The wonder strike – Joe Cole, England 2-2 Sweden, Group Stage
Joe Cole was a player who, despite never quite living up to his immense early promise, still managed to win three Premier League titles with Chelsea and make over half a century of appearances for his country. A regular, if not prolific, goalscorer, he produced a moment of magic in 2006 that is still remembered as one of the great England World Cup goals.
Cole’s wonder strike came in the final group match, against Sweden. England had already qualified for the knock-out stage, but wanted a win or draw to top the group. The game was goalless when, in the 33rd minute, a Beckham cross was just about dealt with by the Swedish defenders who headed the ball out of the box. It took one bounce before it reached Cole, in space, 30 yards out from goal. He controlled the ball perfectly on his chest, then unleashed a right-foot volley. The perfectly-struck ball flew towards the Swedish goal, over the flailing keeper Isaksson before dipping at the last to find the top right-hand corner of the net. A sensational and unforgettable goal.
As good as it was, it was not enough to propel England to victory against their bogey side. The game finished 2-2, the 12th consecutive game, dating back to 1979, in which England had failed to beat the Swedes. It actually took another five years – with a 1-0 victory in 2011 – to break what had become an incredible 43-year hoodoo against the Scandinavians.
Fabio Grosso was something of a late developer as a footballer. Having begun his senior career at his local club, effectively in the Italian fifth division, it took him until the relatively advanced age of 23 before he made the move up to Serie A. Originally an attacking midfielder, he found his true calling as a left back, and after only two years in Serie A he had been selected for his country. By 2006 he was a regular member of Marcello Lippi’s side.
He contributed in Germany as part of a typically stingy Italian defence, but it was at the other end of the pitch where he made a more unexpected impact. In the round of 16, his team, down to 10 men after Materazzi was sent off, were struggling to get past a resilient Australia. In the 95th minute, with the game still goalless, Grosso made one last attack down the left. He beat one Australian defender then took the ball into the box. When Aussie captain, Lucas Neill, went to ground a touch early in the box, Grosso was alert enough to fall over him to win a last-gasp penalty. Totti converted to send Italy through.
The semi-final saw him make another critical impact. The game, against home favourites Germany, was again tied 0-0 and was well into extra time. With the clock running down, a corner was nodded out to Andrea Pirlo on the edge of the area. Pirlo found Grosso, unusually appearing on the right, and his first-time shot curled beautifully around German keeper Lehmann to decisively break the deadlock. Italy were into the final.
Grosso was not yet done. The final, against France, finished 1-1, so went to penalties. With one French effort missed, Grosso stepped up at 4-3 with the chance to secure the title for his country. His nerveless strike sent Barthez the wrong way and Italy had won their fourth World Cup. The left back had played a decisive role at the ‘wrong’ end of the pitch in three key matches, and would forever be a national hero.
The arrival of the great one – Lionel Messi, Argentina 6-0 Serbia & Montenegro, Group Stage
In 2001 a tiny 13-year-old Argentinian boy enrolled at Barcelona’s famous youth academy, La Masia. So small that he had been put on a course of human growth hormone, and so shy that some of his fellow teammates thought he was mute, it took the teenager some months to settle. Once he did, he soon showed that he was the most talented player of a ‘baby dream team’. So began a career that at time of writing (25 years on) is one of the greatest of all time. The boy was, of course, Lionel Messi.
He made his World Cup debut in 2006 at the age of 18. He was already the hottest young property in world football, and had played a handful of times for his country, but he was not yet a fixture in the first XI. In fact, it took until the 75th minute of the second group game for him to be called onto the pitch, as a sub, with his side already comfortably ahead at 3-0. His impact was immediate. He slotted into what is now his familiar number 10 position, demanding the ball, showing superb control and finding smart passes. Within five minutes he made an attacking run down the right and pulled a ball across the six-yard box for Crespo to score at the far post. His first assist. 10 minutes later his first goal. This time he found space on the right and rifled a shot past the demoralised Serbian keeper. Not a bad start for the teenager.
Sadly for Messi, his team went out at the quarter final stage in 2006. Indeed Argentina’s repeated failings at the finals were to be a rare blot on his otherwise stellar record. That was, of course, until 2022, when his genius was finally rewarded with the trophy. Few who saw his debut in 2006 thought it would take that long.
The worst of 2006
The moment of madness – Zinedine Zidane, Final, 9 July 2006
One of the greatest footballers of all-time, Zinedine Zidane was a midfield playmaker who could do everything. Blessed with immense skill, great vision and a unquenchable desire to win, he dominated the midfield, making every team he played for both dangerous and difficult to beat. In 1998 he was France’s star player as they won the World Cup for the first time, then in 2000 he was player of the tournament as he led his country to the European Championship. He helped Juventus and Real Madrid to countless trophies, and scored one of the best goals ever seen to win the 2002 Champions League Final. Thrice FIFA World Player of the Year (1998. 2000 and 2003) he was named in 2004 the best European footballer of the preceding 50 years.
If he had any weakness at all, it was his fiery temper, which could occasionally boil over on the pitch. Sadly, for both Zidane and for France, this was to be his downfall in the 2006 World Cup Final. Zidane had actually retired from international football in 2004, but was persuaded to return for the 2006 tournament. This proved to be a masterstroke as he drove his team to the final, scoring in the round of 16 vs Spain, providing the assist for the winning goal in the quarter-final, then converting the winning penalty in the semi-final. He scored again in the final – a 7th minute penalty – but an equaliser from Italy meant the game went to extra time.
It was in extra time that the red mist descended. In the 110th minute a French attack was cleared and Zidane was jogging back up the pitch with Italian defender Marco Materazzi a step or two behind him. The two were exchanging ‘pleasantries’ when Zidane suddenly stopped, turned and headbutted Materazzi hard in the chest. The Italian went straight down, possibly more in shock than pain, and the referee had no choice but to give Zidane a straight red card. The Frenchman later claimed that Materazzi had grievously insulted his sister, but it was still inexcusably unprofessional to react like this.
Insult was added to injury when Italy won the penalty shoot-out to deny France a second World Cup. This was to be, in fact, Zidane’s final game as a professional, a less-than-fitting way for one of the all-time greats to sign off.
The Battle of Nuremburg – Portugal v Netherlands, Round of 16, 25 June 2006
In April 1945 a real battle was waged in Nuremburg as the American army fought fiercely with German forces to capture the city. 81 years later came a football contest that, whilst obviously hugely less significant, also became known as the Battle of Nuremburg.
The two protagonists this time were the footballing sides of Portugal and the Netherlands, the occasion the Round-of-16 knockout match in the 2006 World Cup. The two had met in the 2004 Euros semi-final, a game won 2-1 by Portugal, but that had been a relatively civilised affair. This was not.
It took a mere two minutes for a player to go into the referee’s notebook, Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel deliberately taking down Cristiano Ronaldo. Defender Khalid Boulahrouz soon followed, for a cynical foul that eventually forced Ronaldo to leave the game. Portugal midfielder, Maniche, then became the first from his team to get booked, before scoring the only goal of the game, then his teammate Costinha somehow managed to get booked twice in 15 minutes to receive a red card.
The second half was, if anything, even worse. There were a further 11 yellow cards shown, three of which resulted in reds. There should, in fact, have been four reds, but Portugal captain Luis Figo somehow avoided one for an appalling headbutt. Both sides finished with only nine players on the pitch and with a heap of bad feeling between them.
It took another 16 years for the record for most yellow cards to be broken. The teams involved, Argentina and, once again, Netherlands.
