We’d really love to tell you that the horrifying miss you’re about to witness doesn’t look as bad on second viewing.
In reality, though, it just gets worse each time. This would be a howler of absolutely spectacular proportions in a charity friendly, or even one of those hungover 5-a-side games, but unfortunately for Spain’s Nahikari Garcia, the stakes were a lot higher than that.
The clip you’re about to watch is taken from the dying seconds of the Women’s Under-19 European Championship final between Spain and France. As you can see from the scoreboard, Spain were trailing 2-1, but were miraculously offered the sitter of all sitters when a fizzing shot rebounded off the keeper inside the 91st minute.
All the Real Sociedad forward had to do was tap home to give her country a lifeline and very likely extra time. But then the unthinkable happened, and she put it straight it over the bar.
Le raté INCROYABLE de l'Espagnole, qui aurait pu égaliser sur cette action #EuroU19F #foot21 😱 pic.twitter.com/dCxGv2UclI
— la chaine L'Équipe (@lachainelequipe) July 31, 2016
Torrential rain had plagued the match, with half-time taking over two hours due to a persistent thunderstorm. When they were able to resume play, Nahikari saw a penalty saved by Mylène Chavas. She presumably hoped things could only get better after that.
Spain’s agonising final defeat was their third in a row, while France were given something to cheer about in the footballing stakes this summer, just weeks after a Ronaldo-less Portugal broke their hearts at Euro 2016.
