The woke police and Cristiano Ronaldo will say pitch invasion is not something which should be celebrated in football, but it has spawned some great moments. They always feel like a welcome light relief and we love to see them running on and falling over. This week we celebrate 10 pitch invaders.
Tottenham v West Ham A classic of the genre. Tottenham are preparing to take a free-kick just outside the penalty area and our pitch invader emerges from the crowd in the far right corner, unsuccessfully pursued by two stewards. Our man heads straight for the ball, awaiting the free-kick and hits it towards the top corner but has it saved and continues his run into the crowd, stewards in hot pursuit.
To be fair, I’ve seen worse free-kicks by players claiming to be professionals. Barnsley v Manchester United United are two up and they’re playing injury time when their goalkeeper is about to take a goal kick from the six-yard box before he’s ambushed by a pair of pitch invaders, working together as a lethal strike partnership. One runs on and immediately falls over, gets up and makes a short cross to his partner who sidefoots it home with aplomb.
They run away celebrating, one pursued in what could hardly be called an athletic fashion by a portly steward. To be fair, United signed them for £60million and they were more effective than Joshua Zirkzee. Luxembourg v Russia At first, this lad is deceptively trotting around the pitch, only to be subjected to a pincer movement by two s.