Goal by Mauro Icardi: Inter star flies Spurs into Champions League

In football, if you want to score goals, it's good to have a lot of shots. It is particularly useful to obtain these images in the central areas of the box. And only real tap-ins are chances that someone "should have scored". A lot of opportunities that seem to be huge opportunities in your eyes are actually at the back of the net only about 40% of the time.

The best attackers are good finishers, yes, but more importantly, they get a lot of shots in relatively high percentage areas. Some of the best strikers in the world often generate more than 100 shots in a season of 38 games. Mohamed Salah, for example, had 109 shots in the Premier League last year.

If you manage to shoot 100 shots, get 50 on the target and score 25, you are a world-class striker. It is an exceptional conversion rate. But there is a small handful of crazies like Mauro Icardi *, who scored 26 goals in Serie A last season. He did it with only 75 shots and he managed 63% of his shots. While virtually everyone you consider a great striker relies on volume, Icardi is such a good finisher that he can score a ton of goals in a smaller number of shots.

On Tuesday, Tottenham Hotspur learned that the hard way. The Spurs scored the first goal of their Champions League match against Inter and kept control of most of the game until that happened. Icardi, who thought Inter wanting to be close to the six-yard box rather than arriving late, hit that sensational volley from outside the 18-yard range.

Inter then scored another goal on a tee shot and defeated Tottenham 2-1.

This fantastic volley was one of only two shots of Icardi in the match. His other attempt was blocked. The attacker only got two shots for his striker, one of which was a totally unusual attempt, after a late finish at the top of the box when you expected him to challenge the goalkeeper. He scored anyway, and Inter won anyway.

If someone removed this, you would call the timing happy. But Icardi has done things like that over the past four years, so it could really be an exception to the rules that govern a good striker and how good the finish is. Sucks for Spurs, huh?

* While we are here, I would like to remind you that Icardi does not play regularly for Argentina because he started out with Wanda Nora, then the wife of Maxi Lopez, while Icardi and Lopez were teammates. Lopez is one of Lionel Messi's best friends, so Icardi, that Argentina could have used at world Cup very badly, was blackballed from the team. Football rules.