Watch the all-time Top 10 best free kick routines

By Mirror Football in Football Banter

Published 15:05 28/07/10

• 

England's Under-19s crashed out of the European Championships on Tuesday after being totally outclassed by a Spain side that looked every bit as slick as their World Cup winning senior counterparts.

The young Spaniards didn't just pass the English players to death, they also scored a brilliant free-kick from a routine that utterly bamboozled the Three Lions defence.

It was very clever, but where does it rate on MirrorFootball's all-time Top 10 free-kick routines? Read on to find out...

10) First up is this effort by Preston against Burnley that is eventually finished off by David Nugent. Classy.

9) Tomas Brolin may be remembered as one of the biggest flops ever to grace the Premier League but before he joined Leeds in 1995 he was still considered pretty handy. Here he is outfoxing the Romania defence for Sweden in 1994 with this cheeky effort.

8) This is a well worked goal as the Czech Republic take a quick free kick, slotting the ball through the wall and the runner then knocks it across the face of goal before it's buried. Sneaky. Skip to 1min 27secs in for the key action.

7, 6, 5) Our next three are all in this one compilation of super set-pieces. There are plenty to choose from but our favourites are the fairly simple two-players-run-out-of-the-way routine on 17 seconds, the looping overhead flick followed by power blast into the corner on 47 seconds and the bewildering goal on 1min 15secs when not one, not two, but three players run over the ball and then in different directions before anyone actually touches the ball.

4) This one really is using ingenious. The players of Serie A side Catania pull their shorts down to block the keeper's vision while a teammate lashes the ball in. Watch the players in purple behind the wall in the slow-mo replay to see their dastardly scheme. Talk about a rearguard action...

3) England's match with Argentina at France 98 is always remembered for Michael Owen's wonder goal, Beckham's red card and yet more penalty heartache for the Three Lions. But there was also this ingenious free-kick routine that the Argentines pulled off just before half time to allow Javier Zanetti to score.

2) Here is that effort from Spain's Under 19 side against England. A dummy man runs at the ball while Thiago Alcantara calmly chips it over the wall for Sergio Canales to bury while the England defenders stand around looking like spare parts.

Bonus clip They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery and it didn't take long for Brazilian second division side Duque de Caxias to flatter the hell out of the Spanish youngsters. Here they are scoring an almost carbon copy of the Alcantara/Canales goal just hours afterwards. Danilo Rios is the man who tucks this one away.

1) Coventry, 1970. Perhaps not where you would expect to find a little piece of Brazilian-style skill. But this clip proves the 1970s wasn't all miners strikes and power cuts as Coventry's Willie Carr and Ernie Hunt combine to produce some samba magic. Carr flicks the ball up for Hunt to score a truly audacious goal. Wait for the replay to see it's full brilliance.

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!