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Papa Bouba Diop’s winner against France was Senegal's Maradona moment | Jonathan Wilson

There are a handful of goals that are universal, that resonate with almost everybody who follows the game There are a handful of goals that are universal, that resonate with almost everybody who follows the game. Diego Maradona scored two of them in the space of five minutes against England in the World Cup quarter-final in 1986 – goals much better remembered, in Argentina, in England, everywhere, than either of his brilliant goals in the semi-final or than any of the five goals in the final. What makes a goal indelible is far more to do with context and narrative than the quality of the strike or even the stage at which it is scored.There are very few truly universal...

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Korean calamities of Ghandour and Moreno are antidote to anti-VAR clamour | Andrew Anthony

The officiating scandals of the 2002 World Cup must remind us why the advent of the video referee is a good thingWith that collective wit for which football fans are justly renowned, the Spurs contingent at the Etihad Stadium broke into song last weekend when Manchester City’s winning goal was ruled out in the last minute. “VAR, my lord, VAR,” they chanted, to the tune of Kumbaya, as the video assistant referee scrubbed out Gabriel Jesus’s dramatic clincher, adjudging Aymeric Laporte to have handled the ball with the most glancing of touches. It was a case of Jesus being thwarted by a higher authority.But if Spurs fans saw VAR as a kind of divine intervention, a deus ex machina worthy...

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