And to think, some call Thierry Henry a big-game bottler.
Last night the France captain set up the equaliser for William Gallas that saw France win their play-off against Ireland and reach next year's World Cup finals.
The Barcelona forward used all of the speed, guile and cunning that won him back-to-back PFA awards and three Football Writer's gongs at Arsenal to create an assist that lesser players would not have dared to imagine possible.
His first touch to take the sting out of the ball at the by-line was surprising enough, but his quick second that brought it fully under control was nothing short of jaw-dropping.
Some will claim that it was a handball, but ED knows it was his genius that made the difference, no matter what he says about it himself. French daily L'Equipe's headline "France have the tickets in their hands" is, of course, not in any way meant to be apologetic or ironic.
That kind of magnanimous reaction is typical of the man as player and captain, always looking to please his footballing public. Emulating his sporting reaction to the Gunners' Champions League final defeat in 2006, Henry saw Richard Dunne seated dejectedly on the pitch after the final whistle, and sat with him to offer words of commiseration that the Ireland defender must really have welcomed at that moment.
France's recent World Cup history has been topsy-turvy to say the least. Embarrassing failure to qualify in 1994, champions in '98, first-round humiliation in 2002 and runners-up in '06 - that sequence was in danger of continuing at the Stade de France as the tie looked to be heading for penalties.
It took Henry's divine intervention to break that cycle, and he had to defy the instincts so deeply ingrained in him after well over 600 professional appearances to do what those whining naysayers in forums and phone-ins might call 'the unthinkable'. The man is truly a maverick.
Of course, there will be those who do not share ED's admiration for Henry. Those dissenters who have always viewed him as arrogant and aloof may take this opportunity to turn him into some kind of hate figure. Let's just hope that this incident does not haunt him for the rest of his career and beyond. That would be awful.
There will be the usual tedious calls for retrospective punishments, video technology and/or extra officials to be introduced in order to stop sides like Ireland (unbeaten in their qualifying group) being 'cheated' out of big games but, according to UEFA, sides that contain the Keith Andrews and Sean St Ledgers of this world don't deserve to be in major finals anyway, hence the late introduction of seedings for this round of play-offs that saw Giovanni Trapattoni's side drawn against the French.
Despite most people probably preferring a limping John O'Shea to a fully fit Paul McShane, it was the Hull defender who came off the bench to get a front row seat for a piece of World Cup history, for it was he who was right next to Henry when he provided his sublime assist.
Trapattoni had his players practising penalties throughout their campaign, reportedly without too much success, so perhaps Henry did them a favour by bringing forward their inevitable valiant failure by 10 minutes or so. What a guy.
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Ireland's exit may be the big talking point, but the biggest scalp of the night was that of Russia.
The affable Guus Hiddink became everyone's favourite manager during his brief spell at Chelsea, and he was for a time linked with every other job going despite basically being drafted in to not be Luiz Felipe Scolari for a few months.
However, following Slovenia's 1-0 win in Maribor that put the Slovenians through, their coach Matjaz Kek took issue with his Dutch counterpart not shaking his hand at the final whistle.
Kek said: "Mr Hiddink is one of the best coaches, a big gentleman and I believe that today is not easy for him - but I also deserve a handshake."
With a seemingly newfound ability for being a bad loser, Hiddink is sure to be a leading candidate once a big Premier League job becomes available.
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Elsewhere in World Cup play-off land, everything went pretty much to script; Portugal qualified as expected, Uruguay also held on to reach the finals, Greece beat Ukraine in the most boring match in history and Algeria's win over Egypt almost descended into all-out war.
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RANDOM FACT COMPLETELY PLUCKED OUT OF THE ETHER OF THE DAY: France are reigning world and Olympic champions in men's handball.
FOREIGN VIEW: Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor said he had made good on a promise to clean the team's boots after Wednesday's victory over Russia earned them a place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
"I just cleaned the players' shoes but I admit I did not clean them thoroughly," Pahor said after coming from the dressing room.
Pahor said last month he would "clean shoes" if Slovenia managed to come through in the play-offs, which they did after a 1-0 win over Russia saw them to victory on the away goals rule.
Pahor watched the match in the company of Slovenian President Danilo Turk, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian billionaire and Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea.
COMING UP: The entire football world puts its feet up for once, but we'll have a glut of post-play-off reaction for you including a rundown of who's going to South Africa, the pick of the players who won't be there, international power rankings and plenty more.
Why not follow a sport where 'spirit of the game' actually means something. The first Test between Sri Lanka and India continues this morning - follow our LIVE scorecard.