The world 'amazing' gets thrown around a lot these days, but in the case of Olivier Giroud's goal against Crystal Palace on New Year's Day, there is no doubting how appropriate and fitting it is.
Giroud left those watching amazed by what he had just done. While it's not something he would have been working on in the training ground every day, he showed incredible anticipation to know where the ball would be, and then fantastic agility to get his leg up and generate the power to divert it towards goal. But he needed a bit of luck as well.
However, speaking to Sky Sports after the final whistle, Giroud claimed that luck was the biggest factor in his goal, as he seemed almost embarrassed by the fuss being made about it.
A very humble response, but he looked almost uncomfortable there.
They even asked him if he did it because he saw Mkhitaryan do it... Eh, like in a split second he thought to himself "You know what? Mkhitaryan scored that goal from a ball played behind him, maybe I can do it too?" He just reacted, instinctively.
His reaction for the celebration shows what it actually meant to him, despite playing it cool for Sky Sports. He knew he just scored a goal that will be seen all over the world and talked about for years to come.
On social media, due to the fact that Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored a similar scorpion-style goal less than a week ago, the two moments of magic were instantly and endlessly compared as if they were in competition with each other.
But there can be no debate.
First and foremost, Mkhitaryan's flick needed much less contact as the ball was coming from the right wing and landed inside the far post. Giroud sent a ball crossed from the left wing towards the near post, perfectly clean. Also, while Mkhitaryan being offside shouldn't take away from his goal, the fact that Giroud had three defenders around him again makes his more difficult to pull off. Lastly, while Zlatan's cross for Mkhitaryan was nice, Sanchez's assist came on the back of a wonderful team move involving a lovely first-time pass from Giroud. It was a great team goal with an individual moment of magic at the end.
That doesn't mean Henrikh Mkhitaryan's goal wasn't incredible. It was. But it's thunder has been stolen by a goal that has one-upped it, and why does that matter at all?
It doesn't. So let's just appreciate these goals for what they were, and hope to see more in the future, because we can all agree that scorpion-kick goals are absolutely amazing.
