80TH MINUTE, 81ST minute, 85th minute.
Kevin Gameiro came off the bench in the 62nd minute of play, and wasn’t long making an impact on the away fixture at Sporting Gijon.
Tied at 1-1, his devastating hat-trick was enough to keep Atletico Madrid’s hopes of a top-four finish alive. Yannick Carrasco broke the deadlock as the second half got underway to give the visitors the lead, but Sporting responded accordingly three minutes later through Sergio Álvarez.
He came close to doubling his tally, but Miguel Angel Moya pulled off an impressive save to deny the effort. Meanwhile, Antoine Griezmann had a goal disallowed at the other end.
Then came Gameiro, and the second-fastest hat-trick in La Liga history.
Greizmann set up his crucial first goal, as Atleti took the lead with ten minutes to play. A minute later, Thomas Partey sent Gameiro into the penalty area, where the impact sub fired into the bottom-left corner.
He then ensured his side won in style, completing his remarkable hat-trick when he raced in behind the defence and slotted the ball into the same area.
The crucial win sees Diego Simeone’s side close the gap between themselves and third-place Sevilla, with just a point between them. Sporting Gijon remain in 18th position.
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Wilson and Foxe are big units and I hope that they come through over the next couple of years.
Most of the top nations have tight heads who are at least 125KG so the search must go on for identifying these people. Athletic sports do have talent spotting programs that reach out beyond the usual channels and then offer support and coaching pathways.
Clearly South Africa, the South sea islands and countries with strong links to the specific ethnic groups have more inherently big humans to pick from.
It’s curious that we seem to have a reasonable pipeline of options at tighthead (none in the same class as Furlong albeit) but the cupboard is well and truly bare at loosehead. If Porter not there, we are basically screwed and Porter himself has become a penalty machine for opponents at times in the scrum.
@Michael Corkery: I don’t think a cupboard containing Jack Boyle and Paddy McCarthy can be described as ‘bare.’ Alex Usanov recently acquitted himself well on the EI tour too. They need games and reps now.
@Carmine Lorenzo: we’re not seeing them get games though. It is said that props in particular can only develop by getting exposed to top level scrummaging in game situations.
@Michael Corkery: we have the talent but they need gametime. I would love to loan these guys out to Curry cup teams this summer and let them scrummage south africans on the regular