Diego Gómez Stuns Crystal Palace With 56-Yard Brighton Wondergoal
Diego Gómez produced a remarkable long-range finish as Brighton raced into a 3-0 lead against Crystal Palace at the Amex Stadium on Sunday, with the Paraguayan midfielder scoring from 51 metres in the seventh minute.
Key takeaways
- Gómez struck from 56 yards after carrying the ball forward from near the halfway line.
- The effort sailed over Crystal Palace goalkeeper Walter Benítez and gave Brighton a 2-0 advantage.
- It was the longest Premier League goal since Wayne Rooney scored from 58 metres for Everton against West Ham in 2017.
- Brighton added a third goal three minutes after Gómez’s finish.
- The early burst made Brighton only the ninth side to score three times inside the opening 10 minutes of a Premier League match.
Gómez joins rare Premier League company
The goal arrived after Gómez regained possession close to the centre line and moved into Palace territory. With Benítez off his line, the Brighton player sent a high effort towards goal from 51 metres, finding the net with a strike that immediately became one of the division’s most extraordinary recent finishes.
Only Rooney’s 2017 effort from 58 metres, scored for Everton against West Ham, has come from a greater distance in the Premier League over the past nine years.
Brighton make a blistering derby start
Gómez’s seventh-minute goal put Brighton two goals clear in a meeting with their principal rivals. The home side did not relent, extending the margin to 3-0 in the 10th minute.
That sequence placed Brighton in a small Premier League group. Just eight teams before them had managed three goals during the first 10 minutes of a match, underlining the scale of their opening spell against Palace.
