Unheralded Milla grabs spotlight with 'impossible' header: Moment of the Weekend

Pere Milla doesn't score many goals. He doesn't often grab headlines. Playing your way across the Spanish second division, with stints for lower table LaLiga clubs in-between does have that effect. There are scores of players of his ilk, the kind who often end up in India or Indonesia as their careers wind down, the names that no one really remembers but are the reason football runs so smoothly year after year. For they just keep at it.

Editor's Picks

• 

  Stats: Salah up to fourth, Messi's 30, Kane's 2nd and Bayern's 11th

  3dAaditya Narayan

• 

  The VAR Review: Explaining Eze's disallowed goal, and why Senesi escaped a red card

  3dDale Johnson

• 

  Arsenal begin new season in style as problems persist for Man United

  3dJames Olley and Rob Dawson

Born in Catalunya, taught football by his hometown club Lleida (around 150km inland from Catalan capital Barcelona), Milla now plays for that other big Catalan club, RCD Espanyol. He had joined them when they were in the Segunda division, scored four goals across 42 games (38 league and four playoff) as they struggled upward and got promoted the season before last. In 2024-25, he scored three as they somehow survived a chaotic, tight relegation battle. One of those goals, though, had come in the last match of the season, a goal against already relegated Las Palmas that sealed the win which ensured Espanyol didn't go down again.

It had been an important goal, but eight goals across two seasons will never endear you to most home fans and that had been the case for Milla. Firmly a squad player for a proper lower-mid table club now, you wouldn't expect Milla to grab headlines on the opening weekend of a new LaLiga season... but expectations don't understand Espanyol, or Pere Milla.

Atletico Madrid had come home to the Cornella-El Prat and had started the match with the buzz and intensity that a genuine title contender brings to the table. Julian Alvarez scored a stunner, and they were tossing Espanyol around the park even if the score remained 1-0. The home faithful, so used to being the ignored minority in a land dominated by blue-and-garnet, appeared to resign themselves to another season of doom and gloom.

Then came an equaliser in the 73rd minute. From a set piece in a fairly innocuous area, Edu Exposito swung in a gorgeous ball that was poked in by Miguel Rubio. A minute later, Milla was subbed on.

Even with the equaliser giving Espanyol life, nobody thought this sub would turn the tide, (nobody other than this gloriously optimistic fan), and for the most part it didn't, with Atletico continuing to dominate the game... Until it did.

A poor crossfield from Pablo Barrios was intercepted by right back Omar El Hilali, who played a quick one-two with Exposito and swung in a cross that ought to have amounted to nothing. It was aimed at the middle of the box, where Milla had made a clever run into space, sneaking in ahead of David Hancko, but with the big Slovakian in front of him, and the ball slightly behind, Milla shouldn't have had a chance.

What he did, though, was sheer footballing genius. Bending his head a bit, he nodded it backwards at an angle, aiming for the far post but generating tremendous power with a last-second, impossible-looking twist of the neck. There was loop to the header but also force: a unique combination. The true mark of how brilliant the header was lay in how Jan Oblak, on his line and perfectly positioned as ever, simply didn't see it coming till it was too late.

Look at the video once again, and marvel at the physics of it all - the ball had no right to end up where it did, but Milla made sure it did. He may be a squad player, he may not score many goals, but this weekend, he also made sure that the headlines were all his, and how. For that, Pere Milla takes our first Moment of the Week of the season.