How Bellingham's overhead kick against Slovakia compares to England's iconic goals (2024)

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“One of the best in our country’s history” was how Harry Kane described Jude Bellingham’s overhead-kick goal against Slovakia.

The Real Madrid midfielder’s 95th-minute equaliser rescued England in their European Championship last-16 tie, with Gareth Southgate’s side going on to reach the quarter-finals after extra time.

It was a goal where the brilliance and beauty matched its importance. England were around 60 seconds from elimination when the ball was flicked on from a Kyle Walker long throw and Bellingham showed poise and athleticism to add to his growing list of crucial strikes for club and country this season.

Here, our writers pick a selection of memorable England tournament goals and consider how Bellingham’s compares to other iconic moments in the history of the men’s team.

Joe Cole vs Sweden, 2006 World Cup

Really, this was a stupid idea. The ball fell to Joe Cole at a distance of 40 yards and it seemed like he only hit it to see what would happen. First, there was the chest-down, sort of squaring-up motion that drunkards do to bouncers, to be followed by a strike which could not even be conceived of in drunken stupors.

So what is there to say about the shot itself? Cole cuts across the volley from right to left, like a golfer putting fade onto the ball. The ball goes up, surely, even 18 years later, too high to come down. But some unholy combination of the two sends it spiralling — and make no mistake, this was very deliberate — around Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson, both lobbing and outflanking him. Despite a tiny flick of his glove, more sending it on its way, the ball glances off the post and in.

Cole runs to the corner flag, chest still puffed out. The only thing it misses is context — this was a 2-2 group-stage draw to Sweden. The goal itself? The best.

Jacob Whitehead

Michael Owen vs Argentina, 1998 World Cup

The reaction of the England substitutes said it all. Experienced internationals stood to applaud. Paul Merson was laughing — laughing in disbelief.

Michael Owen, aged 18, had just scored a goal of breathtaking quality, running almost half the length of the pitch. His first touch, with the outside of his right boot, was immaculate and allowed him to brush off Jose Antonio Chamot.

To television viewers, Owen was now clean through on goal, but then Roberto Ayala appeared in the corner of your screen or, to be more precise, on the edge of the Argentina penalty area.

Owen glided around Ayala with the minimum of fuss and then had the confidence and conviction to step in front of Paul Scholes before drilling the ball into the opposite top corner.

As dramatic as Bellingham’s goal? No. But it was certainly an iconic England goal given that anyone who watched it will remember where they were at the time.

Stuart James

David Beckham vs Colombia, 1998 World Cup

Winning 1-0 and in control of a must-win final group game against Colombia, there was not the same jeopardy; Beckham hardly pulled England from the fire.

Technically, there were few similarities. This was the quintessential side-winding Beckham free kick and, even by 1998, it was a goal with which English football had become familiar.

But the ego of it — therein lies the parallel. Beckham played with such a strut in that period before Diego Simeone and all that, and the way he celebrated that goal, which was his first for England, had the same chest-out bravado that Bellingham carries himself with. Watch it back now; that is who he was.

Seb Stafford-Bloor

Alan Shearer vs Netherlands, Euro 96

It’s not quite Carlos Alberto in the 1970 World Cup final but it’s the closest thing England have got to it. After a stuttering start to a tournament on home soil, they were 2-0 up against a much-feared Netherlands team in their final group game, heading for the quarter-finals, when they produced something extraordinary.

Steve McManaman clipped the ball into the path of Paul Gascoigne, who dribbled it into the penalty area and picked out Teddy Sheringham, who feinted as if to shoot first-time but then played a clever side-foot pass to Alan Shearer, who slammed it into the top corner in a way that summed up the confidence that was suddenly flowing through the team.

It was the type of thing England teams just weren’t supposed to do.

Oliver Kay

Paul Gascoigne vs Scotland, Euro 96

In that summer of 1996, England was on the precipice of change. The Conservative government was fizzling out, a Labour leader was gearing up for power, and the country was contemplating a new national identity.

