The Premier League is just a week away and West Ham fans have now had a couple of opportunities to familiarise themselves with their new surroundings.
Days on from beating some team from Slovenia at the imaginatively named London Stadium, Slaven Bilic’s side played host to Juventus in their final preseason friendly.
In the end, the Italian Champions ran out 3-2 winners in the game that marked the official opening of the new ground – despite surrendering a 2-0 lead to West Ham before Simone Zaza scored a late winner.
One of the other scorers for Juve was former Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich man, Mario Mandžukić. As the list of clubs he’s represented suggests, the Croatian has proved to be one of the best strikers on the continent in the last few years, but there was something wonderfully Sunday League about the situation he found himself at one point in the match.
Having attempted to tackle Michail Antonio, the 30-year-old found himself on the floor with the ball stuck under his legs. Instead of simply prodding the ball to his nearest teammate, Mandžukić decided to improvise…
Using both feet to hold the ball, he pulls off something resembling a backward roll, flicking the ball over his head to a waiting teammate in the process.
Mandzukic's circus pass 👌😂 pic.twitter.com/bYjPjcNVgj
— Fardy Maramis (@FardyFernando) August 7, 2016
Exhibition stuff and all that.
