Popular tactic hilariously backfires as Braga ‘draught excluder’ gifts Qarabag a surprise goal

Braga may need a tactical rethink after their 'draught excluder' cost his side a crucial goal from a free-kick.

A popular tactic in football is to have a player lying horizontally on the floor behind a wall in order to stop low free-kicks from going underneath and into the back of the net.

The Portuguese side planned to do exactly this in their Europa League clash with Qarabag, however things didn't exactly go to plan.

Victor Gomez was the man tasked with being the 'draught excluder', however due to his positioning, his role proved to be somewhat ineffective.

That's because the defender's head turned out to be the last line of defence, meaning that he was inadvertently giving their opponents a huge advantage.

As a result, when the free-kick was taken it ricocheted into the path of Abdellah Zoubir who slammed home from inside the penalty area.

Despite being initially ruled out for offside, a VAR check ruled that Gomez had inadvertently played Zoubir onside for Qarabag, meaning that the goal stood.

That effort put Qarabag 2-1 up in the away leg of their Europa League play-off, before the Azerbaijan Premier League side went on to win 4-2 in Portugal.

There's no doubting that the tactic is effective when used properly, but for Braga, perhaps it could use some fine-tuning.