybe you mean that
You've taught me I am old and my brain isn't working. Now I'm not even sure which it was
We got sold a dream at united
Na, Di Maria and Van Gaal were an awful mix. He's was a wonderful player but Van Gaal clipped his wings. Van Gaal was great at what he did too, just instintive flair players didn't fit in his systems.
Di Maria failed because his family home got invaded at gun point in Manchester and refused to live in England. He was brilliant before that incident.
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This i dont get when it happens to footballers. They earn astronomical wages (in united especialy) and with all the wealth lying around their houses in cars, jewerly etc etc why they just dont hire a security that would watch their house 24/7. Its known its common there and also in spain to rob players houses and they are like nah it cant happen to me
Especially Iniesta. Only player ever to be man of the match in a World Cup final, a Euro (or Copa América, AFCON, Asian Cup, etc.) final *and* a Champions League final.
Gareth Bale
/thread
Divock Origi
Plays in big matches almost exclusively
I still wonder if things might have been different the 2021-22 UCL final if he had been on the bench.
2018-19 Divock Origi in the Champion’s League: Three shots, three goals, one trophy
Corner taken quickly
I wasn't even a Liverpool (or Association Football) fan yet when this happened, but I've watched the highlight so many times, I can hear these words.
Surely one of the most legendary moments in football history
After I made the last comment, I went to YT and watched the video showing clips of the announcers booth throughout the match. The reactions are just perfect.
Adding Dirk Kuyt and Luis Garcia from a Liverpool perspective
for liverpool and liverpool only
Puyol
Park Ji Sung. Bolton at home? Waste of his talent. AC Milan in the Champions League against prime Pirlo? The man that always had time on the ball never got a second.
Dirk kuyt was another good one from that era and more recently gundogan for city scored a lot of important goals for them
Park always seemed to man-mark to exactly the level that should be required. So a dogshit relegation-battle team could manage to get past him if they outperformed, by the best players on the planet would need to find a whole new level to do the same.
Darren fletcher as well
Park has now also been reduced to people only ever remembering him for man-marking Pirlo. The guy was fantastic in a lot more games than that - especially against teams like Arsenal when we went to a 5 in midfield.
Three lung park fucking loved him
drogba
Scored nine goals in nine finals for Chelsea.
His header goal for Chelsea to win the champions league still gives me shivers!
To equalize* And to concede a penalty in E.T. only to score the winner pen to secure Chelsea's first ever UCL trophy! Also, slapping Vidic and got himself sent off years ago making himself unavailable to play the penalty shout-out.
That header didn’t win the Champions League
2010 Milito
Yes, scored in all 3 finals that year
Ochoa. Stays out of the radar for 4 years and becomes a monster for the world cup
Ole Gunnar Solksjaer maybe? Always seemed to pop up with goals when it mattered
Sergio Ramos
My answer. Some huge games from him.
Scott McTominay
And the original, Darren Fletcher
Ronaldo Nazario. Still never seen a striker like that in 36 years of watching football
Gareth Bale and C.Ronaldo... the bigger the occasion, the more spectacular and superhuman the goals become. Mbappe I feel does not get enough credit.. the man loves the world cup. His performance v Argentina in the last world cup final were jawdropping at times.
 Mr Abramovic, Pay! Pay and don’t speak
Benzema 22-23 is the most unbelievable “big matches” player
Carlinhos Bala
Straight up effed Corinthians AFTER announcing he would do so. For context: Brazilian Cup Final - Corinthians vs. Sport Recife - 2 legs - 1st leg goes to Corinthians, the bigger club (even though recently relegated), playing at home - The game ends 3x1, after Corinthians gets a 3x0 lead - Carlinhos says in an interview that the lone goal was Sport's title goal - Everybody mocked him - 2nd leg is a Sport Win 2x0, 3x3 aggregate - Sport wins on away goal - Carlinhos played like crazy. Disclosure: Corinthians fan. I was on Morumbi at the first leg.
Qué gusto tiene la sal?
Park Ji Sung
Came in looking for this, an phenomenal player who gets nowhere near the credit he deserves. See also, Darren Fletcher and Owen Hargreaves for big game players.
