Liverpool: It's 17 years since fan's dream about Xabi Alonso won him big money | OneFootball

Liverpool have heralded the 17-year anniversary of Xabi Alonso’s stunning goal at Luton Town.

On this day in 2006, the future Real Madrid and Bayern Munich midfielder scored his first of two halfway-line goals that would come to be a staple of montages of his time on Merseyside.

Yes, Alonso scored a truly stupendous Premier League goal against Newcastle United from his own half, but it was his 70-yard stunner at Kenilworth Road that came first.

When did Alonso score from the halfway line for Liverpool?

The Reds were getting their FA Cup campaign underway with a visit to the Championship side in the third round and proceeded to play out an entertaining 5-3 encounter.

After Steven Gerrard had fired the Premier League favourites into an early lead, goals from Steve Howard, Stephen Robinson and Kevin Nicholls sensationally saw Luton gain a 3-1 advantage.

However, there was still plenty of fight left in the reigning champions of Europe as Florent Sinama Pongolle goals either side of an Alonso strike saw Liverpool re-establish a 4-3 lead.

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And with the scores remaining that way going into stoppage time, Luton decided to roll the dice and push forward with goalkeeper Marlon Beresford marauding deep into the Liverpool half.

As such, the chance was there for Liverpool to counterattack and snatch one more goal with the Luton net unoccupied, which is exactly what Alonso managed to do as he scored for the second time on that most chaotic of nights in Bedfordshire.

You know the rest of the story with Alonso’s weak-footed punt from his own half eventually bobbling over the line to wrap up a 5-3 win, setting the wheels in motion for 2006 FA Cup glory.

Video: Alonso scores stunning 70-yard goal for Liverpool

How did fan win £25,000 from Alonso’s goal?

However, what you might not remember about Alonso’s screamer as it blows out 17 candles on its birthday cake is the fan who won big because they’d dreamt that it would happen. Yeah, seriously.

As we celebrate the anniversary of Alonso’s unforgettable strike, we couldn’t help recalling the remarkable story of supporter Adrian Hayward that saw him bag an astonishing £25,000.

According to a contemporary report from the BBC, Mr Hayward Newbury, Berkshire, pocketed the handsome sum having dreamt that Alonso would score from his own half that season.

Having dreamt in July that Alonso would pull off the rare footballing feat, the Liverpool fan placed a £200 bet at odds of 125/1 that the Spaniard would indeed produce the goods at some point in the 2005/06 campaign.

And obviously when Alonso found the net from jaw-dropping range against Luton, it not only meant that Mr Hayward’s dream had come true, but that he won the bet as a consequence.

“I’ve never placed such a large bet before but I had a feeling about it,” Mr Hayward explained in the days afterwards.

“I was watching the Luton match on TV with my family and I saw the keeper off his line. I was shouting ‘Shoot!’ and he did. It seemed to take an age to hit the net but when it did, I just went berserk.”

The then 42-year-old, a father of two, said that he might spend some of the winnings on a family holiday.

Meanwhile, Paddy Power are quoted as reacting to the whole episode by saying: “When he placed the bet we thought it was the easiest £200 we had ever made.

“But fair play to him. It’s great when these unusual bets pay out and it shows that dreams do come true.”

Well, dreams come true sometimes; I’m still waiting on my £150 bet on a tyrannosaurus rex to score an in-direct free-kick against Burnley to come good.