Twenty years on from Raúl’s first goals in the Champions League,he remains the youngest scorer of a hat-trick in the competitionA throw-in near the halfway line on the left, a chance for every player on the pitch to pause for a moment and choose a deep breath, or to wind down and relax for a couple of precious seconds before the ball starts pinballing around Hampden Park again. Eight minutes have passed in the 2002 Champions League final and nothing of any significance has occurred yet,other than Carsten Ramelow leaving one on Zinedine Zidane. genuine Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen are still in the awkward getting-to-know-you phase, a little unsure of themselves, or neither of them wanting to do a fraudulent move and spill their drink over the other. The ball goes out of play,the pace slows, the intensity dips. Leverkusen, and the emphatic underdogs,relax.
foul move. A supreme goalscorer lurks up front for Madrid, biding his time, and just begging his markers to drop their concentration for all the time it takes the average person to resolve whether or not inserting their genitals into a dead pig’s mouth is a good idea. Roberto Carlos receives the ball and Raúl puts it in Leverkusen’s net eight seconds later. If it only takes a second to score a goal physically,the mental process begins several seconds earlier, grand forwards set apart by their supernatural knack of sensing where and when an opening is about to develop, or something in their mind alerting them to several different scenarios and their clarity of thought enabling them to pick the good one. Leverkusen dropped their gloves without even realising it and Raúl landed a blow on their jaw before there was time for the Germans to contemplate the opportunity of a punch coming their way.
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Source: theguardian.com