Ice hockey star channels ‘inner Alan Shearer’ with header at Winter Olympics

A Swedish Ice Hockey player channelled his ‘inner Alan Shearer’ to make a cheeky header during his side’s defeat of Latvia in their first game of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Winger Max Friberg was lining up for the Swedes in their Group C encounter with Lativa, with both teams harbouring hopes of winning the gold medal.

Friberg was the furthest player forward for Sweden with 11.33 minutes remaining of the second period when the puck was launched forwards.

It was too high for the Frölunda HC star to bring down with his stick, despite him being 1.79 metres tall, so he employed a novel method to get the puck back on the ice.

After the puck was played forward from deep on Sweden’s left, Friberg jumped up and headed it into the centre of the rink.

Unfortunately for Friberg, none of his team-mates were far enough forward to capitalise on his header, with Latvia mopping up easily.

While his fellow Swedes were unable to anticipate it, Friberg’s header delighted supporters watching on.

And some even compared the 29-year-old to legendary Premier League striker Shearer.

How many medals do you think Team GB will win at the Winter Olympics? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section…

  • Winter Olympian dubbed 'Russia's most beautiful' knows how to motivate herself for gold

“Has Sean Dyce seen this?” one fan asked.

“Alan Shearer like flick on that,” another tweeted.

“Man Utd scouts on high alert,” a third joked.

“Lovely little near-post flick on,” a fourth said.

Friberg helped Sweden to survive a comeback from Lativa to secure a win in their opening game of the Beijing Games.

  • Winter Olympics ski arena slammed for looking like 'hellscape' in nuclear power plant

Anton Lander’s goal as well as a double from Lucas Wallmark had given the Swedes a commanding 3-0 lead midway through the second period.

But Latvia hit back through powerplay strikes from Renars Krastenbergs and Nikolajs Jelisejevs to send the game to a nervy finish.

The Swedes were able to hold on though and are now targeting a gold medal, with Slovakia their next opponents in the preliminary stage.

  • Winter Olympics descends into chaos as team refuses to leave changing room

“Watching the games yesterday anything can happen,” Sweden forward Fredrik Olofsson told Reuters.

“You can't take anything for granted, everyone has a shot at it (a gold medal) it is just making sure you are dialled in every game because there aren't that many, you've got to make them count.”

Source: Read Full Article