On a chilly Sunday afternoon in Chelyabinsk, Ural Yekaterinburg’s 32-year-old goalkeeper Aleksandr Selikhov jogged the length of the pitch, placed the ball 23 metres from goal, took two short steps, and bent a free-kick into the top corner like it was the most natural thing in the world. The scoreboard flipped to 2-1. The away end lost its mind. And a routine First League fixture suddenly became the kind of story that travels.

Ural had been trailing since the early minutes after Ramazan Gadzhimuradov’s opener. Bertrand Fourrier’s equaliser around the 70th minute restored order, but the game still felt destined for a gritty 1-1 until the late drama. With both sides already down to ten men after red cards to Vitaly Stezhko and Khetag Kochiev, coach Sergei Yuran made the call that will define the afternoon: let the goalkeeper take it.

Afterwards Selikhov grinned and invited comparisons to Rogério Ceni, the Brazilian legend who made scoring look like part of a goalkeeper’s job description. The joke landed because the moment felt just as improbable. Ural climbed to fourth with 28 points. The internet got another reminder that the beautiful game still has room for pure, unscripted chaos.

Some free-kicks are taken. This one was claimed.