If we were to talk about the best performers of the 2020 European Championship group stage, Paul Pogba would be one of the very first names on the list.
The French midfielder has been his country’s stand-out player in the group stage as he followed up a Man of the Match performance against Germany with another distinctive performance against Hungary and registered an assist against Portugal – before almost finding the net himself with a brilliantly done no-look effort.
France’s clash against Portugal pitted the world champions against the European champions, and the match lived up to all expectations.
When the match was tied at 2-2 courtesy of braces from Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, the occasion was screaming out for a moment of magic individual brilliance to decide the outcome.
Quite naturally, Pogba – one of the most gifted individual footballers in the game right now – took it upon himself to try and break the deadlock.
Pogba let loose a screamer of a shot with his right foot from 25 yards, an effort that looked destined to end up in the back of the net – if it was not for a flying Rui Patricio who helped the effort onto the upright.
The Portuguese goalkeeper kept out a genuine goal of the tournament contender, but apart from the shot power and technique involved, what astonished viewers even more about the shot was the fact that Pogba was not even looking when he attempted the shot.
Football fans on Twitter noticed that Pogba’s head was turned away from the goal as he took the shot on – a detail that surprised viewers and spoke volumes about the Manchester United man’s raw quality.
Even with his versatile range of skill, Pogba added yet another feather to his cap by taking no-look shooting to another level – by almost scoring a goal he would have remembered forever.
