If Christian Benteke is suffering from second-season syndrome in the Premier League, you’d never know it from watching Sunday’s performance.
Benteke, an Aston Villa striker, scored two goals in two minutes in his team’s 4-1 victory over Norwich City, and the first is a certain “Goal of the Season” contender.
Aston Villa was trailing 1-0 when defender Ron Vlaar floated a cross to Benteke, who was standing near the penalty spot. Benteke controlled the ball with his chest before volleying home a spectacular overhead kick to tie the game.
While the strike itself was impressive enough, the fact that Benteke scored with a defender tightly marking him made it truly amazing.
Benteke scored again just two minutes later — this time a routine header from a corner kick — to give Aston Villa an insurmountable lead.
The goals were Benteke’s eight and ninth in the Premier League this season. While the Belgian might match last season’s total of 19 this time around, Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert says Benteke can still live up to his billing as a “world class” player.
“I think if he does over the second half of this season what he did last season, then we’re talking about having an absolute world class player on our hands,” Lambert told Sky Sports. “This season was always going to be hard for him. He’s only been in Britain for a year and a half, and I think people forget that, and they forget his age as well.
“He’s got the ability to be a top, top player, but he’s still a long, long way to go before he hits the heights of his career. His two goals were fantastic, though.”
The win lifted Aston Villa to 11th place in the Premier League standings.
See Benteke’s goal below.
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GIF via Reddit