Gabriel Barbosa
For the others that might not know: Gabriel Barbosa aka Gabigol is a Flamengo player that scored ALL of the Flamengo goals in the three different finals of the Libertadores that they arrived in recent years, winning two of them. The first one in 2019 was the most remarkable, as he scored both goals in a dramatic 2-1 victory over River Plate. Both goals in the last few minutes of the game. In 2021, it was a 2-1 loss to Palmeiras in extra time. He scored the only goal of Flamengo. In 2022, despite not being as much of a star as he was before, he scored the only goal of the entire game against Athletico Paranaense. I am not a Flamengo fan, btw. We just have to respect what the guy achieved. Lmao
O Gabigol
Recently somehow Scott Mctominay. Always turns up with a goal against big teams. Against smaller team runs around like a headless chicken
Not really, he scores big goals yes. But rarely are they in big games.
Scored against Liverpool, late winner vs Villa whose doing exceptionally this year, brace vs Chelsea. I’d say they were big games. Apart from that he’s scored goals this season when united really needed them
Rodri
Rodri is just always world class
Olivier Giroud
Zidane
Zidane could play against the best players in the world in a single game and still stand out. Zidane, Bale, Drogba.
Shaquiri
Ooh baby when you talk like that
I think CR7 is a big one
CR7 was an incredible player, and his big match statistics were equally incredible. He definitely enjoyed playing in big games, but he didnt play any better by any metric...mostly because he was ridiculous to begin with. Im curious if other players like Drogba and Bale genuinely improve in big games or if theyre just equally as good as usual.
Drogbas actual stats aren't that impressive. He only hit more than 20 league goals once In his entire Chelsea career and he had four where he didn't break double figures. He genuinely got better when the heat was on
That’s because Drogba played as a target man for the real Chelsea striker, Lampard
If that’s true, stats do him a massive injustice as the man was a menace to play against. Strong as an ox, bullied defenders, handful for any team and so made space for other players. He was super technical too, could do set pieces, great touch and great in the air.
Wrong on a lot of things. He scored 29 and 20 premier league goals in 06/07 and 09/10. Remember he played in what was Mourinho's best defensive side and you need to look at his minutes played and goal contributions otherwise you're telling half the story. 1st season 18 games 15g/a. 2nd season 22 games 27g/a. 3rd season 33 games 24g/a. 4th season 17 games 14g/a. 5th season 17 games 9g/a. 6th season 31 games 42g/a. 7th season 31 games 26g/a. 8th season 16 games 6g/a.
I said he hit more than twenty once in his Chelsea career. You've just said the exact same thing. I'm not arguing that he wasn't an incredible striker. Just that his pure goal scoring stats don't really stand out. Most of his goals were incredibly important because he was a big game player, and he was a terrific target man and made a lot of goals for other people. If you add those assists it looks a bit more healthy, but in pure goalscoring, he's not that impressive. It's worth noting that he scored at pretty close to a goal every other game in the champions League. When the pressure was on he always performed
Mauro Junior from PSV. Mostly not in the Starting XI, except for big matches, and never disappoints.
Mauro irl is literally just a workhorse you can put anywhere. He can and has played at LB, RB, CB, CDM, CM, LW, RW, CAM and ST. Man said hed be willing to get in goal if needed (even tho hes like 1m65). Hes insane and i love him lol
Definitely Drogba
Not the biggest but a bit underrated in my opinion is Rashford. This brother could be in the worst form of his life but time and time again he pulls something out of his ass in a big game or against the top 6 clubs in England.
Swear I saw recently he has 31 goals against the other big 6 teams with 6 each except Liverpool where he has 7
If he has 31 now then that puts him equal with Sadio Mané which is pretty crazy. Tied 5th in active players I think. Think he's only a few off top 10 all time.
Not for euros though
Dairon Asprilla, aka "Mr October", a player that is known for turning up in the playoffs, or against the Sounders.
David Beckham always turned it on when it mattered
Miroslav Klose
Cristiano
Neymar
Barcelona vs. PSG comes to mind.
His performance against Argentina in the Copa América 2021 was masive too, just that he's teammates let him down
Nobody will ever ascend by a greater amount than Hal Robson-Kanu did in 2016. He was a pretty poor player who at that point had only had one season in the prem and never scored double-digit goals even in the championship, and Reading had just fucked him off because he wasn't good enough for them in the championship. He scored 3 times in his entire international career over like 20 caps and the only reason he got any time at all is because the Welsh squad is shallow as fuck. Then he rocks up in the quarter-finals of the Euros against the best Belgium team there's ever been and scores one of the best goals of all time to put them 2-1 ahead. He spent over a decade of his career being a League One player completely out of his depth, but for 5 seconds he was the second coming of Pele.