Yet another sh*t penalty shootout – England 0-0 (a.e.t) Portugal (Portugal win 3-1 on penalties), Quarter final
In 2006 England boasted a pretty decent team. The back four was as good as any in the country’s history – Terry, Ferdinand, Cole and Neville – the midfield featured Beckham, Lampard and Gerrard, and up front we had the 20-year-old wunderkind who would go on to become England’s record goalscorer, Wayne Rooney. For once, we qualified without any drama from our group, then we earned a scrappy win over Ecuador to reach the quarter finals. Standing in our way to the semis was a talented and tough Portugal side featuring their own young superstar, Rooney’s Manchester United teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo.
The game was pretty even with both sides creating plenty of chances. A turning point came, however, in the 62nd minute when Rooney tussled for a ball in the centre of the pitch with Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho. Both went to ground, but as Rooney clambered to his feet, he was judged by the referee to have deliberately stamped on Carvalho. With the Portuguese writhing around in apparent agony and his colleagues assailing the ref, Rooney was shown a straight red card. It looked extremely unjust, and seemed even more so, when Ronaldo winked towards the Portugal bench, suggesting his team had hoodwinked the ref. To their credit, England continued to try to win the game and made several chances but the game finished goalless after extra-time, meaning England had to face their tournament nightmare – a penalty shoot-out.
Portugal tried to help us out by missing with two of their first three attempts, but we returned the favour, when our two most dependable players, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, also missed to leave the scores tied at 1-1. When Postiga scored with Portugal’s fourth, it was up to defender Jamie Carragher to keep us level. Rumour has it that Carragher was brought on specifically for the shoot-out by England’s Assistant Manager, Tord Grip, who had been impressed by the Liverpudlian’s cool finish in the 2005 Champions League final. There was one teensy weensy little issue with this – Carragher had not actually taken a penalty in the final – but, to be fair, he was competent and confident from the spot. Unfortunately, his confidence deserted him in Gelsenkirchen and his weak penalty was saved. This left none other than cartoon villain, Ronaldo, to put us out of our misery. He duly obliged and, once again, England had failed (miserably) on penalties. We would have to wait another four years for a chance to redeem ourselves.
The man who got booked thrice – Graham Poll, Croatia 2-2 Australia, Group Match
England sent only one referee to the 2006 World Cup, 42 year-old Graham Poll, at that time our most experienced and competent match official. Unfortunately for Poll, he made an error at the tournament that may well be the thing he is most remembered for from his long and otherwise distinguished career.
It was in his third match, a Group F game between Croatia and Australia. There was a huge amount at stake in the match – a win for Croatia would see them qualify from the group, a win or draw would be good enough for Australia. Poll had a decent first half, although he did wave away a strong penalty claim from Australia. His second half was not so good. He missed a blatant Croatian handball for another Aussie penalty, and should probably have ruled out Kewell’s 79th minute equaliser for offside. Then, as the game became more frantic in its later stages, he began brandishing yellow cards like confetti. There were three for Croatia, including a second for Dario Simic in the 85th minute, and two for Brett Emerton of Australia, the second in the 87th minute. His fatal error came in the 90th minute when he booked Josip Simunic for the second time in the match, but failed, to the shock of everyone watching, to send off the Croatian. Simunic somehow managed to get himself booked for a third time three minutes later, at which point Poll did send him off. But the damage to the referee’s reputation had been done.
In the confusion, Poll did have a smidgen of an excuse. Simunic had been born and brought up in Australia, so spoke English with an Aussie accent. When Poll put the number 3 in the book for the second time, he recorded him as the Australian number 3, Craig Moore. It was not enough for FIFA to forgive him – Poll and his two assistant referees, also from England, were dropped for the knock-out stages and had to return home in some dudgeon.
In this post I’m looking back to the 2010 World Cup hosted for the first time ever in Africa. It finished with a deserved victory for the best team, Spain, but there were many highlights and lowlights. England fans will doubtless remember Frank Lampard’s ‘ghost goal’ as a particular low point. Neither France nor Italy will remember the tournament fondly. Have a read of this and see what you think.
The worst
Those f***ing vuvuzelas
A recent Google search for ‘vuvuzela’ gives a definition of “a long, plastic horn-shaped instrument that produces a loud, monotonous, and buzzing sound” (my italics). In many countries, for the obvious reason that a loud and monotonous buzzing sound is enjoyable to almost nobody, they have been banned from sports stadia. In World Cup 2010, however, they were judged to be an integral part of the South African spectating experience so FIFA, keen to not upset African sensitivities, allowed them.
It was perhaps a little bit of fun at the start – well, for about five minutes – but the novelty quickly wore off. By the end of the tournament, most would gladly have inserted them where the sun don’t shine if they came across anyone sporting one.
The ghost goal – Germany 4-1 England, Round of 16
Not for the first time in their history, the England team that turned up to World Cup 2010 was less than the sum of their parts. A squad featuring ten players who had or would go on to win 50 caps or more (including four centurions) failed to catch fire under Italian Fabio Capello, and once again went home earlier than they should have.
They had qualified in grim fashion from Group C, failing to beat either the USA or Algeria (the latter in one of the dullest World Cup matches in living memory) before edging past Slovenia to squeak through. A second-placed finish in the group, however, left them having to face the old enemy, Germany, in the round of 16. Germany themselves had not been entirely convincing, but boasted a youthful, talented line-up.
England did not get off to the best of starts. On 20 minutes, the arch goalscorer Miroslav Klose took advantage of weak defending from Terry and Upson to break through and score. Lukas Podolski then doubled the lead on 32 minutes after some smart interplay in England’s half. England, though, did not fold and halved the deficit when Matthew Upson found himself unmarked in the box and headed in a Gerrard cross. Less than a minute later came the key moment of the game. England were on the attack again when the ball bobbled out to Frank Lampard on the edge of the Germany box. His instinctive lob-volley beat a despairing Manuel Neuer, and bounced off the underside of the crossbar. It crossed the goal line by a very clear margin but span back up into the bar before being collected by the keeper. Inexplicably the referee and the linesman, Uruguayan Mauricio Espinosa, failed to see it so no goal was awarded.
Perhaps it was karma for 1966 and Hurst’s infamous disputed goal in the final. Whatever the case, a massive potential turning point in the match was reversed. As England chased the game in the second half they left themselves vulnerable at the back, and conceded two breakaway goals to the Germans. Bad luck (and refereeing incompetence) was not the only reason we lost, but it made a massive contribution.
Capdevila’s dive – Spain 1-0 Portugal, Round of 16
Spain were almost certainly the best team at World Cup 2010, and most will feel they deserved their first, and so far only, triumph. Their tiki-taka style, built around one of the all-time great midfield trios of Xavi, Iniesta and David Silva, meant they dominated possession against all opponents. On the rare occasions they did give the ball away, their defence was tough and effective. The gloss of their triumph, however, was tarnished for some by the cynical gamesmanship that they often deployed to fool referees and frustrate opponents.
A prime example came in the round of 16 against their close neighbours, Portugal. Spain, not for the first or last time, had moved into a 1-0 lead and effectively shut up shop. With only minutes remaining on the clock. Portugal were throwing everything at them, and had pushed central defender Ricardo Costa up the field. When a ball was crossed from the left Costa tussled with veteran defender Joan Capdevila (interestingly the only member of the Spanish team not from either Real Madrid or Barcelona). As Costa rose to head (and actually miss) the ball, Capdevila fell to the ground clutching the right side of his face. He gave the tell-tale sign of the cheat by lifting his head to sneak a quick look at the referee, before collapsing again in apparent agony. Replays showed that Costa had indeed raised an arm towards the Spanish defender and that his elbow may possibly have made slight contact. Under no circumstances, though, was it sufficient to deck the Spaniard. The referee, though, saw it differently and showed a straight red card to the Portuguese.
