Francisco Conceição’s stunning strike in the Olimpico showdown between Juventus and Roma is still fresh in everyone’s mind. The Portuguese winger produced a moment of pure brilliance, drawing praise from someone who knows a thing or two about spectacular goals: former Juventus forward Fabio Quagliarella.
“That is the kind of goal that is worth the price of the ticket on its own, truly beautiful,” Quagliarella told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “It’s a finish with an extremely high degree of difficulty. In those situations you have an 80 percent chance of sending it into the stands and only a 20 percent chance of hitting the target, because the ball is bouncing in front of you. Conceição not only hit the target, he put it right in the top corner. The timing and the contact were perfect. Take a bow. But…”
“He Has to Be More Decisive”
The “but” is significant. Quagliarella believes that while Conceição’s talent is obvious, his output must increase. “Maybe not always goals like that, but a player like Conceição has to make more of a difference in the final third,” he continued. “As Spalletti says, the Portuguese has the quality to score and provide many more assists. Four goals between Serie A and the cups is a bit few. Chico needs to become a winger who scores at least 7–8 league goals a season and delivers just as many decisive passes. He has everything he needs; he just has to try more often and without overthinking it, like he did at the Olimpico.”
One of the Goals of the Season
Quagliarella places Conceição’s strike among the finest of the campaign so far. “The best goal of the season? It’s definitely up there, along with Folorunsho’s on Friday in Cagliari–Parma and Dimarco’s against Genoa. Three very different efforts, but all incredibly difficult. Folorunsho found an unbelievable trajectory from an almost impossible position; Dimarco had practically no angle to shoot from; and Conceição struck the ball in an extraordinary way. Let’s just say we’ve been very lucky in the last round of matches.”
Praise for Yildiz
Finally, Quagliarella picked out some names as candidates for the next “goal from a video game”: “Højlund, Leão, Dybala, Marcus Thuram. And of course Yildiz, who is by far the best player at Juventus. The Turk has incredible skill and also works very hard off the ball. If you spare him some of the defensive tracking back, he can be even sharper in front of goal.”
Quagliarella, however, warned against overblown comparisons. “Yildiz is fantastic, but we don’t help him when we compare him to Del Piero. I played with Ale and we are talking about an absolute phenomenon.”
