Three of the best, he’s made them pay
A goalkeeper in Greece has gone viral after he scored a hat-trick during a fourth division game last weekend.
The game between Aetos Vassilikon and Pavlos Melas AO sparked wild scenes as Pavlos’ goalkeeper, Grigoris Athanassiou bagged three goals.
On reflection, that does seem crazy and you could be forgiven for wondering how he had three separate opportunities to score, but as shown in the video below, Athanassiou is in fact his club’s penalty taker.
His first spot-kick was a cool, calm and collected effort as there was a subtle hint of a Jorginho-inspired hop, skip and jump before sending the keeper the wrong way to grab his first.
Athanassiou was then tasked with a second penalty in the first-half. With the pressure on, he once again stepped up to the plate as he took a different approach.
Whilst his first effort from 12 yards was rolled into the net, he opted for power second time round, firing into the left hand side of the goal to leave the opposition ‘keeper rooted to the spot.
Lo and behold, Pavlos were given a third penalty in the second-half (honestly, how bad must Aetos be defensively?) and that presented Athanassiou with the chance to take the match ball home.
Did he do it? Of course he did. The shot-stopper-turned-goalscorer went back to the same style as he did for his first goal. Hop, skip, jump… you know the rest.
Judging by his and his teammates reactions, Athanassiou’s goalscoring antics must be a regular occurrence but nonetheless, it’s quite the achievement to score a hat-trick as a goalkeeper.
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