Spain might claim, with some justification, that skill in play acting is an important part of the game. Most, though, prefer to call it for what it is… cheating.
The French revolution
In World Cup 2006 France had finished runner-up to Italy in a tournament many felt they should have won. They came to South Africa 2010 having somewhat fallen off their perch (they had suffered a disastrous group exit at Euro 2008, then had qualified for 2010 only via to a very dubious goal against Ireland) but still thought of as a potential winner.
Their campaign, however, was catastrophic and riven with in-fighting and insubordination. The trouble started before the finals when several players were questioned by police following a raid on a shady Paris nightclub. It was also announced that head coach, Raymond Domenech would leave his post after the tournament.
Their first group game was a poor 0-0 draw against Uruguay. They followed this with a dismal 0-2 loss to Mexico that featured an expletive-laden tirade at half-time by Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka against his manager. When Anelka was disciplined by being ejected from the squad and sent home, his teammates decided to strike in support of him. There was more strife on the training ground – including a public contretemps between Patrice Evra and fitness coach, Robert Duverne – and the sudden resignation of the managing director of the French Football Federation. Such was the scandal that French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot to meet personally with the team. Although her intervention was seemingly well received, it did little to improve matters on the pitch. The team lost their final game, 0-2 to South Africa (ranked 74 places below them) and exited the tournament with only one point to their name.
After the team had returned, flying home in economy class, the ructions continued. There were more resignations, bans and suspensions, and damning statements from former greats. Perhaps it was the kick in the derriere that France needed … they recovered to win in 2018 and be runners-up in 2022.
The sending-off that wasn’t – Netherland 0-1 Spain (a.e.t), World Cup final
Referees don’t often admit that they were wrong, but Englishman Howard Webb’s mistake in the World Cup final was so egregious that he really had no choice.
His error came midway through the first half. The ball was headed out by the Dutch and came to Xabi who lobbed it first time in the air towards fellow midfielder Xabi Alonso. As Xabi went to head it, Dutch midfield enforcer Nigel de Jong, seemingly with no eyes on the ball, followed through with a chest-high kick right into the chest of Alonso. It was such a bad (and potentially career-ending) challenge that most observers could not believe it had happened. Somehow the only person on the pitch who did not see it as a red card (and that probably includes most of the Dutch team) was referee Webb. Perhaps he did not have a clear view (although his English assistants surely did), but, incredibly, he gave de Jong only a yellow card.
The game itself was far from a classic and featured 47 fouls and a record 14 yellow cards, including a double (and red) for Dutch defender, John Heitinga. The better side probably won, but other than the delirious Spanish, it will not live long in most people’s memories.
The deliberate handball – Ghana 1-1 Uruguay (Uruguay win 4-2 on penalties), Quarter final
Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez is no stranger to controversy (see 2014 World Cup) having been the instigator of many ‘unfortunate’ incidents during his career. One for which he may never be forgiven by footballing romantics came in the 2010 quarter final against Ghana.
The Africans had been the surprise package of the finals, qualifying narrowly from their group before getting past USA in the knock-out phase to become only the third African team to reach the last eight. They faced Uruguay in their quarter final and gave it a really good go. The game finished 1-1 in normal time with Ghana probably the better side. They continued to put Uruguay under pressure in extra time, and were on the attack all the way. In the very last minute, they forced a desperate goal-line clearance from the Uruguayans, but the ball came out to striker Dominic Adiyiah. He planted a firm header that beat the South American keeper and was headed back into the net. The only thing stopping it going in was Luis Suarez, on the line, and punching it out with his arms. To be fair to Suarez, it was only him because his fellow defender Fucile failed to get his hands on it. Suarez was instantly sent off and a penalty awarded to Ghana. Up stepped captain Asamoah Gyan who, agonisingly, sent his shot too high, clipping the top of the bar as it missed.
It was perhaps inevitable that Uruguay, having dodged defeat would prevail in the penalty shoot-out and so they did, the final kick in the balls for Ghana being Abreu’s Panenka to seal the deal. Suarez became a villain across the world, but a hero in his own country.
The best
Come Klose – Germany 4-0 Argentina, Quarter final
In 2009/10 Bayern Munich striker Miroslav Klose had a pretty miserable season. A man who had scored better than a goal every two and a half games in his decade-plus Bundesliga career, managed to find the net only three times in 25 matches. Working on the premise, though, that form is temporary but class is permanent, German manager Joachim Loew chose to select the 32-year-old for his 2010 World Cup squad.
Loew may have regretted it temporarily when Klose got himself sent off in the group game against Serbia (for two yellow cards) then had to sit out the match against Ghana. Klose, though, quickly redeemed himself with the opener against England in the round of 16, and was picked to start against Argentina in the quarters. Germany got off to a fast start with a goal on three minutes from Thomas Muller, in the form of his life, before the Argentinians mounted a fightback. They made plenty of chances, but could not get past the German defence and keeper Manuel Neuer. Meanwhile, Germany showed speed and incisiveness on the counter-attack. This paid off in the 67th minute when Podolski burst into the box from the left and squared for Klose to tap it in. Another attack resulted in a goal for Friedrich, before the nail was hammered into the coffin in the 89th minute, when Klose volleyed home from a Mesut Ozil cross. A team containing the world’s current best player, Messi, and managed by arguably the best ever, Maradona, had been beaten 4-0. And Klose had scored more goals in four World Cup games than he had in the whole of the preceding league season.
Bizarrely, Klose went on after the World Cup to have an even worse season, scoring only once in 20 games before being released by Bayern. He did, though, return for a fourth World Cup, in 2014, where he became the player to score most goals in finals ever, with 16. Class is obviously permanent.
Italy’s first round exit
It is perhaps a little unseemly to take pleasure in another country’s demise, but given how often England fail to deliver on the biggest stage, it can sometimes be the only thing keeping you going. In 2010 it was Italy and France (detailed above) who failed to turn up.
Italy were reigning champions and ranked fifth in the world. They can normally be relied upon to turn up for the World Cup, but not this time. They were drawn in probably the weakest group of eight, alongside Paraguay, Slovakia, making their World Cup debut and lowly New Zealand. Italy were strong at the back and in midfield, but lacked a real cutting edge, with no established international goalscorers. This was evidenced in their first two games, both rather toothless 1-1 draws, which left them needing to beat Slovakia in their final game to guarantee progress.
Slovakia, though, had not read the script and took the lead with smart goal for Robert Vittek after a mistake by Daniele De Rossi. Vittek then doubled the lead in the second half with a neat near-post flick. With less than 10 minutes left, Italy gained a lifeline with a goal from Di Natale, and nearly got an equaliser but for a narrow offside. Slovakia were not finished, however, and in the 89th minute, and with his first touch, Kamil Kapunek scored to take the lead back to two. There was still time for a worldie from Quagriella but it was too little too late. Italy lost a classic 3-2 and the champions had fallen at the first hurdle.
In 2010 South Africa became the first (and thus far, only) African nation to host the FIFA World Cup. Less than two decades after the dismantling of apartheid, the award of the tournament recognised the great strides the country had taken since 1991. For the players, it was a chance to put their team on the football map, and to bring pleasure to the millions of black South Africans for whom the sport is their driving passion.
As hosts, they got their chance in the very first game, kicking off the tournament against Mexico in Johannesburg in front of almost 85,000 fans. Against their higher-ranked opponents they were perhaps a little fortunate to go in all-square at half time, but there was no luck involved in their opening goal. After a Mexican attack broke down, the South Africans swapped passes smartly in their own half before a ball found Siphiwe Tshabalala charging down the left-hand side and getting behind his defender. Without breaking stride, he took one touch then let fly with his left foot from inside the box, finding the opposite top corner of the net. It was a moment that symbolised the exuberance and natural flair of African football, and brought joy not only to South Africans but to football followers across the globe.
