Five of the most bizarre goals in football

The biggest story of last weekend’s football was undoubtedly Darren Bent’s ‘balloon goal’ against Liverpool.

A red Liverpool beach ball came to the striker’s aid, as the football deflected off the seaside accessory and past the perplexed Pepe Reina.

Here are The Sport Review’s top five bizarre goals in football.

1. An apparent handball by an Icelandic defender leads to the inevitable calls for a penalty. The referee signals for play to continue which leads to confusion amongst the defenders.

2. It has been a busy couple of months for Martin Palermo. He recently scored an important last-minute winner to help Argentina take one step closer to South Africa 2010. But possibly even more memorable than his goal against Peru was his long range header against Velez Sarsfield.

3. Newcastle United goalkeeper Shay Given successfully claims the ball in the air. He rolls it on the ground, oblivious to the presence of Dion Dublin behind the goal. The Coventry striker then cunningly runs past Given and stroked the ball into the gaping net.

4. Cruzeiro had just conceded a third goal. Their keeper Fabio was rummaging in the net for the ball despite play having been restarted with a different ball. Atletico’s Fabio intercepted the ball and simply fired his shot into the vacant net. Fabio was left to retrieve the two footballs.

5. Continuing with the balloon theme the next choice is from the 5th round of the 2007 FA Cup. Sheffield United have an attack on the right wing and Michael Ball prepares to clear his lines before a number of unfortunate deflections allows the ball to trickle past the defender and into the path of Shelton.