Thiago Alcantara Is Still Responsible For The Filthiest ‘Elastico’ We’ve Ever Seen

We all know Thiago Alcantara is one of the silkiest passers in world football, but he's also the undisputed 'elastico' king.

It has been argued modern football is lacking showboaters. The kind of players you would watch at the weekend and want to emulate on the playground in school.

Most teams nowadays are very rigid and want total control in a game, which can sacrifice off the cuff brilliance for efficiency.

Thiago clearly never learnt that lesson and during his time at Bayern Munich, he produced something quite special.

Bayern welcomed Borussia Dortmund to the Allianz Arena for the second leg of their DFB-Pokal semi-final in April 2015 and the contest was on a knife edge.

Managed by Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp respectively, the two sides chased down every ball with aggression.

Juan Bernat laid the ball off to Thiago and Jakub Blaszczykowski decided to press the Spain international. It was a mistake he'd soon regret.

Thiago jinked past Blaszczykowski after showing him the ball and Erik Durm tried to get involved. Before he could lift his leg to make a tackle, Thiago had already recycled possession.

For those who don't know what an 'elastico' is, or a 'flip flap' if you're of the Ronaldinho generation, it is the ability to make an opponent think you're going one way only to go another.

There is a reason the video has been viewed over 6 million times on Bayern's official Twitter page. We broke the replay button on it ourselves, to be fair.

Fans have reacted to the video and they're still in awe over seven years later.

One said: "This is the game that made me fall in love with Thiago."

Another tweeted: "A complete wizard on the ball."

While a third commented: "I'd snap every tendon trying that. People really try to call this guy average."

Dortmund would end up winning the semi-final on penalties after a 1-1 draw in normal time and Bayern missed every single spot kick.

Thiago won seven Bundesliga titles and the Champions League during his seven year spell in Germany before moving to Liverpool in 2020.

He has struggled with injury on Merseyside, but is a key player whenever fit. The 31-year-old helped the Reds to Carabao Cup and FA Cup glory last season.

Featured Image Credit: Bayern TV

Topics: Thiago Alcantara, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a social editor for SPORTbible after moving from the writing team. Nearly scored past Stormzy at Old Trafford once.

@DanMarland_