Paul Scholes He Scores,.....Blunders

• What a couple of days it’s been for oddly scored goals.

Paul Scholes entered into the fluke goal history books Tuesday night as Manchester United beat AC Milan in the Champions League round of 16 with a 3-2 away win that made a quarter final birth just a bit more attainable. Scholes has scored some incredible goals for Manchester United’s first team over his sixteen year career and will surely retire in the next few years as one of the top English midfielders to ever grace the Premier League. Who can forget that right footed volley at Villa Park in the 2006-2007 season?

I’d love the headline of this post to read “Scholes Unashamedly Smashes United Into Quarters“, but it’s safe to say the Ginger Prince knew nowt of the goal he luckily scored Tuesday night at the San Siro. Scholes’ performance on Tuesday night won’t be remembered for his accurate passing abilities, long range shots, or even his bad tackling. His 36th minute flub was laughable at best and only pinged off his left leg because he whiffed so badly with his more powerful right.

For those that missed Manchester United’s opener, the team who have appeared in two consecutive finals were easily outplayed in almost every position on the pitch until Darren Fletcher took into his own hands what Nani couldn’t do and served United attackers with their first relevant cross of the night. The low cross found Scholes who was perfectly positioned in front of goal and attempted a sort of half volley with his right foot. Totally missing in his attempt, the ball then bounced off his left leg that was motionless and upright supporting his flailing right.

Scholes then witnessed the ball trickling into the Milan goal past an outstretching Dida  in what is sure to have been the luckiest goal he’ll ever score. The Scholes hokey pokey sure to not be forgotten anytime soon.

What sticks out with this incredible piece of luck for United is that they were largely undeserved of the 1-1 halftime scoreline. Milan were giving fits to United’s make shift back line as the usually solid Johnny Evans looked rattled playing in such a massive game.

The question that ultimately surfaces is what becomes of this goal in the grand scheme of United’s season and history if somehow they continue on and win the Champions League? United fans will look back to the 36th minute of an epic European night and that silly little goal scored against the run of play that opened up the scoring and allowed Wayne Rooney to score a brace en route to a famous victory.

Since football fans are still only a few months removed from the notorious beach ball incident at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, which like that of the Scholes blast is sure to go down in history, I’d like to know what are some other incredibly lucky goals that you’ve seen scored in recent years? Surely there’s loads of mistaken kicks, flicks, whiffs, scuffs and misses that have luckily found the back of the net.

This could be fun, feel free to leave a comment below.