The five greatest comebacks in football history

After Liverpool came from two goals down to seal a dramatic 3-2 victory over Manchester City yesterday we thought we'd look back on the top five comebacks by English teams.

1. Ataturk Stadium, Istanbul, May 2005: Liverpool 3, AC Milan (Liverpool win 3-2 on penalties)
Arguably the greatest of them all. Rafa Benitez's men were dead and buried at half-time, trailing 3-0 as Paolo Maldini and Hernan Crespo put the Italians on course for a seemingly comfortable victory, even Andy Gray proclaimed it "game over" before half time.

But a Steven Gerrard-inspired comeback soon wiped the smile off Italian faces as the Liverpool captain, Smicer and Alonso dragged Liverpool level with three goals in six magic minutes before the Reds went on to win their fifth European Cup on penalties. Click here to watch the video.

2. The Valley, December 1957: Charlton 7, Huddersfield 6.
With 30 minutes left on the clock, Charlton trailed Bill Shankly's Huddersfield 5-1 - what happened next was miraculous. Shankly watched in horror as Charlton's hero of the hour - dashing left-winger Johnny Summers - engineered the most remarkable comeback, scoring five goals and setting-up the other two. Summers scored a six-minute hat-trick to give Charlton a 6-5 lead, before Huddersfield promptly equalised.

But Summers wouldn't be denied, laying on the winner for John Ryan, who scored with the final kick of the game. Summers later revealed that he changed his boots at half-time after his old pair had started falling apart.

3. Wembley, May 1999: Manchester City 2, Gillingham 2 (City win 3-1 on penalties)
Thoughts of Brazilians signing for £32.5million couldn't have been further from City's minds as they trailed Gillingham 2-0 after 89 minutes of the '99 Division Two play-off final.

What happened next made everything that has happened to City this season possible. Kevin Horlock gave City hope blasting home after 89 minutes. Four pain-staking minutes of injury time followed before Paul Dickov scored a second to take the game to extra-time. No one could break the deadlock in 30 tense minutes of extra-time but Nicky Weaver was the star of the show as he saved the decisive penalty to send City up.

4. Nou Camp, May 1999: Manchester Utd 2, Bayern Munich 1
Outplayed for 89 minutes, Sir Alex Ferguson's side looked dead and buried as the final whistle approached. But United's never-say die attitude saw them through as first Teddy Sheringham and then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored goals to complete the treble of Premiership, FA Cup and European Cup.

5. Goodison Park, May 1994: Everton 3, Wimbledon 2.
Arguably the most important game in Everton's history. Mike Walker's team had reached the end of an awful season, with the team 19th in the Premier League and facing the unthinkable threat of relegation.

Needing a win to stay up, Everton made a nightmarish start going two goals behind thanks a Dean Holdsworth penalty, after Anders Limpar has handled, and an own goal from Gary Ablett who sliced an attempted clearance into his own goal. But from somewhere Everton rose up and found strength and purpose. Graham Stuart equalised from the penalty spot, before second half goals from Barry Horne and a Stuart drive, which somehow evaded the lethargic dive of Hans Segers, completed an astonishing comeback and kept Everton in the Premier League. Click here to watch the video

Do you agree with your choices? If not tell us why and where we've gone wrong. If you can think of a better comeback in football, whether it be in the Ryman Premier or the Premier League we want to know.

Comments

[Andy]

Liverpool's victory in Istanbul... absolutely.

I know this is English soccer related, but I agree with a previous post, Turkey in Euro 2008. I look forward to seeing them in the future.

Andy
andy@soccerhistorynow.com
www.soccerhistorynow.com

[thomasson]

Tottenham - Man City 3-4

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/fa_cup/3447235.stm

[PaulK]

Only Man U fans would think their comeback was the greatest. Everyone else would disagree. United, after all, were only a goal down. That team had even done it before that season. Liverpool were 3 goals down in a European Cup final and as a neutral that was the greatest comeback I've ever seen. Comebacks are about the scale not the timeframe.

[imy]

5 gratest football comebacks? Liverpool in Istanbul for sure... But then Turkey would take atleast two of those spots from this yr's Euro's alone!!!
Really not a fan of Turkey but after the way they played I really wanted them to do well...

[imy]

5 gratest football comebacks? Liverpool in Istanbul for sure... But then Turkey would take atleast two of those spots from this yr's Euro's alone!!!
Really not a fan of Turkey but after the way they played I really wanted them to do well...

[J. Izzo Clarke]

Inter-sampdoria 3-2 , with 3 goals scored in injury time is very impressive, in my view (played in 2005). Ask Obafemi Martins about it.

[dave]

Play off final 1995 , Bolton two nil down then concede a penalty for three nil , branagan saves, Bolton go on to beat Reading 4-3 aet . Quality.

[Tim]

West Ham 3 - 4 Spurs. March 2007. Spurs 2-0 down at half time, a penalty and a brilliant Tainio volley bring it 2-2. Then West Ham look to have snatched it with an 84th min goal. Berbatov's brilliant freekick in 89th looked to have earned a point before in the 94th minute Spurs broke for of all people Paul Staltieri to score the winner. Best game I ever went to

[James]

A great comeback by Liverpool . . . but how can the "greatest" ever comeback not even involve winning the game in normal time, or even in extra time? I'm from the red half of Manchester but City v Spurs, FA Cup...3-0 down and with 10 men takes some beating! The sheer drama of the 2-1 against Bayern will not be beaten in terms of European football. 2 goals in extra time or 3 over 45 minutes?

