Spain emerged victorious in style in their final 2020 European Championship group stage match against Slovakia. After struggling to score goals in the first two matches, La Roja erupted with a brilliant display in a 5-0 win to secure their progress into the Round of 16 of the competition.
While goals from Aymeric Laporte, Pablo Sarabia, Ferran Torres and two own goals from Slovakia made the highlight reel on the night, so did one of the cameramen covering the match.
A certain Steadicam operator on the sidelines of the Group E match in Seville stole the spotlight from the Spanish performers with a neat header that caught the attention of the online football community.
When Spanish forward Gerard Moreno was involved in an aerial tussle with multiple Slovaks, he sent the ball out of touch under pressure in the first half of the match.
As the ball, still in the air, approached one of the cameramen recording with a Steadicam, the operator – who was backing away to maintain the tracking shot – readily pulled off a brilliant cushioning header.
The approaching Slovakian right-back Peter Pekarik who was preparing to go fetch the ball himself had his work done by the steady cameraman – who even while walking backwards while carrying the heavy equipment, maintained his balance to head the ball into play.
The footage went viral right after the match, as football fans were left amazed by the smoothness of the header. It was not the best looping header that the crowd in the Estadio Olimpico de Sevilla witnessed last night – considering the strong competition from Aymeric Laporte who made it 2-0 to Spain from a first-half corner, but the Steadicam operator’s brilliant balance and perfect ball boy work to make up for any lost time made him the unsung hero of last night’s encounter.
While walking backwards and not losing the tracking shot. Smooth as you like. pic.twitter.com/V4IDclFUUT
— Tom Woods (@woodstome) June 23, 2021
Smooth (Steadicam) operator 😎#EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/2llXMQrxrE
— UEFA EURO 2020 (@EURO2020) June 23, 2021