With the 2026 World Cup approaching what better time to take a look back into the history of previous finals and pick out the best and worst of them. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil featured possibly the most unexpected result in tournament history, the 7-1 rout of the hosts by Germany. But there was plenty more to choose from. Below are my highlights and lowlights.
The worst
Tim Krul’s antics – Costa Rica 0-0 Netherlands (Netherlands win 4-3 on penalties)
The concept of a ‘special team’ is well established in American football, where complete line-ups are substituted in and out according to the game situation. It’s less common in football (once the special team is on, they stay on) but there are circumstances where it can come in useful. One such example was the 2014 World Cup quarter final played between Costa Rica and the Netherlands.
The game had finished scoreless in normal time, despite considerable pressure from the men in orange, and extra time was heading the same way. With a minute or so left on the clock Dutch manager, Louis Van Gaal, played a masterstroke, surprising not only the opposition but apparently his own team as well. He took off first choice keeper, Jasper Cillessen, replacing him from the bench with Tim Krul. Van Gaal judged the 6’4” Newcastle keeper to be the better of the two at saving penalties and, with the contest heading that way, brought on his ‘special team‘.
Krul was not only good at saving penalties, he was also skilled in mind games. He went up to every Costa Rica penalty taker before they shot, telling them he had been studying them and knew which way they would go. He then took an inordinate amount of time getting into position, forcing the Central Americans to wait nervously. As it happens, he showed he had done his homework, going the right way for all five of the Costa Rican shots, saving two of them. With his teammates converting all four of theirs, his short (and somewhat unsportsmanlike) appearance saw his team progress through to the semis.
The headbutt – Cameroon 0-4 Croatia
The ‘indomitable Lions’ of Cameroon proved all too ‘domitable’ in the 2014 World Cup. It was not entirely unexpected as, since their stunning performances in 1990, they had repeatedly failed to turn up on the biggest stage of all. Four finals appearances between 1994 and 2010 had delivered only one win and no progress to the knock-out stages. It didn’t help in Brazil that they were drawn in a tough group comprising the hosts, Croatia and Mexico, but their performances, anyway, were poor.
They were particularly disappointing in their second game, against Croatia, losing Alex Song to a straight red card in the first half, and conceding four goals by the 73rd minute. It was clear that there was discord in the camp, and it came to a head (literally) in stoppage time when defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto confronted forward Benjamin Moukandjo accusing him of a lack of effort. As they tussled with each other, Assou-Ekotto clearly tried to headbutt his teammate. They had to be separated on the pitch, then again in the tunnel. The management were clearly not impressed with Assou-Ekotto. He was dropped for the final group game (another defeat, this time 4-1 to Brazil) and never played for his country again.
Suarez’s bite
Luis Suarez is considered one of the greatest players in Uruguayan football history. Over a 17-year international career, he played for his country 143 times scoring 69 goals, a national record. He also lit up the Premier League for two and half seasons, winning both the PFA and FA Writers Player of the Year awards in 2013/14 while at Liverpool, before he became an all-time club legend for Barcelona.
His legacy, though, is tarnished by a series of disciplinary incidents that is probably as unsavoury as any high-profile international footballer you can think of. These included a head-butt of a referee, a ban for on-field racial abuse and several bust-ups with teammates. His particular weakness, though, was an irresistable urge to use his not-inconsiderable teeth as a combat weapon. His first notable biting incident was while playing for Ajax in 2010, before a second came in 2013 in the Premier League, a bite on Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic for which Suarez received a ten-match ban. This really should have proved a important learning experience for Suarez, but apparently not.
In Brazil and facing Italy in the make-or-break final group game, Suarez bit down on the shoulder of Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini in the 40th minute. Although he was not sent off at the time, subsequent review of the incident saw Suarez ejected from the tournament and banned from football for four months.
Suarez is still playing top level football (if you can count Inter Miami) and remains always only a hair’s breadth away from controversy. Indeed, as recently as 2025 he was suspended for spitting on a security director after a post-match brawl.
England’s pitiful exit
It’s easy in retrospect to say that we never had a chance, but looking now at the England squad for the 2014 World Cup, we never had a chance. Our world-class players – Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney – were at or near the ends of their international careers, and there was a distinct lack of star quality in the rest of the line-up. Our manager Roy Hodgson was hardly a star turn either, fresh from a stint at mid-table West Brom following a hugely disappointing spell at Liverpool.
When we were drawn in a group with Italy and Uruguay, both ranked above us, and with Costa Rica stronger than the average group fall-guy, many England fans feared the worst. Their fears were to be realised. Our opening game pitted us against old rivals, Italy. We actually played pretty well, making plenty of chances and having two decent penalty shouts turned down, but suffered from two defensive lapses, going down 2-1. To many people’s surprise, the winner was scored by a player who had underachieved in the PL, the unpredictable Mario Balotelli. In our second game, we again played decently, but also went down 2-1. This time the dagger was plunged into our hearts by another maverick, Liverpool’s Luis Suarez (see also above). When Costa Rica beat Italy in their second group game, England were eliminated with a game to spare. We did, at least, get a point in our final game, but the dull 0-0 draw against Costa Rica was a fitting epitaph for a dismal campaign.
The best
The shaving foam
Yes, this is a trivial one, but the 2014 World Cup was the first in which vanishing spray was used by referees. It was such a simple innovation, one wonders why it did not come into the game sooner. Mocked by most on its introduction, it solved at a stroke the age-old problem of defensive walls inching further and further forward to render free kicks more and more harmless. Strangely enough, since it came in, it has done nothing to increase the number of shots and goals from free-kicks. In fact, conversion rates have declined. But it is fairer and stops obvious cheating. Now, if only they can come up with something to stop holding on in the penalty box.
Orange crush – Spain 1-5 Netherlands, Group B opener
The 2010 World Cup final saw Spain win their first World Cup title, beating the Netherlands who lost in the final for a demoralising third time. Four years later and the two teams were drawn in the same qualifying group, and scheduled to face each other in their opening fixture (the first time this had happened for the two most recent finalists). Spain were perhaps coming off their (very high) peak, the Netherlands seemed to be on the up under manager, Louis Van Gaal.
The Dutch made an early statement of intent when Wesley Sneijder burst through the Spanish defence to test Iker Casillas, but it was the Spaniards who struck first when Diego Costa won a dubious penalty, converted by Xabi Alonso, in the 27th minute. After a great chance for David Silva to double the lead, the momentum of the game changed just before half time. A hopeful cross-field ball was launched from just over the half way line. It looked like it was dropping into no-man’s land, but Robin Van Persie saw something in it. He sprinted forward and as the ball fell from the sky, launched himself at it and dive-headed it over Casillas and into the back of the net. It was one of the goals of the tournament, indeed of any tournament.
Soon after half-time a similar ball came to Arjan Robben in much the same spot. He collected it smartly, took two clever touches to flummox the central defenders, then coolly slotted past Casillas. The Dutch day got better still when a Sneijder free kick from the left missed everyone except defender de Vrij, arriving at the back post to bundle the ball in for his first international goal. A terrible and uncharacteristic mistake from Casillas then gifted a second to the alert Van Persie, before a superb breakaway from Robben produced the Netherlands’ fifth goal. Spain had not conceded five in a match for over 50 years, the last time being in 1963, improbably against Scotland.
Spain never recovered from the shock, failing to progress from the group. And the Netherlands may have peaked just a little too early, going on to stumble through the knock-out stages before falling on penalties to Argentina in the semis.