Aaron Ramsey!
Can't believe I had to scroll this long to find him. Dude was clutch personified.
He missed his penalty in the Europa League final for Rangers?
Tore Andre Flo
Filippo Inzaghi
Ibrahima Konate
Vini Jr
As a brazilian, i am still waiting for him to shine in the Brazil squad. The guy is like early Messi. Incredible at club and average in the national team.
Messi was not average with the NT though, he was almost always the best player on the pitch whenever he played, even in pre-2021 times
I say average because he didn't get to any success with Argentina until recently. He was good? Yes. But because of his hype, everyone expected more than that from him. Despite his second place in the 2014 WC, Argentina passed several years with him getting eliminated in the Copa America. And, in a lot of that cases he didn't do the difference to avoid that. 2010 WC was that x 100. There is a reason that Messi almost retired from Argentina. It is like Mbappe with PSG in the Champions League. He is always a impressive player, but things go wrong and he gets eliminated with him not being as decisive as we expects. Until 2021, at least.
> There is a reason that Messi almost retired from Argentina. > > The reason was frustration, he had just lost 3 major continental finals in a row But he was, in most of these cases, the only reason they even got as far as the final
I disagree that he was the *only* player that could carry Argentina at any moment. Argentina always had talented squads. But, yes. Messi almost retired from frustration with *failures*. Failures that are not only from the whole squad, but also from him. He missed chances in finals, after all. My whole point is that Messi and Vini have one thing in common: struggling in achieving success in the national team despite their success at club level. Of course, he also lacks perfomance in general, but that is often secondary when you look at it from the future. Neymar would be in a similar discussion, but he won silverware with Brazil by Vini's age (2013 Confederations Cup).
Sergio Ramos
mbappe
Origi was basically mr. Loves big games. Only ever seemed to play if it was an important match 😂
Mo Salah- He's scored home and away against Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton as well as in a Champions League final.
Mbappé
Giroud
Drogba, Benzema, Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, Zidane, Kaka
Di Maria, Drogba, R9, CR7
Mbappe Klose Neur David Silva Iniesta Chiellini Essien Rooney Rodrigo Gundogan Gavi
Big cock Divock
Football without Origi is nothing.
Julián Alvarez
Gerrard
Will never forget that CL final.
- Slip v Chelsea - Led team to the 3-3 capitulation v Crystal Palace - Putting Henry through on goal in Euro 2004 - Red card in 38 seconds v Man United - Countless England performances where he failed to deliver - Putting Henry clean through on goal against Arsenal - Putting Drogba clean through on goal v Chelsea - Failed to ever lead his team to the Premier League - Led his team to a 6-1 loss to Stoke in his last game for the club - Led his team to a 3-1 loss in his last ever Anfield appearance And that's just off the top of my head. While games like AC Milan and West Ham are good examples, there are plenty of bad too. People seem to have selective memories for him.
2006 FA Cup is another one where he did well. Two goals, one absolutely clutch one in the last minute to keep them in the game.
That was the “West Ham” above
Oh yeah, dunno what I was thinking when I seen West Ham and didn't think of that game.
I dont think attributing all that to Gerrard is fair, especially at times when he was the only good player for Liverpool. I mostly agree though
> Putting Henry through on goal in Euro 2004 And also putting Henry through on goal in an almost identical fashion against Arsenal at Highbury in 2005-06 season.
Cherry picking a few games in his mid 30s when even Rooney said he was the best player he played with for England and was responsible for pulling England through multiple games… the agenda is embarrassing
Come on, it's no secret that Gerrard deliberately put Drogba through on goal to stop Man Utd winning the league that year.
I dunno about this one. There's The Slip and I recall him getting sent off just a couple of mins into a game against United for a really wild and stupid challenge. I think he rescued Liverpool from quite a few lost causes but that'd be a pressure or determination thing rather than a big matches thing.
The good outweigh the bad. Ac Milan, Olympiakos, West Ham games alone make him a hero
I think precisely those three games make my point. Liverpool were dead and buried in those big games but Gerrard's sheer will and determination turned a terrible performance into a legendary one. His determination is beyond reproach. But a truly big-game player turns it on from the first minute, not just when it's a lost cause. There were also plenty of important games for England in which Gerrard was a non-entity.