Amid that came a European Championship for which England were hosts and with a talented squad, there was expectation, dampened by an opening draw with Switzerland. Then came Scotland. England went 1-0 up but Scotland got a penalty. David Seaman saved it. Everyone felt the jitters. Which way would England go?

Then it happened: a force of talent, character, belief; someone with the ability to create something nobody had envisaged, like a magic trick. Gascoigne flicked it over Colin Hendry with his left and volleyed it into the goal with his right. A new England was born.

Andrew Hankinson

Gary Lineker vs West Germany, 1990 World Cup

Just like against Slovakia in 2024, hope of an equaliser was fading fast in England’s World Cup semi-final against West Germany in 1990.

Sir Bobby Robson’s side had impressed for long periods but trailed due to Andreas Brehme’s shot on the hour mark taking an unfortunate deflection off Paul Parker.

It needed England’s goalscoring talisman to save them, temporarily at least. Parker earned some kind of redemption as his cross from the right caused panic in the opposition defence.

But the rest was all down to Lineker, the striker brilliantly controlling and flicking the ball with his right thigh before unleashing a fine left-footed shot into the bottom corner. There were just nine minutes remaining and a man synonymous at the time with showing little emotion held two arms aloft and looked to the heavens in ecstasy.

It took the tie into extra time and agony was soon to follow due to arguably the most painful penalty shootout defeat in England’s history — but as far as delivering under the greatest pressure goes, Lineker’s strike was clutch.

Simon Johnson

David Platt vs Belgium, 1990 World Cup

The most aesthetically satisfying and technically immaculate England goal at a major tournament very nearly never happened at all.

After a characteristically barrelling Gascoigne run through the Belgium midfield had been clumsily halted by Eric Gerets, England’s most impulsive player got to his feet and had his mind set on shooting directly from the free kick, a good 40 yards from the Belgian goal, one minute before England would be subjected to their first penalty shootout.

Was Gascoigne going to have a crack? He wasn’t, you know. England manager Robson frantically implored him to instead chip the ball into the box, into which towering defender Mark Wright had been sent to join Lineker and substitutes Steve Bull and David Platt.

This was a 24-year-old Platt’s eighth cap for England and the seventh from the bench. The PFA Player of the Year had scored 19 league goals from midfield for Aston Villa but he wasn’t yet an international mainstay. He was, though, already one of the superior technicians in Robson’s squad, certainly when it came to finishing — and especially on the volley. This would be the making of him.

Gascoigne’s delivery asked the right questions, Platt peeled away from his marker Franky Van der Elst, let the ball drop over his shoulder and — without needing an emphatic swing of the boot — timed his execution perfectly, the ball pinging off his laces back across goal, beyond one of the best goalkeepers in the world in Michel Preud’homme.

England had done it, as John Motson ecstatically pointed out, in the last minute of extra time. A year later, Platt returned to Italy as the most expensive British footballer of all time. Still, that Gazza free kick might have been fun.

Adam Hurrey

Geoff Hurst vs West Germany, 1966 World Cup

Does it get more iconic than scoring the goal that makes it certain of winning the World Cup for the first time? The fact England have yet to repeat that feat 58 years later only adds to its mystique.

Geoff Hurst had already scored two and England were winning 3-2 with seconds left in extra time when he found himself jogging, then haring towards the West Germany goal. Get it in the corner and hold on for dear life? No chance. Hurst had eyes only for goal and he unleashed a rasping drive into the top corner to make it 4-2 and make sure the West Germans could not equalise late on again, as they had done in the 89th minute to force the extra 30 minutes.

Hurst’s goal had a bit of everything: a deft turn of pace, power and precision. The fact it was also accompanied by perhaps English football’s most iconic commentary line — “Some people are on the pitch. They think it’s all over… it is now!” — only adds to its mystique.

John Stanton

(Top photo: Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)