Dani Alves went from hero to villain on Sunday during Barcelona ’s 4-2 win over Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou.
Alves, 38, provided an assist inside ten minutes, before getting himself on the scoresheet with a thunderbolt to make it 4-1 to Barcelona early in the second half.
But Alves’ day would later take a dramatic turn for the worst when he was given his marching orders after dragging his studs down the back of Yannick Carrasco’s leg following the intervention of VAR.
Thankfully for Alves, his side were able to hold on for an important three points which saw them leapfrog Atletico and move up to fourth in La Liga.
And with Alves’ day in mind, Mirror Football takes a look at some other players who have had crazy games over the years.
Erling Haaland
Prior to truly announcing himself on the world stage, Haaland netted an astonishing “hat-trick of hat-tricks” for Norway during a 12-0 demolition of Honduras at the U20 World Cup.
By scoring nine goals in a single game, Haaland set a new record for the youth tournament, surpassing Adailton’s six strikes for Brazil, which came in a 10-3 win against Korea Republic in 1997.
Haaland’s goals came in the 7th, 20th, 36th, 43rd, 50th, 67th, 77th, 88th and 90th minute and there was even time for one more to be disallowed by VAR.
The Norwegian unsurprisingly went on to win the Golden Boot accolade for his outstanding goal record at the tournament.
Archie Thompson
If you think Haaland’s achievement was impressive, how about former Australia forward Thompson, who scored 13 times in an Oceania qualifying match for the 2002 World Cup against American Samoa.
Thompson broke the record for the most goals scored by a player during an international match in a game Australia went on to win 31-0.
Australia’s win was largely responsible for the eventual introduction of a preliminary round in the Oceanian zone qualification for the 2006 World Cup and the Socceroos move to the Asian Football Confederation in 2006.
Josip Simunic
Fans will have to cast their memories back to the 2006 World Cup in Germany to remember this one.
In the Group F contest between Croatia and Australia, Croatia defender Simunic was bizarrely shown three yellow cards by referee Graham Poll in what will go down as one of the biggest blunders in World Cup history.
Dario Simic had been sent off for Croatia with five minutes to go in the contest, before Australia’s Brett Emerton was dismissed shortly after.
Poll then dished a third red card out in stoppage time to Simunic who was shown his third yellow of the game, despite the Croatian defender receiving his second four minutes prior to that one.
Jonathan Woodgate
Woodgate secured a dream move to Real Madrid in August 2004 from Newcastle in a move worth £13.4million, despite being injured at the time of the transfer.
Injuries meant the former England defender failed to make a single appearance during his first season with Los Blancos, with his debut eventually coming in September 2005 in a league game against Athletic Club.
But Woodgate’s debut went horribly wrong after scoring an own goal and being sent off for a second bookable offence in the 65th minute.
Martin Palermo
Former Boca Juniors and Villarreal star Palermo once had a day to forget for Argentina during a Copa America clash with Colombia in 1999.
Palermo set an international record when he missed not one, not two, but three penalties in the contest in what was awful day for the player.
The striker's first rebounded off the crossbar; his second was blazed over; and the third was saved by Colombian goalkeeper Miguel Calero.
Cameron Brannagan
Keeping with the penalty theme, Palermo should perhaps take a leaf out of Oxford United midfielder Brannagan’s book when it comes to converting from the spot.
The former Liverpool youngster scored no fewer than four penalties during Oxford’s 7-2 win at Gillingham at the back end of last month.
Brannagan’s 16-year association with Liverpool came to an end in 2018 when he joined the League One on a permanent deal and the 25-year-old had previously managed just 15 goals in the four years since his move.
But his quartet of spot-kicks scored in the 12th, 48th, 55th and 83rd minute changed all of that.
