Pre-season is an opportunity for younger players at big clubs to stake their claim for a first-team place when the competitive action starts in a few weeks time.One footballer who was looking to do just that on Saturday afternoon was Bayern Munich's Joshua Zirkzee.The 20-year-old striker is rarely given a chance in the German club's first-team due to the presence of goalscoring machine, Robert Lewandowski.But in Bayern's latest pre-season friendly against Ajax, the Dutchman was handed a starting berth by new manager Julian Nagelsmann.Sadly, Zirkzee didn't make the most of his opportunity, with the talented forward producing one of the worst misses we've seen in 2021 so far.Harry Kane & Jack Grealish AGREE TERMS with Man City | Football Terrace

To be honest, it's hard to think of many worse misses in the past five years or so.

In the final few minutes of the first half in Munich, the striker took the ball round Ajax goalkeeper Remko Pasveer and then looked certain to put Bayern 2-1 ahead.

But with an empty goal to aim at, Zirkzee bizarrely decided to take his time before firing the ball into the net, allowing centre-back Per Schuurs to recover and clear the ball for a corner.

Zirkzee's incredible miss

What was he doing?!

Zirkzee showed great skill and composure to get past the onrushing 'keeper, but then seemed to think he could walk the ball over the line unchallenged - a plan that seriously backfired.

Fair play to Schuurs for not giving up and producing a brilliant tackle, though.

Thankfully for Zirkzee, Bayern went 2-1 ahead early in the second half thanks to a goal from teenage centre-back Tanguy Nianzou.

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was the man who grabbed the German side's first goal of the day, which was an equaliser after Zakira Labyad had put Ajax in front in the 10th-minute.

GMS Giveaway

The Dutch outfit then levelled the scores at 2-2 less than two minutes after Nianzou's effort through a brilliant long-range strike by Victor Jensen.

Jensen's stunner

It was a bit of a goal-fest in Bavaria on Saturday.