Goal : Inter’s Yuto Nagatomo left his opponents speechless and fans awestruck on Tuesday evening with a headed goal that, like the man himself during the run of play, appeared to materialize out of thin air.
The lone score in Inter’s 1-0 win at Genoa came in the 67th minute when Ricky Alvarez’s cross was met by Nagatomo just outside of the goal area. It began and ended so quickly that Genoa goalkeeper Sebastian Frey’s first reaction was to pick the ball up from the back of the net.
Meanwhile, Nagatomo’s reaction was to find captain Javier Zanetti to perform the celebration that has become something of a tradition for the Samurai Blue regular.
“Luckily tonight [Zanetti] was there,” Nagatomo told Inter Channel after the match.
“I’ve been practicing the o-jigi [the traditional Japanese bow] with him.”
The bowing celebration came into existence just nine months ago, when Nagatomo scored his first goal for Inter. It was, ironically, the exclamation point in the team’s 5-2 home rout of Genoa.
Nagatomo had to finesse his way around Marco Rossi in that March 6 fixture, but on Tuesday night he simply glided ninja-like past an unaware Kakhaber Kaladze for the first heading goal of his career.