Lamine Yamal lit up Euro 2024, broke records and proved a point to Adrien Rabiot with his stunning goal for Spain against France on Tuesday night.
Barcelona’s 16-year-old winger became the youngest goalscorer in European Championship history in some style after his incredible strike to level things up early in a heavyweight first semi-final tie at Munich’s Allianz Arena.
Receiving the ball from captain Alvaro Morata with 21 minutes on the clock and his side already trailing, Yamal twisted and turned to get past Rabiot before unleashing an unstoppable curling effort with his left foot from 25 yards that beat the despairing grasp of a diving Mike Maignan and crashed in off the post to spark wild celebrations.
It was arguably the goal of the tournament so far from the Spanish starlet, who has continued to make headlines with his excellent performances at these Euros - where he received his secondary school exam results.
It was also a moment of reflection for Rabiot, who insisted before the game that Yamal needed to show “much more” in order to guide Spain into Sunday’s final.
“We saw that he was a player who knew how to handle pressure very well,” Rabiot said of Yamal.
“He has a lot of qualities. He is capable of playing with his qualities at club level as well as in major tournaments, without pressure.
LAMINE YAMAL 😮💨😮💨😮💨
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 9, 2024
An absolute screamer from the 16-year-old!#BBCEuros #Euro2024 #ESPFRA pic.twitter.com/z4AaZwwWJp
“Afterwards, it is always complicated to manage a semi-final in a tournament like that, but it will be up to us to put the pressure on him above all, not to let him feel comfortable and to show him that to play in a Euro final, he will have to do much more than what he has done so far.”
Yamal appeared to answer those comments from Rabiot in a subsequent cryptic post on Instagram which read: “Move in silence, only speak when it is time to say checkmate.”
After scoring the goal against France, Yamal shouted “speak now, speak now” while looking into the television cameras.
When asked who that was aimed at after the game, he said: “Well, the person that I am talking about, this person will know who this person is. I’m just really happy about reaching the final.”
Spain fell behind inside only eight minutes in Munich, with Kylian Mbappe running at 38-year-old Jesus Navas and delivering a pinpoint cross that was headed beyond Unai Simon by Randal Kolo Muani.
Incredibly, it was France’s first goal from open play at the entire tournament, with Didier Deschamps’ much-fancied side having previously only scored via an Mbappe penalty and two own goals.
But their lead did not last long, with Yamal firing in his wonder goal from range before just four minutes later some wonderful skill from Dani Olmo inside the box led the RB Leipzig forward to have an effort that Jules Kounde could only inadvertently help into his own net.
The goal was later awarded to Olmo, who now joins the leaders in the Golden Boot race at Euro 2024.
