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It was Irankunda\u2019s third goal of his maiden season in the English second tier – all of which have come from long range.<\/p>\n
The Adelaide United product went viral for his two stunning free kick goals earlier in the season and his freakish ability to score stunners has Australian fans excited in a World Cup year.<\/p>\n
Irankunda has also provided four assists this season, having made 31 appearances for The Hornets.<\/p>\n
However, the loss gave a serious dent to Watford\u2019s dreams of promotion.<\/p>\n
They now sit eight points out of the playoff places with eight matches still to play, including welcoming sixth-placed Wrexham to Vicarage Road next weekend.<\/p>\n
Irankunda was not the only Australian to score a superb goal overnight.<\/p>\n
Alex Robertson curled one into the top right corner from outside the box in Cardiff City\u2019s 4-0 win against Exeter City in League One.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old midfielder has scored four goals and provided two assists in his last nine outings in the English third tier.<\/p>\n
The two eye-catching performances came following the news that 21-year-old winger Adrian Segecic has turned his back on the Socceroos.<\/p>\n
Segecic, who plays for Portsmouth in the Championship, was born and raised in Sydney, and played for Australia at youth level.<\/p>\n
He was also a member of Tony Popovic\u2019s Socceroos squads for two friendlies against New Zealand last September.<\/p>\n
But he has chosen to represent Croatia in international football.<\/p>\n
It has already been confirmed that he will link up with the Croatian U21 team in the upcoming international window for their UEFA European qualifiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy to make this decision because I grew up in Australia, which I represented at youth levels, so I would like to express my gratitude to the coaches and teammates with whom I shared the dressing room,\u201d Segecic said via the Croatian Football Federation.<\/p>\n
OXFORD, ENGLAND – AUGUST 09: Adrian Segecic of Portsmouth celebrates victory after the Sky Bet Championship match between Oxford United and Portsmouth at Kassam Stadium on August 09, 2025 in Oxford, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, my family is from Croatia and I feel a connection to the Croatian people. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt the desire to represent Croatia as my homeland. I thank the Croatian Football Federation for their dedication during this process \u2013 I clearly felt the desire from people in the Federation for me to become part of the Croatian football family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am looking forward to joining the squad of head coach Ivica Oli\u0107 with the U21 national team, whose staff also includes Niko Kranj\u010dar, who left a big mark at Portsmouth. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will continue to work hard to fulfil my football dream of playing for the senior Croatian national team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nestory Irankunda added another stunning strike to his ever expanding highlight reel as his Watford fell 3-1 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[11470,160839,64,63,689,136006,240706,28153,268175,268171,1208,2057,268176,268168,268174,596,6246,5330,268166,253473,53744,163489,11326,673,268167,3583,677,50011,268163,268164,268170,3595,85,268172,268173,670,3586,205458,268165,268169],"class_list":["post-541284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-adelaide-united","tag-alex-robertson","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-fans","tag-city-of-oxford","tag-croatia","tag-croatian-football-family","tag-croatian-people","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-european-qualifiers","tag-expanding-highlight","tag-expanding-highlight-reel","tag-football","tag-football-news","tag-head-coach","tag-ivica-olic","tag-kick-goals","tag-league-one","tag-maiden-season","tag-national-team","tag-new-south-wales","tag-niko-kranjcar","tag-northern-europe","tag-oceania","tag-oxford-united-football-club","tag-playoff-places","tag-range-goal","tag-senior-croatian","tag-southern-europe","tag-sports","tag-stoke-city-football-club","tag-stunning-strike","tag-sydney","tag-united-kingdom","tag-watford-football-club","tag-wonder-goal","tag-youth-levels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}