It’s pronounced Ha’mez – James Rodriguez
In September 2020 Colombian James Rodriguez arrived at mid-table Everton on a free transfer. Released by Real Madrid, it was something of a comedown for a player still only 29-years-old. A mere six years earlier, he had been the breakout star of the 2014 World Cup, performing so well that he soon became the fourth most expensive player in football history.
Rodriguez’s World Cup was stellar. He led his national team in the group stage to three wins out of three, scoring in each and adding two assists for good measure. He scored a brace in the round of 16 to ease Colombia past Uruguay, then added another in the quarters (for six in total and the Golden Boot) in the 1-2 defeat to Brazil. It was, however, not just the quantity of his goals that was exceptional, it was the quality.
His goal against Japan in the group stage was voted third best of the tournament, feinting one way then the other to leave his defender on the floor before chipping exquisitely over the advancing keeper. And his opener against Uruguay was even better. Facing away from the goal and outside the box, he controlled the ball on his chest, then swivelled 180⁰ to smash a left-foot volley against the underside of the crossbar and into the net. It was the worldie to end all worldies. Perhaps Rodriguez peaked too early in his career, but, boy, what a peak it was.
The collapse to end all collapses – Brazil 1-7 Germany, Semi-Final
Football is massive across the world but nowhere is it more massive than Brazil. It’s more than a game in Brazil, it’s an integral part of the country’s national identity. In 2014, with the World Cup hosted on home soil, expectations were high that the Canarinho would add to their record five World Cup titles.
They got off to a decent start, kicking off the tournament with a 3-1 win over Croatia that included two goals from their latest national hero, Neymar. After a goalless draw with Mexico, the forward added two more in a 4-1 win over Cameroon that meant Brazil topped their qualifying group. Signs of frailty, though, appeared in their round of 16 game vs Chile that they won only on penalties, then again in a less-than-convincing 2-1 quarter-final win over Colombia. They also suffered two huge blows in this win – the losses of star player, Neymar, injured after a cynical foul, and, perhaps more significantly, of captain Thiago Silva, due to his second yellow card of the tournament.
The semi-final pitted the hosts against Germany, and produced one of the most remarkable and unexpected games in the history of the World Cup. The stadium was a sea of canary yellow and the atmosphere electric, but rather than inspiring the home side, it seemed to render them utterly incompetent. The fun started in the 11th minute, when abysmal Brazilian defending from a corner left Thomas Muller alone on the edge of the six yard box and able to volley home. 12 minutes later the Germans skipped through the statue-like defenders to present Miroslav Klose with a record-breaking 16th World Cup goal. Just over a minute later, another defensive error left Toni Kroos unmarked on the edge of the box from where he shot in. Two more goals followed in the next five minutes, a second for Kroos and one for Khedira, again benefiting from a frozen Brazilian defence who seemed already to have given up. Brazil were trailing by incredible five goals to nil after only 29 minutes.
The pain was not over. After a brief but fruitless rally by Brazil in the second half, Germany scored twice more, both from Andre Schurrle, to take the score to a humiliating 0-7. Ozil had a golden chance to add an eighth in the final minute, before the most pointless consolation goal of all-time was scored at the other end by Oscar. Few in the crowd or the country will have celebrated, many will have been too shocked and upset to even speak.
With the 2026 World Cup fast approaching, it seems like a good time to look back at previous competitions to pick out some of the best and worst moments from them. In this post I look at the 2018 World Cup held in Russia. Was it a classic? Perhaps not, but it had its fair share of really good games, stunning goals and great performances, alongside some less savoury moments. I’ve picked four of the best and four of the worst – hope it will bring back some good, and perhaps some not-so-good memories.
The worst
Neymar’s play acting
In 2017 Brazilian superstar Neymar became the most expensive footballer in history when his €222m release clause from Barcelona was triggered by Paris Saint-Germain. A generational talent, he was expected to lead both his club and his country to trophies and tournament success. A particular focus for his country was the 2018 World Cup, where they were desperate to redeem themselves after their humiliating semi-final loss on home soil to Germany in 2014. Neymar had played well in 2014 before being fouled out in the quarter final – if he could remain injury-free in 2018 perhaps he could lead his team to better things.
The Brazilian was perhaps not at his best in Russia. He had damaged his foot in February playing for PSG and missed most of the World Cup build-up. He was, though, undroppable and was duly selected for all of Brazil’s matches in the competition. The bare facts are that he performed pretty well, finishing all five matches he started, scoring two goals and making two assists. He made more attempts on goal than any other player in the tournament, and covered more ground per game than either Messi or Ronaldo. Ultimately, though, his team disappointed, going out at the quarter-final stage, 1-2 to Belgium.
Sadly for Neymar, it is not his performances that stick in the mind from 2018. Instead it’s his play-acting and theatrics on the pitch. Yes, he was fouled a lot, more than any other player at the tournament, but his reaction to being fouled or tackled often suggested he had been shot or severely wounded. He spent an incredible 14 minutes on the ground in his first four matches, often writhing around in apparent agony before making a miraculous recovery to continue his game. His play-acting became a standing joke around the world – ads were made by KFC (using the line “make a meal of it” and the Portuguese 911 service (setting a picture of a seemingly near-death Neymar alongside the phrase “75.8% of calls to 112 are also not emergencies”) and spawning countless internet memes. His exaggerated rolling spawned 100s of videos, and even fun half-time competitions in Mexico. For a genuinely great player – he went on to become Brazil’s record goalscorer ahead of Pele – it’s a stain on his legacy that he will never be able to remove.
The third-place play-off
Is there any more game in football more miserable than the third placed play off? You’ve lost in the semi-final and all you want to do is go home and lick your wounds. Instead, you have to stay and play a meaningless match which neither side is really interested in, and that acts only as a very unappetising hors d’oeuvre for the main event. And, unlike the Olympics, if you win you don’t even get to take home a medal.
In 2018 the game was particularly painful for both England – who had led before subsiding to defeat to Croatia – and Belgium – who were much fancied before the tournament but could not convert possession into goals in their semi against France. The third-place playoff itself – who remembers? – ended in a 2-0 win for Belgium. The England players went through the motions, but never looked that up for it. The same was probably true for most of us who watched it on TV.
Spain 1-1 Russia (Russia win 4-3 on penalties)
Russia would almost certainly not have qualified for the 2018 World Cup had the tournament not been held in their home country. Ranked 70th in the world they were the lowest ranked side in the competition, but they rose to the occasion, qualifying from the Group stage with wins over Saudi Arabia and (a very poor) Egypt. Their ‘reward’ was a round-of-16 match against 2010 winners, Spain, a team ranked 60 places above them and with a line-up crammed with talent and experience.
Spain had, though, failed to catch fire so far in the tournament. In the Group stage they could only draw with Portugal and Morocco and they had beaten only lowly Iran. They were great at keeping possession but dismal at converting this into chances and goals. And so it proved against a doughty Russia. Spain went ahead 12 minutes when Sergei Ignashevich turned the ball into his own net, but then conceded an equaliser before half time when Gerald Pique gave away a penalty. Spain passed and passed and passed but to almost no effect. Round and back, side to side, it was painful if you were a Spanish fan, and tedious if you were a neutral.
Having failed to break down the Russian defence, the match came down to penalties, and two saves by Igor Akinfeev in the Russian goal were enough to decide it. The home crowd went understandably wild, the Spanish team and coaching staff were left dumbfounded. Perhaps their tiki-taka playing style had had its day. Normally the victory of the underdog is a cause for celebration – the celebration here was principally because the game had finished.
