And there we were, thinking he'd given the 'keeper the eyes.
Everton, you may have heard, got their preseason up and running in emphatic fashion last week. Towards the end of their training camp in Austria, they agreed to play a friendly against local side ATV Irdning to help the club mark its 60th anniversary, eventually winning the game 22-0.
For obvious reasons, word of the game spread quickly across social media, as did footage of one of Everton's final goals of the afternoon, scored by
Nicola Vlasic.
Here, watch. And if you've somehow managed to avoid this over the last few days, very well done.
https://twitter.com/jbrookes7/status/1018174416948224003
Irdning's goalkeeper,
Wolfgang Zelzer, makes absolutely no attempt to prevent the goal, something many assumed was his way of showing that, having already been beaten 19 times by this point, he'd well and truly had enough. This, however, was not the case at all.
Under a heading of 'Fake News', a
statement posted on Irdning's official website clarifies what actually happened.
It explains that the referee's assistant had raised his flag to give Vlasic offside, something which took place out of shot of the footage circulated on social media. Because of this, the goalkeeper stopped waiting for the referee to stop play. Unfortunately for him, the referee decided to overrule the assistant and allow play to continue and the goal to stand. A shame, really. You get the impression this could've been a pivotal moment in the game...
"At first the situation looked very strange indeed," the statement reads.
"For the 293 visitors in the stadium it was totally clear what happened. Our goalkeeper Wolfgang Zelzer is a very fair sportsman and would never give up during the match."
Well. That's that cleared up then. We're already looking forward to next summer's rematch.
