Goalscoring goalkeepers have created iconic moments from the “great escape” to Benfica drama

It’s usually an act of desperation. One last roll of the dice that can produce the most spectacular results. At other times it can be the result of a shambolic mix-up. One for the blooper reel. It doesn’t happen often, but when goalkeepers score, it’s usually memorable for right or wrong reasons.

Anatoliy Trubin’s header in the eighth minute of stoppage time for Benfica against Real Madrid on Wednesday produced one of the most dramatic moments in Champions League history. Not only did Trubin seal a 4-2 win over the 15-time European champion, but he also ensured his team clinched the final playoff spot by virtue of goal difference.

“I didn’t realise what we needed,” the Ukrainian goalkeeper said. “But then I saw everyone telling me to go up. I also saw the manager, so I went up, went into the box and I don’t know. I don’t know what to say. It was a crazy moment.” No wonder Benfica coach Jose Mourinho celebrated so wildly. The two-time Champions League winner has achieved just about everything in a trophy-laden career, but this was new territory.

Leading 3-2 going into stoppage time, the Portuguese club needed another goal to climb into the playoffs. “I remember winning or losing at the last minute, it had happened to me several times before, but in this situation where we are winning, it’s not enough,” Mourinho said. “You have to change things and take risks.” It was a risk that certainly paid off and there is a long history of goalkeepers causing mayhem in the opposition box.

The Great Escape — an iconic moment in English soccer: While Trubin’s goal came in European club soccer’s elite competition, veteran keeper Jimmy Glass earned iconic status among Carlisle fans his last-ditch effort that saved the then-fourth tier team from falling out of the English Football League.

It was back in 1999 when the on-loan goalkeeper volleyed home a stoppage-time winner against Plymouth to secure Carlisle’s survival — a moment that has been dubbed “The Great Escape.” “You just try your luck,” he said at the time. “Never pick up the goalie do they? “I just kept my head down and hit it. I thought I was going to balloon it over the bar, but I couldn’t miss from that distance.”

Manchester United’s goalkeeping great Peter Schmeichel scored with a header against Rotor Volgograd in the UEFA Cup in 1995. To prove it wasn’t just a one off, he became the first keeper to score in the Premier League 2001 - netting for Aston Villa. More recently Liverpool’s Alisson glanced in a winner against West Brom in the Premier League in 2021.

Paraguay’s prolific penalty-taking keeper: Goalscoring keepers don’t have to be agents of chaos, merely sent in to pull off late rescue acts. Paraguay international Jose Luis Chilavert was prolific and once scored a hat trick for Argentine team Velez Sarsfield by converting three penalties. According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, Chilavert, who also took free kicks, scored 67 goals in his career.

He was the only goalkeeper to score a hat trick and is the highest-scoring keeper in international soccer with eight goals for Paraguay. But, the IFFHS says Brazilian Rogerio Ceni is the highest-scoring keeper of all time. According to Guinness World Records, Ceni scored 129 goals in his career. Colombia’s Rene Higuita — famed for his so-called scorpion kick saves and dribbling the ball out of his area — was another keeper known for scoring from free kicks and penalties.

The weird and the wonderful: Accustomed to punting the ball long from goal kicks, keepers have been responsible for some of the most outrageous goals from distance — but sometimes it can require a following wind, literally - or an embarrassing blunder from their opposite number. Stoke’s stadium is known as one of the windiest in English soccer and that certainly seemed to help keeper Asmir Begovic in 2013 when he scored after just 13 seconds against Southampton.

He entered the Guinness Book of Records for the longest goal of all time, with his effort measured at measured at 91.9 meters. But it didn’t come without a little assistance from Southampton’s Artur Boruc, who was wrong-footed and left red-faced as the ball bounced over him. “It’s a cool feeling but it was a fortunate incident. I feel a bit bad for Boruc,” Begovic told the BBC.

Tottenham’s Paul Robinson similarly caught out Watford’s Ben Foster with another launched effort from his own half in 2007. And to prove it’s not just a modern phenomenon, Tottenham’s Pat Jennings scored from his own area against Manchester United in 1967. The iconic Bobby Charlton, who played in that match later said: “I immediately turned around to look at the referee because I thought well maybe that’s illegal because I’d never seen it done before.