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WATCH: The variety of Batistuta goals will make you miss Maradona's favourite striker

"For me, he's the best striker I've ever seen." When that's coming from Diego Maradona, that prai...



WATCH: The variety of Batistut...
Soccer

WATCH: The variety of Batistuta goals will make you miss Maradona's favourite striker

"For me, he's the best striker I've ever seen."

When that's coming from Diego Maradona, that praise is elevated to another stratosphere, isn't it?

The player the Argentina legend was referring to was another legend of Serie A and the South American nation in Gabriel Batistuta.

While Maradona grew his legend in the No 10 shirt, Batigol was the No 9 centre-forward prototype who could score every type of goal from any conceivable angle.

On this week's Team 33, we spoke to The Gentleman Ultra, The Guardian and Viola Nation contributor Chloe Beresford about the former Fiorentina great's legacy and whether staying at the Serie A side for so long prevented him from moving even higher in the echelons of the greats.

Plus, we also got Chloe's take on how Batistuta's move to Roma in 2000 which finally saw him win Serie A was viewed by Fiorentina fans. 

You can listen to our chat with Chloe on the podcast player or on iTunes:

But one other thing we spoke to her about was the extraordinary goals he scored. Almost every time I saw him play in Serie A, World Cups or the Champions League, he was either scoring a golazo or a hat-trick of some description.

So let's look back at some of those brilliant finishes. 

The daunting angle at Arsenal

This finish past David Seaman at Wembley in the 1999-00 Champions League group stages was the goal that stood out for Chloe and the accuracy from that angle is brilliant.

 A thunderbolt at Old Trafford

Later in that Champions League campaign, Batigol and Fiorentina came up against Manchester United. Carrying his team as he did so often, he delivered this astonishing thunderbolt of a strike which always remains planted in the mind - and net!

 Set piece wizardry

Roma fan Richard Chambers brought up one strike from Batistuta's time in Italy's capital, namely this free-kick against Juventus which just goes to show he could score in almost any situation:

 Another downing of Juve

At 1m85, he was also a threat in the air with Juventus again feeling the bite of his talents, this time when he was still in Florence:

 A hat-trick hero

Batistuta scored an incredible 10 goals in three World Cups for Argentina, including two hat-tricks. The one I remember seeing live was the one against Jamaica in 1998.

But he also plundered a hat-trick against Greece four years earlier:

Acrobatics

So you've seen long-range shots, free-kicks, headers and cunning finishes, so here's one that's arguably the most spectacular.

In 1997, he found the net against Udinese with this sublime bicycle kick from outside the box:

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