Hernández goes solo in style of George Weah to take Milan a point from title

Rafael Leão held his head in his hands, but this was no gesture of despair. The Portuguese forward had just watched his Milan teammate, Theo Hernández, score the goal that would put them within a point of claiming the Scudetto, sealing a 2-0 win over Atalanta. He should have been celebrating but needed to stop for a moment and try to fathom what he had just seen.

Theo had set off from the left corner of Milan’s penalty area moments before. When the ball ran to him from a sliding challenge by Rade Krunic on Jérémie Boga, he claimed it and took off, moving inside to shed one opponent and then accelerating away from another as he crossed halfway.

Berat Djimsiti came haring across from the right, but Theo jagged left and caused the defender to collide with another teammate, Marten de Roon, on the edge of their 18-yard box. José Luis Palomino, the last defender, backed away, a bedazzled bystander to an unfolding moment in football history. Theo fired back across his body and into the bottom right corner of the net.

It was not, could not be, the deciding goal in this season’s title race, not with Inter still in touching distance and waiting to play away at Cagliari later that evening. If Milan do seal the deal, though, this will be the highlight that gets played every time their triumph is remembered for decades to come.

Parallels were immediately drawn with the iconic “coast to coast” goal scored by George Weah against Verona in 1996. They scored at opposite ends of the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, but he and Theo had started their runs from near identical positions, covering as many yards in more or less the same amount of time. Heck, even their names almost rhyme.

Or perhaps comparing Theo to Weah was not taking things far