Staging the World Cup in Russia
In the light of subsequent events it seems incredible that the 2018 World Cup was awarded to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, but in truth, it did not require any hindsight to find this decision remarkable. Russia’s hosting of the Winter Olympics four years previously had been shrouded in controversy, with serious doubts raised about the bidding process and Russia’s human rights record. Concerns about the suitability of Russia as host for a major world sports event had intensified with Putin’s illegal invasion and occupation of the Crimea, and after the shocking drugs cover-up scandal from Sochi.
FIFA appeared to be about the only organisation in the world who could not care less. They did, to be fair, launch an investigation into whether Russia had attempted to bribe Executive Committee members when deciding who to award the 2018 World Cup to. And this investigation did largely exonerate Russia from such accusations, although there were big question marks over the ‘accidental’ destruction of computer equipment used in the bid, and lack of co-operation from several FIFA ExCo members. But even if the bid process was not corrupt, surely FIFA has some responsibility for ensuring that the world’s biggest sporting event is held in ‘decent’ countries. Perhaps, though, it’s simply too difficult in today’s world to decide what is decent, although most countries seem pretty well agreed in the case of Russia.
As it happens, Russia was again a host (in St Petersburg) for the 2020 Euros. But that was to be their last appearance at a major international football event. Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 they’ve been banned from international competition so they missed Qatar and will miss 2026. While Putin remains in charge, they may have to wait.
The Best
Germany’s exit at the group stage
If it seems a little unfair to pick on Germany (see also 2022), don’t feel too sorry for them. They’re the second most successful nation in the World Cup with four wins, and we all know how much of a thorn in the side they’ve been to England over the years.
In 2018 they were defending champions and clear favourites to proceed from a relatively easy group containing Sweden, Mexico and South Korea. They got off, though, to a bad start with defeat to Mexico in a game they dominated, so faced Sweden in their second game needing a win. Their World Cup hopes looked dead and buried when they were locked at 1-1 in the added time, but a wonder-goal from Toni Kroos in the 95th minute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDMuhgabjbo rescued an unlikely win.
With momentum now, and a final group game against the pointless South Koreans to come, they would surely go through. They didn’t. Unable to score in normal time, they conceded a scrappy, contested goal in the 92nd minute then, comically, another in the 96th with keeper Neuer stranded in South Korea’s half. They were out and most of England smiled.
A cracking final – France 4-2 Croatia
France arrived at the 2018 World Cup as the bookies’ favourites, boasting a strong all-round squad that included their not-so-secret weapon, the second most expensive player in the world, 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe. They qualified from their group stage without looking particularly convincing, before their tournament came alive with an epic 4-3 victory against Argentina in the round of 16. Wins against Uruguay and Belgium followed which took them into the final.
The team they faced in the final were somewhat unexpected. Croatia had won all three of their group games – including a 3-0 thrashing of Argentina – but had then squeezed past Denmark and Russia in the knockout stages only on penalties. In the semis they had been perhaps a touch lucky to beat England, but throughout they had shown themselves to be tough to break down, and skilful and competitive in midfield.
The final started with Croatia on top but they went behind in the 18th minute when centre forward Mandzukic, back defending a free kick, glanced the ball into his own goal. They equalised through the excellent Perisic, but then experiencing more misfortune in the 38th minute. A corner was accidentally handled by Perisic and, after a long review, the referee awarded a penalty. Griezmann converted and France went into the break 2-1 up despite having only one shot on goal and only 34% of the possession.
Croatia again started well again in the second half, but the French pulled away with goals from Pogba and Mbappe, a powerful shot from outside the box making him the first teenager to score in the World Cup final. When Mandzukic atoned for his earlier error, converting after a terrible error from French goalkeeper Giroud in the 69th minute, the game briefly looked back in the balance, but France were able to see it out. 4-2 was the most goals in a final since 1966 and the first final to finish in normal time since 2002.
Pavard’s goal – France 4-3 Argentina, round of 16
So many great goals are scored in major competitions these days that picking out the best is a near-impossible task. 2018 had more than its fair share, with Ronaldo’s free kick against Spain and Quaresma’s outside-of-the-foot curler against Iran particular favourites. The goal that was voted goal of the tournament was a truly extraordinary strike. It came in probably the best match of the tournament, at a crucial point in the game and from an unlikely source.
France were trailing 2-1 to Argentina when Matuidi found full back Hernandez overlapping down the left. Hernandez got to the byline and put in a low cross that somehow evaded attack and defence alike, before arriving at the edge of the box to the feet of fellow defender Benjamin Pavard. Pavard saw something that no-one else did, and attempted a first-time volley with his right foot. He caught it perfectly, sending an unstoppable bending shot just inside the far post. It was an incredible goal that changed the momentum of the game, and may have been the key moment of whole tournament for the eventual winners.
England finally win on penalties – England 1-1 Colombia (England win 4-3 on penalties) round of 16
England’s record in penalty shoot outs in major competitions prior to 2018 was poor to say the least. In the World Cup they had lost all three that they had contested – 1990 (agonisingly) to Germany, 1998 to Argentina and 2006 to Portugal. It was not much better in the Euros, with only one win – against Spain in 1996 (remember Stuart Pearce’s celebration) – in three attempts.
In 2018 they finally got it right, although not without causing palpitations across the country. They had drawn 1-1 with Colombia in the round of 16 in normal time, conceding a very late goal from Yerry Mina (on his way to Everton), before a nervy extra time finished with scores still all square. Three Colombian penalties and two from England were despatched but then Jordan Henderson’s effort was saved brilliantly by David Ospina. ‘Here we go again’ we all thought, but salvation came when Andres Uribe’s effort rebounded from the post. After Trippier brought the scores level, Jordan Pickford saved superbly from Carlos Bacca meaning a goal from England would see us through. Up stepped an unlikely hero, centre half Eric Dier, a man who had never taken a penalty in his professional career. Ospina went the right way but could not stop it. England had finally and gloriously won a World Cup knock-out match on penalties.
The 2026 World Cup begins in the US, Mexico and Canada on the 11th June 2026. To get you in the mood I’ll be picking out some of the best and worst moments from all of the recent competitions. Qatar 2022 was a tournament that began with modest expectations, but delivered, on the footballing side at least, in spades. I’ve picked out four worst and four best ‘moments’ from the tournament, finishing with perhaps the best final of all time. See whether you agree with my selection.
The worst
The Battle of Lusail – Argentina 2-2 Netherlands (Argentina win 4-3 on penalties)
It’s not entirely clear why the Netherlands and Argentina brought so much aggro into their quarter final in 2022. The combative Dutch manager Louis Van Gaal had stirred things up a little with his pre-match comments but, as far as these things go, it was pretty tame stuff. And whilst the two sides had met in previous World Cups, there was little history of real animosity between them. Perhaps it was simply down to the high stakes, with the Netherlands on a run of 19 games unbeaten and feeling this finally was their turn, and Argentina desperate to give the great Lionel Messi the best possible send-off. Whatever the case, the two sides produced a match not only of great drama, but also one of high intensity and ill-temper that generated the most yellow cards ever seen in a World Cup match.
The footballing facts show that Argentina eased into a two-goal lead, before two late goals (the second in the 101st minute!) from Premier League failure Wout Weghorst took the game into extra-time. After this finished without any further scores, a penalty shoot-out ensued with Argentina prevailing by 4-3. The result though was something of a sideshow to the lack of discipline shown by the two sides. In the light of what subsequently happened it’s something of a surprise to find that it took until the 43rd minute for the first card to be shown. Thereafter the referee, Antonio Mateu Lahoz, was at risk of getting RSI from the number of times he had to pull the card in and out of his pocket. There were eight yellows for the Dutch, including two (and hence a red) for Denzel Dumfries, and 10 for the Argentinians, including the manager and assistant manager. The total of 18 was a record for any World Cup game, a game that Jason Burt of The Telegraph summarised nicely: “it was feisty, downright dirty and with huge amounts of gamesmanship.”
