5 Biggest Blunders in World Football This Weekend of Jan. 17-18
Welcome back to our weekly list that nobody wants to feature on: the biggest blunders of the weekend, this time taking on a bit of a theme. Sometimes, we've focused on same-league players; others, only goalkeepers or striker misses.
This time, we've been gifted an all-Premier League weekend, with a number of big mistakes and errors taking place in England's top flight on the same day.
Here are our top five, but these weren't even all of them—players had a particularly tough time of things this weekend!
Honourable Mentions
1 of 6
There were enough mistakes to make a whole second show for your viewing this week, so here's a collection of the best (worst) of the rest. And there were more.
Santiago Vergini's rubbish attempted clearance before Jan Vertonghen scores.
Fabian Delph running straight into Raheem Sterling to set up Liverpool's second goal.
Gylfi Sigurdsson's misplaced pass that allowed Oscar shoot and score.
Federico Fernandez
2 of 6
Chelsea absolutely destroyed Swansea City on Saturday, with Brazil-born striker Diego Costa netting two. One of those came thanks to a terrible backpass from Federico Fernandez.
Swansea's central defender played the ball back toward his 'keeper without looking, gifting it straight to Costa, who took control, picked his spot and buried the ball.
Watch the awful backpass right here.
Radamel Falcao
3 of 6
Manchester United handed another start to on-loan striker Radamel Falcao, but even against relegation-threatened Queens Park Rangers, he couldn't manage to get on the scoresheet.
His worst moment came as he failed to convert from just four yards, missing the ball entirely after a low cross from the right. Sure, the defender got a marginal touch on it beforehand, but you would still hope your £265,000-a-week striker could bury the ball. He couldn't.
See Falcao's "Jozy Altidore impersonation" here.
Florin Gardos
4 of 6
Southampton beat Newcastle United, 2-1, at St James' Park, with the host side's only goal coming extremely fortuitously.
Saints defender Florin Gardos attempted to cover and clear the ball, but with his goalkeeper rushing out, all he managed to do was whack it into Newcastle forward Yoan Gouffran—and it bounced straight into the net.
Watch Gouffran's equaliser right here.
Jan Vertonghen's 'Offside'
5 of 6
Just so that we're all aware, you cannot be offside in your own half of the pitch.
That is all.
See the most atrocious offside decision given this season right here.
Tim Krul
6 of 6
Back to the Newcastle-Southampton match, and we have to finish up with a goalkeeping error—step forward, Tim Krul.
Or just sort of stand there and fall over, as he in fact did. A low shot from Eljero Elia was firmly hit but more or less straight at him; Krul just needed to shift a foot or react quickly to make a routine stop. Instead, he allowed the ball to go right under him and into the back of the net.
See Krul's failure to stop the shot here.
