Football: Seven seconds of Giggs brilliance

NO MATTER whether Manchester United win the treble, there will be few arguments about the goal of their potentially historic season, writes Guy Hodgson.

When Ryan Giggs seized on a pass by Patrick Vieira in extra time of the semi-final replay against Arsenal at Villa Park, it was going to take something special to break the deadlock. Seven seconds later Giggs had scored a goal that won the match 2-1 and had the media debating where it stood in the history of the genre.

"I didn't realise I'd beaten so many players until I saw it on the television," Giggs said this week. "All I can remember is getting it on the half-way line and the next moment I'm in the penalty box. I couldn't believe where I was. I thought: `I'm just going to smash this'. I recall going past Dixon and Keown, I think, but the rest is a blur. I suppose instinct just took over. When you are a kid you dream of getting a goal like that. The first time I saw it was on the coach home from Villa Park. You can never sleep after a big game either so I might have watched it again when I got home. The lads say I watch it every day.

"I don't think any goal has given me as much pleasure. Through the game we went through every emotion: Peter Schmeichel saving a penalty, Roy Keane getting sent off, the lift of beating Arsenal. Because the game was so massive, and because of what had gone on, it has to be the most satisfying.

"I don't know where the celebration came from. But I'm not doing it again."