[Big Red599]

Considering the importance of the game and the calibre of the opposition I would have to go for West Germany coming from 2-0 down to beat the Magical Magyars from Hungary 3-2 in the 1954 World Cup Final in Berne. How could scrambling in a couple of late and thoroughly undeserved (certainly on the balance of play) goals against an average Bayern Munich compare to the Legend of Berne ??

[charlie]

SPURS 3 MAN CITY 4
Spurs three up at half time and city down to ten men.... City came back to win inside the 90 mins... under KING KEV......

[Neill C]

Pool in istanbul was impressive but it would have been better if they had actually scored the winner in open play..... two of my favourites Juventus 2- Man united 3 in 1999 CL semi- and villa 2 and man united 3 in the fa cup- losing 2 nil and off the bench comes Ruud Van Nist, best sunday night tele in years!

[bonobo_slr]

FA Cup Chelsea 4-2 Liverpool. Liverpool 2-0 up at half time with 2 goals from Robbie Fowler. Should have been 4-0... on comes a certain mark hughes at half time and first task was to empty Mark White in central defence. from that moment on, the liverpool defence looked as water tight as a sieve. Chelsea put in 4 second half goals to dump liverpool out of the FA Cup.

[stephen potter]

1986 FA Cup Final- Liverpool vs Everton 3-1
With Liverpool 1-0 down at half time it looked like Everton where going to take revenge for liverpool taking the league title from their grasp a few days earlier, but a spectacular save from Grobbelar followed by a punch up with Beglin spurred Molby,Rush and Dalgleish to to one of the greatest ever comebacks, to claim the double (when this was still are rare feat) , how can you miss this one off the list !

[Paul Walsh]

Tranmere 4 - Southampton 3, Tranmere were bottom of league one, Southampton were in the top half of the Premiership, 3 - 0 down at half time after getting completely destroyed by Southampton, we came back to win, Paul Rideout hat-trick and Barlow with the winner! One of the greatest comebacks in history!

[Mike Hans]

anyone remember the tottenham game against Manchester united where the latter were trailing 3-0 at half time but ended 5- 3 winners? i think it was 2001/2002 season...

[Andrew Greenhalgh]

September 2001: Spurs 3 Man U 5 - 3 nil down at half time and outplayed United completed a brilliant comeback to thrash Spurs. Juve 2 Man U 3 - 1999 Euro semi 2nd leg and 2 - 0 down after 12 minutes this match has got to be one of the best ever played by any United side. Neither of these wins could said to be lucky. Our football was superb.

[stevie k]

Lliverpool 3 Man Utd 3, coming back from 3-0 down with two Nigel Clough efforts topped by Neil Ruddock's thundering header

[Mike Morgan]

Spurs 3-5 United.

Spurs 3-0 and cruising at half time. And the rest as they say, is history!

[Steve M]

One that is already under the radar -- 2008, Man City 2 Fulham 3. As an American Fulham fan, at 70 minutes I am watching the Cottagers absolutely get pushed around, and thinking of the relegation that would be official in a half hour. Also thinking of who stays, who goes, and how to follow the CCC from the States. All of a sudden, Kamara nutmegs Hart on the line, we get a penalty that shouldn't have been awarded (but I wasn't going to give it back), Murphy getting stoned by Hart but tapping in the rebound, Keller making a superlative save at the end of regulation, and Murphy with the sweetest pass to Kamara you will ever see and Kamara beating Hart to steal all 3 points at the final whistle when we probably didn't deserve any. We win the last two games of the year and beat the drop on the last day of the season. What a fantastic ride.

[jo]

Liverpools final is of course the best ever come back,, but i am in agreement with a few others that both Boro games should be there...

[Jayne D.]

Middlesbrough 4-3 Steaua Bucharest (2006)
I became a Boro fan for a night watching that game on TV. Its rare that a team you don't even support can bring out the emotions experienced that night - willing on a team to come back from the dead and triumph in dramatic fashion... right in the last minute!

[Harry Lime]

Real Madrid in UEFA Cups of1985 - 1986:

1984/1985 UEFA Cup:

8 1/2 Final
First leg: Anderlecht 3 - R. Madrid 0
Second leg: R. Madrid 6 - Anderlecht 1

Semifinals:
First leg: Inter Milan 2 - R. Madrid 0
Second leg: R. Madrid 3 - 0

Winner of the 1985 UEFA Cup: Real Madrid

Season 1985/86 UEFA Cup

8 1/2 Final.
First leg:
Borussia Monchengladbad 5 - R. Madrid - 1
Second leg: R. Madrid 4 - Borussia M. 0

Semifinals
First leg: Inter Milán 3 - R. Madrid 1
Second leg: R. Madrid 5 - Inter 1

Winner of the 1986 UEFA Cup: Real Madrid

That was the time when only the winner of the league could play the Europe' s Cup (the current Champions League), so the UEFA Cup featured the 2nd, 3 rd and 4th of domestique leagues. Consequently, the UEFA Cup was much more stronger than currently, and the likes of Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, etc used to play it a lot.

[wanderer]

coca cola semi final, cant remember the year, bolton v swindon, swindon 2-1 up from first leg then fjortoft scores at burnden. 3-1 down boltob bring on sneekes and the moose. moose and mcateer get one each then super john pops up with the winner. (i not even sure if thats what happened anymore) but it was awesome!! still waiting for the night at the reebok to match it.

[Ben Jervis]

This is a travasty!!! Man U - Bayern is clearly the best ever comeback, not only because it was in the Champions League Final, but because both goals came in injury time. Now you tell me a team as good as that, that has the belief and ability to turn the biggest game in club football around that fast