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23rd Mar 2017

Joe Hart proves he’s not actually all that bad with the ball at his feet

Cool head

Darragh Murphy

Where you at, Pep?

Joe Hart’s chances of reigniting his Manchester City career seem slim as the manager of his parent club, Pep Guardiola, simply doesn’t fancy him between the sticks.

Deeming Hart unable to play with the ball at his feet, Guardiola shipped the goalkeeper off to Torino for the season and the loan move has not gone great for Hart.

Several mistakes, primarily with his hands, in Serie A means that he’s unlikely to return to the Etihad this summer but he seems intent to show that he’s not actually the worst player with the ball on the turf.

That’s all anybody could talk about after he pulled off this piece of composed skill on Wednesday night during England’s 1-0 defeat to Germany.

With Timo Werner bearing down on him, looking to close down Hart’s distribution, the England number one calmly faked to clear and cut the ball back inside which made the German forward look rather silly altogether.

https://twitter.com/fifavirus0/status/844666240455114752

Take that, Pep!

Hart would ideally have liked to have kept a clean sheet but a goal for Lukas Podolski on his final appearance for his country was in the stars.

The former Arsenal striker beat Hart with a cracking strike from outside the box and the ‘keeper couldn’t help but offer a fist-bump by way of congratulations for the goal.

And Hart even had some kind (if slightly NSFW) words for the legendary German as he was substituted with five minutes remaining.

“He said it was a fucking brilliant shot – amazing!” Podolski revealed.