Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany said he had lived up to a vow to “one day” score a long-range goal after his wonder strike secured a 1-0 win at home to Leicester that left the champions in charge of the destiny of the Premier League title with a match to play.
City were heading for a frustrating evening at the Etihad Stadium on Monday until Kompany let fly with a 25-yard shot into the top corner 20 minutes from time — the centre-back´s first City goal from outside the box.
Victory saw City go top by a point from Liverpool heading into Sunday´s last round of league matches.
“I hadn´t scored this season but I always feel in big moments that I´m going to do something,” Kompany told Sky Sports.
“Today was a little bit of frustration, everyone was saying ´don´t shoot, don´t shoot´ and I could really hear it; I thought hold on a second, I´ve not come this far in my career for young players to tell me if I can take a shot, and I just had a go!”
The Belgian last hit the target from outside the area back in 2007 but Kompany insisted: “I´ve scored goals like that in training!
“It´s 15 years I´ve been in top-level football, midfielders telling me ´don´t shoot, play the ball wide´ and every time they miss, for 15 years I´ve been saying ´I promise you, one day I´m going to have a shot from outside the box and I´m going to score a goal and you´re going to be really happy with that one´.”
‘Big believer’
City manager Pep Guardiola admitted he too was among those who didn´t want Kompany to let fly from distance.
“Don´t shoot! Pass the ball, pass the ball!,” said Guardiola when asked about his thoughts as Kompany took aim.
“Honestly, I wasn´t too confident but football is mad for that. The artists are the players, they have to decide things in a fraction of a second and what´s important isn´t the goal, it´s him shooting while believing he was going to score.
