Spectacular Goals from Unlikely Sources Quiz

Answer: John O'Shea

While watching the game with a few friends, we were busy applauding the brilliant finish expecting Ryan Giggs to wheel around and celebrate, only to be surprised to see the Irish utility player John O'Shea raising a hand in celebration! The final result of the fixture was a home loss by Arsenal 2-4, and was generally a bad-tempered affair in which Mikael Silvestre was sent off for tussling with Freddie Ljungberg.

Silvestre completed a move from Manchester United to Arsenal at the end of the 2007-08 season for an undisclosed fee, becoming the first player to move from United to Arsenal since Brian Kidd in 1974. Two of the other answers moved soon after that season's fixture - Ashley Cole crossing London to play for Chelsea and Gabriel Heinze moving to a country speaking his native language in the form of Real Madrid.

Answer: Edmilson

Edmilson received a cross-field pass on the half-way line and played a swift one-two with Rivaldo before laying the ball off to the on-rushing Junior on the left wing. He continued his run into the box and in spite of the resulting cross arriving behind him, he managed to adjust his body to strike the ball cleanly over his head with his left foot, leaving the goalkeeper stranded.

What is most amazing about this goal is that it was Edmilson's first goal for his country and only goal of that entire season for club or country. Edmilson moved from Barcelona to Villareal at the end of the 2007-08 season on a free transfer after playing at the Camp Nou for 4 seasons.

Answer: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia made their world cup debut in 1994, and surprisingly made their way through to the knockout stages along with Holland after victories over Morocco and Belgium. Saeed Owairan was the scorer of this incredible goal, which is now featured in several 'Best World Cup Goals' reels.

However, in an interview with the "International Herald Tribune" (the global arm of the "The New York Times") in 1998, Owairan said he was "honestly fed up with" seeing the goal and scoring it had become a "double-edged sword", as it focused the media spotlight on him back in his home country. Although he was initially rewarded with a luxury car from the Saudi King Fahd, this fame also led to a prison term for flouting Saudi laws after being caught drinking with a group non-Saudi women.

Answer: Trevor Sinclair

The goal was scored by Trevor Sinclair playing for QPR. At the time Sinclair sported long, black dreadlocks in stark contrast to his shaven-headed look 10 years later. He was one of the numerous players dubbed the answer to England's left-sided problem, and played four games in the 2002 World Cup due to the absence of Danny Murphy. He has played for several clubs, including West Ham United, Manchester City, Queens Park Rangers and Cardiff City, where he transferred at the end of the 2006-07 season.

Answer: Nelinho

This goal was scored by the right-back Nelinho from outside the box on the right hand-side of the pitch. It was hit with the outside of his right boot and curled back towards the goal after looking like it would soar wide before nestling into the top corner past the despairing arms of Italian legend Dino Zoff. Nelinho was actually usually a reserve for the Brazilian team and only played in 4 of the 7 games Brazil played in the 1978 World Cup. He replaced Edinho in those games.

Carlos Alberto was himself a noted right-back, and scored probably the most famous World Cup goal, again against Italy in the 1970 World Cup final. After a sumptuous build-up by the Brazilians, who were already 2-0 up late in the game, the ball came to Pele who patiently held it up before laying off a pass to Carlos Alberto (who hadn't even appeared in the picture when Pele passed the ball!). He rifled a shot home to cap a dominant performance and ensure Brazil kept the Jules Rimet trophy permanently, as three-times winners.

Answer: Trevor Brooking

Brooking scored twice in that game in an important England 3-1 away victory. Brooking had earned a recall due to the poor performance of Ray Wilkins in the previous game and starred throughout. In total, Brooking earnt 47 England caps and scored 5 goals.

Although he was not known as a hugely prolific goalscorer, when he did hit the back of the net, his goals were usually out of the top draw. Keegan, Coppell and Robson all played in that match under Ron Greenwood, and Keegan grabbed the other goal with a penalty.

Answer: Ronnie Radford

Hereford United had already played in several games before facing the giants of Division One's Newcastle United, having to enter the tournament at the fourth qualifying round stage. The first match was drawn 2-2 at St James' Park and the replay was held at Edgar Street, Hereford's home ground. The replay was postponed three times due to bad weather and was eventually played on a quagmire of a pitch.

The goal itself was in fact only an equaliser; Hereford had gone 1-0 down to a back-post header from Malcolm MacDonald, an England international. Radford's cracker came in the 85th minute after he had nicked the ball from John Tudor in the middle of the park, exchanged a one-two with Brian Owen, and smashed a 30-yard strike into the top far corner of the goal. A pitch invasion ensued, although the match still continued and indeed went to extra time, where Ricky George joined Radford in the annals of history by scoring the winner to send Hereford through.

Radford was only a part-time footballer, and the Monday after the famous game he returned to putting a roof up on someone's house!

Answer: David O'Leary

O'Leary had only played 29 minutes in the whole tournament, having come on as a late replacement for Steve Staunton in extra time. However, he became the hero by placing his left-footed penalty high to the goalkeeper's left, sending him the wrong way in the process. Interestingly, Ireland had not managed to win a game up until that point in the tournament, and indeed did not win any of their games in Italia 90 in normal time. They lost in the next game (the quarter final) 1-0 to the hosts in the Stadio Olimpico, Rome to a goal from Salvatore Schillaci of Juventus.

Ireland's manager Jack Charlton, himself of course a world cup winner with England in 1966, became notorious for scouring players' backgrounds in order to exploit the rule that a player can play for a country if they have a grandparent born there. Only 7 of the 13 players he used during the game were Irish natives, and important players such as John Aldridge, Ray Houghton, Andy Townsend and Mick McCarthy were not Irish natives, hailing from Liverpool, Glasgow, Maidstone and Barnsley respectively. In fact, O'Leary himself was born in London, although he spent the majority of his young life in Dublin.

Answer: Kieran Richardson

All four of those players seemed to have failed to establish themselves as first-team players in spite of being given the chance to play under various different England managers. Richardson himself was given several chances under Steve McLaren

Francis Jeffers also scored on his debut for the England senior team against Australia in 2003. Unfortunately, his goal was only a consolation as England ended up losing 3-1 to the visitors at West Ham's Boleyn Ground aka Upton Park. Jeffers scored 13 goals when he was in England's U21 team, equalling the record set by Alan Shearer, but failed to turn this promise into performances with the senior squad.

Answer: Roy Essandoh

Roy Essandoh returned in 2000 from a brief spell playing in Finland for VPS Vaasa and spotted an advert on teletext for a striker to play for Wycombe Wanderers, who had become short on forwards due to a number of injury problems. In the FA Cup quarter final against Leicester City in February 2001, he was thrown on as a late substitute and came up with the goods to ensure that Wycombe enjoyed their best ever FA Cup performance in reaching the semi-finals. Wycombe went on to face Liverpool at Villa Park, putting in a highly creditable performance to lose 2-1.

Jimmy Glass was the goalkeeper who scored a last minute goal from a corner to keep Carlisle United in the football league in 1999. He came up for a last-gasp corner in the 4th minute of injury time against Plymouth Argyle and scored when there were 10 seconds remaining on the clock. The goal was also the final goal in the final game of the final season of the 20th Century.