Zidane Celebrates Olise Winner by Booting Another Ball

Zinedine Zidane celebrated Michael Olise’s late winner against Belgium by sprinting down the touchline and launching an entirely unrelated football into the air.

Olise broke the deadlock in the 88th minute of Monday night’s Nations League match after collecting the ball inside his own half.

The Bayern Munich winger drove towards the Belgian penalty area, resisted a challenge and curled a left-footed finish into the bottom corner to give France a 1-0 victory.

While the French players ran towards Olise, Zidane began a separate celebration of his own.

The France manager charged out of his technical area, spotted a spare ball resting on a cone beside the pitch and struck it with considerably more enthusiasm than was strictly necessary.

The ball flew into the air as Zidane continued running, briefly turning the touchline into his own private shooting exercise.

“I don’t even know what I did,” Zidane admitted afterwards. “I saw the ball and I had to shoot it. Be a bit ridiculous, but it doesn’t matter.”

The reaction was particularly noticeable from a manager normally associated with standing calmly on the touchline while expressing most emotions through a carefully raised eyebrow.

Olise’s goal secured Zidane’s second consecutive 1-0 victory since taking charge of France, following Friday’s win away to Turkey.

France had required 88 minutes of patience, several substitutions and one exceptional solo goal to defeat Belgium.

Zidane required considerably less time to identify a second ball and remove it from the immediate area.