I mean, granted, other dudes might have pulled a more standard chest trap to bump the ball in, but the ball was falling to Balotelli so that he had to make some kind of play with his chest to kill the play off. any striker in the world is taking some kind of upper body touch in that position.

so, for me, the goal was fairly meh, it was just the Balotelli swagger that made it amazing.

did you peep his PK + stare down from a week or two prior? that was 10x more baller than this one to me, cuz his PK run up was OVER THE TOP, like more little fakes and feints than the most elaborate C. Ronaldo run-up, and he LITERALLY froze the goalie to the spot, the goalie didn't even react to Balotelli's shot he had so thoroughly gotten into the GK's head and defeated him before he even kicked the ball. then the stare down afterwards ... so yeah, that one was more impressive than the shoulder tap to me, even though it was just finishing a PK.