The late late alcohol ban
Anheuser-Busch InBev, owners of Budweiser, reportedly paid FIFA around $75m to be the official beer sponsor of the 2022 World Cup. In exchange for this massive sum of money, they could expect to gain worldwide brand exposure, as well as exclusive rights to sell beer during the tournament. Although Qatar, a conservative Muslim nation, is ‘dry’, the organisers of the World Cup had repeatedly assured FIFA and Budweiser that drinking of alcohol would be allowed in stadia during the tournament.
All of this changed a mere two days before the event, when FIFA were forced to issue a terse statement saying that, after discussions with the host country, beer sales had been banned from stadia. Reasons were put forward for this, but why these could not been raised in the 12 years that the event had been in the planning is highly questionable. Budweiser’s immediate response was understated, a tweet stating “Well, this is awkward…” which was then deleted. Their subsequent response will doubtless have been to seek considerable damages from FIFA.
As it happens, the atmosphere in Qatar showed that football may actually be better without alcohol. Crowds were loud, lively and passionate and there was no sign of any trouble. Not necessarily the message that Budweiser had spent their millions to promote.
The missed penalty – England 1-2 France, quarter-final
Harry Kane recently scored his 500th goal in competitive football. He is by most people’s judgement the best English striker since Jimmy Greaves, if not of all time. Amongst his many attributes, he is an excellent taker of penalties. In the Premier League and the Bundesliga he has converted 57 out of 61 from the spot, a success rate of 93.4%, and for England he’s scored 24 out of 28, or 87.5%.
So, when, in the 84th minute of England’s quarter final against France, Kane was called to the penalty spot with his team trailing 1-2, most England fans would have been confident of him levelling the scores. He had, indeed, already scored once from the spot to equalise at 1-1. Perhaps though he was bothered about facing his Tottenham team-mate, French keeper Hugo Lloris, for a second time in the game. Or maybe he, for once, was infected with nerves. Whatever the case, Kane went for the top left corner but instead blasted the ball over the bar. His miss meant that his team, probably the better side over the 90 minutes, once again exited at the business end of the tournament. Having said all of that, if he gets a chance to redeem himself in 2026, I will be putting money on him to do it.
Staging it in Qatar
Money talks in football, perhaps nowhere more so than within the governing organisation, FIFA. It was undoubtedly money that led FIFA to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a tiny desert nation with no serious football tradition, a highly questionable human rights record and extreme summer temperatures.
The controversy began with the decision itself, where it was alleged that millions of dollars in bribes were paid to members of the FIFA Executive Committee to secure the vote. Although a FIFA-commissioned enquiry cleared Qatar of wrongdoing, the lead investigator on the enquiry resigned claiming his findings had been whitewashed, and several members of the Committee have since been banned for corruption.
There were, of course, other significant concerns: • The human cost of building the almost entirely new infrastructure needed – some reports suggested thousands of migrant workers died in construction, and that many had worked in near slave-labour conditions. • The repressive culture in Qatar, where homosexuality remains illegal, and women’s rights are severely constrained. • “Greenwashing” claims – The tournament was meant to be carbon-neutral, but most experts judged it to be anything but. • Domestic rescheduling – The tournament could not be played in the summer due to the heat, so leagues around the world had to make big changes to their domestic schedules to accommodate the winter timescale.
Ultimately, all the controversy fell to the background once the football started. Most football fans, to be honest, care little about human rights, and even those that do will park their concerns if the action on the pitch is entertaining enough. Qatar achieved what they wanted – they appeared to the watching world as a modern, successful society. And the action on the pitch was very entertaining.
The Best of Qatar 2022
Germany’s embarrassment
When England beat West Germany in 1966 to win the World Cup final it was the first time the two nations had met at the tournament. Shockingly, for England fans at least, it remains the last time that we beat them in the finals. A heart-breaking loss in the 1970 quarter-final was followed by a draw in 1982 (that contributed to England not proceeding), then an even-more heart-breaking defeat on penalties in 1990, before a bit of a rout in 2010. As a consequence, Germany is probably the team that England most like to see fail.
We got what we wanted in 2022 when Germany failed to qualify for the round of 16. Their qualifying group did not appear particularly taxing, facing Spain alongside Japan (ranked 24th) and Costa Rica (31st). Germany, though, got off to a terrible start when they suffered a shock 1-2 defeat to Japan in their opener, despite having 76% of the possession. The Germans could only draw with Spain in their second match, so needed not only to beat Costa Rica in their final group match, but also for Japan to lose to Spain. In a game in which Spain incredibly had over 80% of the ball, Japan won again by 2-1 and Germany were eliminated. It was almost as good as England winning.
The rise of the minnows
2022 was perhaps the tournament that delivered more surprise results than any World Cup in history. It started with the first match of the tournament, third ranked Argentina losing to 51st ranked Saudi Arabia, but it was not finished there. Tunisia beat France, Japan beat both Germany and Spain, Morocco’s historic run saw them beat Belgium, Spain and Portugal and Cameroon beat top-ranked Brazil (albeit in a dead rubber).
It was generally a good competition for the smaller nations. With the exception of Canada and host country, Qatar, every team got at least a point in the group stage and there were only a couple of games that were absolute routs. Many (including the author) will criticise the relentless expansion of the World Cup, indeed there will be 48 teams in 2026, but 2022 did show that (nearly) every dog can have its day.
The Moroccan adventure
For many years now, pundits have been predicting the coming of Africa in the World Cup. With more and more African players featuring across the top European leagues, and more investment in coaching and training across the continent, it has seemed only a matter of time that an African nation would be challenging in the later stages of the tournament.
Until 2022, however, the best that any African nation could claim was a slot in the quarter finals – Cameroon (famously with Roger Milla) in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana (cruelly denied by Suarez’s deliberate handball) in 2010. The conditions on offer in Qatar might have offered them something of an advantage, but in the event only two of the five African teams made it out of their qualifying groups – Senegal and Morocco, who topped theirs. After Senegal were despatched in the round of 16 by England (comfortable 3-0 winners) it left Morocco last man standing and with the tough task of taking on Spain in the round of 16.
Morocco were dogged and Spain toothless. Despite dominating possession (77%), the Spaniards created only one shot on target. Faced with penalties they crumbled, so Morocco progressed to face Portugal. In an almost carbon-copy of the Spain match. Portugal also dominated possession (73% to Spain’s 77%) but failed to really threaten the target. Meanwhile, Morocco scored from a great leap by En-Nesyri. Morocco had made it to the semi-final, the first African and the first Arab nation to do so, and without their talisman and best player, Mo Salah, injured before the tournament.
Their adventure ended here against France, but they had finally broken the African glass ceiling. Will they be the first of many. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
The greatest final – Argentina 3-3 France (Argentina win 4-2 on penalties)
Prior to 2022, Lionel Messi was indisputably one of the greatest football players of all time. One thing that stood between him and being labelled the best ever, however, was his record at the World Cup. In his four appearances, Argentina had been eliminated twice in the quarter finals (2006 and 2010), narrowly beaten in the final (by Germany in 2014), then suffered an embarrassing round of 16 loss to France in 2018. 2022 was likely to be Messi’s last chance to join the ranks of Maradona, Charlton and Pele, legends of the game who had all held the cherished trophy.
His campaign started poorly, when Argentina suffered a seismic shock in their first game, losing to the totally-unfancied Saudi Arabia. Perhaps this was the wake-up call they needed, and they went on to beat Mexico and Poland to top their group, before despatching Australia in the round of 16. It took penalties for them to get past the Netherlands in the ‘battle of Lusail’ (see above) before a relatively comfortable win over Croatia took them into the final. Particularly good news for Argentina was that Messi seemed to be firing on all cylinders, with five goals and three assists going into the final.
