🇪🇺 Euro memories: When Hal Robson-Kanu seized the spirit of Cruyff | OneFootball

Major tournaments — whether it’s the European Championship, Copa América, World Cup — are the undisputed pinnacle of the footballing calendar.

You get drama, underdog stories, moments of individual brilliance and players marking themselves in history forever.

And sometimes you get a moment that covers all of the above? Let us introduce you to Hal Robson-Kanu.

Wales were the true underdogs at Euro 2016. Playing in their first ever European Championship, they were inspired by Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale on their way to the semi-finals.

They topped their group ahead of England, despite losing to the Three Lions in dramatic circumstances, and edged past Northern Ireland in the round of 16.

And who stood in their way of further progression? It was only Belgium, second in the FIFA World Rankings at the time.

It took just 13 minutes for Belgium to lead when Radja Nainggolan slammed home a 25-yard piledriver and it looked like this would be a long night.

But Ashley Williams rifled a bullet header into the corner to equalise. Then it happened. The moment Hal Robson-Kanu sent Welsh fans into delirium.

Receiving the ball from Aaron Ramsey, the striker held off Thomas Meunier, before sending Jason Denayer and Marouane Fellaini to the shops and finishing brilliantly.

This wasn’t Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar. This was then-free agent Robson-Kanu scoring one of the all-time great goals for Wales in a European quarter-final.

Imagine not loving everything about this piece of genius. The control is spot on, the defenders scrambling away is beautiful and then the Cruyff turn. OOF.

One of the simplest moves in football, executed perfectly? It doesn’t get much better than that.

“It was a special moment,” Robson-Kanu explained. “Looking back, it was more that we’d just beaten Belgium in the quarter-finals of Euro 2016.

“I wasn’t really thinking too much about the goal.

“It was only after when you logged into social media and you saw the response that it got was like ‘OK, that must’ve been special.'”

And special it was. Their dream was eventually cut short by Portugal in the semi-final but this moment will live long in Wales fans’ memories.