Scotland's Dazzling Goal Against Ireland

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Scotland's Dazzling Goal Against Ireland

The lone goal from Scotland's win over Ireland in a Euro 2016 qualifier was a gorgeous set piece that didn't work in practice.

This Scotland goal, the lone goal from yesterday's 1-0 win over Ireland in a Euro 2016 qualifier, is marvelous. Shaun Maloney played a corner to Ikechi Anya, who touched it right back to Maloney on the move. Maloney then passed through a defender's legs to Scott Brown, who led Maloney on with a backheel flick. Maloney met the pass and bent a sizzling shot off the far post with his first touch. It was a ridiculous bit of zig-zagging that Scotland have practiced before, though it never worked as well as it did against Ireland.

Here's Maloney, from the BBC:

"We train very hard on them," he said. "A lot of the time, they don't happen. Sometimes you don't even try them, but thankfully tonight we did and it affected the result…We had a day when we worked on set pieces and we tried it a few times and it didn't quite end up how it did tonight."

Better to work in the game than in practice, that way we all get to see it.