Speaking on the Footballer’s Football Podcast, Michail Antonio has been chatting about the emotion surrounding Andriy Yarmolenko’s goal for West Ham against Aston Villa at the weekend.
Yarmolenko’s home country of Ukraine is enduring an awful war right now with Russia, and the footballing world has tried its best to show its support for the nation.
Yarmolenko, of course, received a brilliant ovation at the weekend, and almost inevitably, it was his left foot that opened the scoring.
It was an incredibly emotional moment, and while Antonio didn’t get to celebrate it on the pitch as he’d just been subbed off, the Jamaican says that he was almost brough to tears in the dressing room.
What’s been said?
Antonio described the emotion of watching that goal.
“It was amazing. When he came on and when he scored both fans were applauding him. The emotion that was going on, I was just subbed so I was in the changing room watching it, but it got to me. I was sat there and my eyes were welling up. What a moment, it seemed to be written in the stars. Cress came off not long after me and we both said we wanted him to score so badly, and he did and that emotion that was going on, it was just amazing, and afterwards we all applauded him afterwards. He’s going through so much, to play as well as he did and to score a quality goal, it was just unreal,” Antonio said.
Moment of the season
No matter what happens in the title race or in the relegation battle, Yarmolenko’s goal against Aston Villa will have to go down as one of the moments of the season.
We’re not sure how the winger found the composure to play at the weekend, nevermind to score, and the fact that even the away fans applauded his goal tells you all you need to know.
This situation in Ukraine is so much bigger than any football match could ever be, but the fact that the footballing world has united over this situation is truly touching.
Antonio was almost in tears at the weekend, and we’re sure he wasn’t the only one.