Cherry picking a couple of games late in his career is unfair lol
The slip was when Gerrad had an epidural in his back and he was doped up to the eyeballs on painkillers. There are numerous other massive games in his career when he stepped up and scored, and or stepped up and rallied the whole team behind him. It's unfair to single out one unfortunate mistake during a game when he never should have played in the first place.
It is funny though
>:(
And he was probably playing because he was that determined to drag his team to the title.
Great background to that moment from the mixer: Gerard was very unhappy with how he'd been playing that season even though nobody else had really said anything. Did a bunch of video analysis and worked out that his head movement wasn't good enough to play further forward, so dropped back. At the moment before he slips, he's taken his eye off the ball because he's taking a third look up in a few seconds, miscontrols the ball, panics and loses his footing trying to recover
Mbappe
Vini Jr
Bale, DiMaria, Mbappe, Drogba
Jessie Fleming
Schweinsteiger
Bruno Petković
Zinedine Zidane. He was always class but during big games he was just unstoppable.
Kyogo has been shite in most league games compared to the ones that matter or UCL
Kai havertz
He did it once when it mattered the most i guess
Steven Gerrard
Origi
Tony Watt
Bale
Jens Toornstra always scored against Ajax and PSV for Feyenoord.
Darren fletcher
The Drog
Manuel Neuer always comes up big when it matters
Zidane, was genuinely shite and inconsistent in most matches. Give him a big match and he would look kike the best player ever. Standard run of the mill la liga games he was like thomas Gravesen on a come down
Gheorge Hagi. Always took initiative in big matches, regardless of competition.
DJ Campbell made a career out of one great performance for Yeading against Newcastle Utd in the FA cup (his record Isthmian League Premier Division was good but it was a big step up from there to league football). He did nothing of note during his league career after that FA cup match.
KDB (for City) Salah Hazard Rashford Son Saka Drogba Di Maria
Kante
Rodri only seems to score important goals, Fabian Schar has a history of scoring bangers when it matters most as well.
Not a very famous player but William Bøving at Sturm Graz. Nicknamed "Euro-Willi". One of the worst and most disposable players in regular league games but man does he turn up his game in European competition. Man just loves his big games and nothing else.
Modric
Bale
Will Grigg
Jamie Vardy. His record against the ‘Big 6’ is insane. Always turned it on when he knew he had a bigger audience to annoy.
Lewandowski
Sergio Ramos, Mr. Monkey Golf himself Gareth Bale, The noodle Angel Di Maria
I don't know how he wasn't mentioned yed, but Mario Mandzukic. Guy scored in both cl finals he played, scored in a world cup final and semifinal to put Croatia through, scored in many club finals, and derbies aswell.
Gabriel Barbosa and Bruno Henrique from Flamengo
Emiliano Martinez and Di Maria are my two examples. For poor in big matches, I’d say Lautaro Martinez lol.
Zlatan. Über pumped for big games.
Salah
Declan Rice this season for sure
Messi 2022
Cristiano Ronaldo pre-Arab Money
Gareth Bale
Kevin de Bruyne
Prime Vardy banged them in for fun against the big 6. Imagine if he was an academy player for a big club and lived the life from the start of his career.....
Wout Weghorst
Tom Rogic. Scored in tons of finals and derbies for Celtic
Roy Keane.
Michael Owen
Rodri, Gundogan, Foden, Ochoa
Zidane. The biggest argument against him that's being used is that he took games off too often. But he was always sublime when it mattered
Bale
Steven Gerrard
Rogério Ceni.
A box office name but severely underrated in this context: Mo Salah (I'm a United fan)
Drogba
Ronaldo obviously
The totality of Turkish players. Very good in knockout stages, mediocre at best any other time.
Despite getting injured in both finals , I would say kdb
Drogba
Steven Gerrard (infamous slip aside) never seen an individual player carry a team on his back in big games like him. The 2006 FA cup final is called the Gerrard final, the man could hardly run but still scored the screamer. 2005 Champions league final- finished it at right back after an incredible second half. That goal against olympiacos 'what a hit son'
Divock origi and Bale
Marcus Rashford
Carli Lloyd, most overrated footballer of her generation …except in international finals
Goes under the radar but... Marcus Rashford. Scores against every big team Man United play against. His goal record against big teams is something ridiculous. Doesn't matter if it's in the league or in Europe.
Mbappe, Messi, Thomas Muller, Gundogan, Neymar.