Dimitri Payet had only been on the pitch a matter of moments when he stepped up to a dead ball in the 63rd minute of this game. It was nearly 37 yards from goal and firmly central.
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This is Payet range. What happened next bordered on the inevitable. This was textbook Payet, the latest in a glorious catalogue of free-kick beauties. He sent it right-footed, sweeping with clinical curl and precision into the top right-hand corner of the Russian goal.
It was a stunning strike — a mirror image of the one that beat Manchester United’s David de Gea in the FA Cup — and the sheer majesty of his execution continues to draw gasps of awe from those watching on.