Argentina’s opponents were France, who had knocked them out in 2018. France had, like Argentina, suffered a surprise loss in their qualified group (to Tunisia once they had already qualified), but otherwise looked a very strong all-round side. Their not-so-secret weapon was 23-year-old striker, Kylian Mbappe, breakthrough star of the 2018 World Cup, and well on his way to all-time-great status.
The final was a classic, although it took a while to come to the boil. In the first half, it looked a bit of a stroll for the South Americans, goals for Messi (penalty) and Di Maria, giving them a 2-0 lead. The Argentinians continued to control the game for much of the second half, with France struggling to create any meaningful chances. The French were given a lifeline, though, in the 80th minute when Otamendi conceded a penalty that was converted by Mbappe. Less than two minutes later, they had equalised, another goal smartly converted by Mbappe. The final few minutes of the game were frantic with both teams coming close, but the score remained 2-2 so the watching world was granted 30 minutes of extra time.
Extra time saw the Argentinians on top again and, after missing two gilt-edged chances, they looked to have won it when, in the 108th minute, Messi finished from close range. France though were not beaten and came back again, winning a second penalty with only three minutes on the clock that Mbappe converted coolly to bring the scores level. There was still time for more thrills and spills – great chances for both sides – but the game finished 3-3 so it went to penalties.
Even the penalty shoot out was dramatic. After (predictably) Messi and Mbappe had converted, the game was really won by the skill and (borderline unacceptable) gamesmanship of Argentine keeper, Emiliano Martinez. He saved one and probably psyched out another Frenchman, and his team ran out 4-2 winners. Argentina and their great captain, Lionel Messi, had crowned his career in the best possible manner.
Relive the worst moments and best stories from the history of the Winter Olympics.
With Milano Cortina 2026 nearly upon us, the time is right to look into the history of the Winter Olympics to pull out some of the worst things that have happened in its history. There’s been plenty of controversy, bad behaviour, scandal and bad luck, as well as some dismal performances.
17. What a dope! – Ross Rebagliati, Men’s Snowboard, Nagano 1998
The introduction of snowboarding and other action sports to the Winter Olympics in 1998 definitely brought something of a different vibe to the Games. The sport of snowboarding had developed as something of an antidote to skiing, and its culture was markedly more rebellious, youthful and less stuffy. Many of the competitors who arrived for the debut of the sport in Nagano looked less like Olympic athletes and more like laid-back surf dudes, which in fact many of them were. They were, of course, superb athletes and whilst they may have looked casual and unconcerned, they were as competitive as anyone in the more traditional events.
The first snowboard gold medal ever won in the Olympics went to a Canadian 26-year-old Ross Rebagliati in the giant slalom. An experienced boarder, he had competed on the professional circuit for seven years, and was a favourite for a medal. In a very tight competition, Rebagliati stood only eighth after his first run, but a fearless second run in tough conditions saw him win gold by only two hundredths of a second. The bronze medallist finished only 0.12 seconds behind, and the luckless Dieter Krassnig of Austria missed the podium by only a quarter of a second.
Rebagliati’s joy at winning gold was, however, short-lived when his drug test showed 17.8 ng/mL of THC metabolites, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his urine. This was slightly above the threshold (15 ng/mL) set by the International Ski Federation (FIS). Although marijuana was not considered a performance-enhancing drug (indeed it was arguably quite the opposite) and not on the banned list, the IOC Executive Board voted narrowly (by 3-2) to disqualify the Rebagliati and strip him of his medal.
The Canadian team appealed immediately, and an appeals court ruled in Rebagliati’s favour, judging that as cannabis had not been officially banned by the IOC, they had no right to deny him his medal. So, happily, he was reinstated. The drama for Rebagliati, though, was not over as he found himself called in for several hours questioning by Japanese police on suspicion of a drugs offence before he was released. Then, more damagingly, he was placed on a no-fly list by the US which prevented him from competing on the lucrative X-Games circuit.
Not long after the controversy the IOC did institute an official ban on cannabis use in what The New York Times dubbed “the Ross Rebagliati Rule”. It looks like they understood that some of the action sports athletes took a more relaxed attitude to recreational drug use, as the THC metabolite limit was raised to 150 ng/mL (almost 10 times the amount found in Rebagliati’s sample) thus targeting only current intoxication.
Rebagliati, who claimed in 1998 that his ingestion was second-hand, subsequently became an advocate for the legalisation of cannabis (it is now legal in Canada), and a successful entrepreneur in the CBD industry.
At the 1988 Calgary Games British speed skater Wilf O’Reilly won two gold medals in short-track speed skating. Unfortunately for Wilf and for Team GB, short-track was only a demonstration event at Calgary, so O’Reilly’s medals are not part of official Olympic record. O’Reilly’s success though did suggest that this sport, introduced to the Games four years later, might provide a rich seam for British athletes. Sadly, apart from a solitary bronze for Nicky Gooch in 1994, the sport failed to deliver the expected haul.
Things looked set to change with the arrival onto the scene of Scot, Elise Christie. The 2010 Games came a little early for Christie, but provided useful experience for her as she saw action in all three Olympic events (500m, 1000m and 1500m). By the time Sochi 2014 rolled around, she had a host of European Championship medals to her name, and was a hot tip to medal in at least one, if not more, of her events.
In her first event, the 500m, there was a grim foretaste of what was to come. Christie got through three rounds to qualify for the final, but in the medal race she was disqualified after colliding with Italian Arianna Fontana. From being odds-on for a medal she found herself relegated to eighth place. In the next event, the 1500m, she was again disqualified, this time bizarrely for not properly crossing the finish line in her heat. It had taken eagle eyes to spot this as she had been only about 1cm outside the permitted zone. Finally, in the 1000m, her best event, she was disqualified for a third time, this time in the semi-final after colliding with the Chinese skater on the final bend. Three events and three disqualifications.
By PyeongChang, it looked as though Christie was certain to make up for her failures in Sochi. Since 2014, she had added multiple World Championship medals, including three golds in 2017, to her impressive run of European titles and medals, and was ranked among the top in the world in all three Olympic events. In the 500m event she was on great form, setting two new Olympic records on her way to the final. But disaster struck again here when Christie was clipped by Dutch skater, Yara Van Kerkhof, and crashed out, finishing fourth and just out of the medals. In the 1500m, there was another crash for Christie, this time in the semi-final, and while the Chinese skater whom she had collided with was allowed to progress to the final (where she won silver) Christie was disqualified for being deemed to have caused the collision. Christie had also injured her ankle, and this put her participation in the 1000m in doubt. Clearly in pain, Christie finished second in her 1000m heat, but, unbelievably, was disqualified yet again for causing two separate collisions.
Christie has been dubbed Britain’s unluckiest Olympian. She was probably Team GB’s most successful winter sportsperson ever, with 12 medals in World Championships (three gold) and 18 in the European Championships (10 gold). But due to a mixture of bad luck, errors of judgement and possibly a little bit of choking, she failed in three Games and nine events to win a single Olympic medal. Since her skating career finished, Christie has struggled with alcoholism, depression and even homelessness. We can only wish her all the best as she puts her life back together after her sporting heartbreak.
15. The Games that were too cold – Speed Skating, Chamonix 1924
The award of the first ever Winter Olympic gold medal should really be an moment that is celebrated ever after. Unfortunately, the gold medal won by Charles Jewtraw of the USA in the 500m speed skating in Chamonix was shrouded in controversy due to the circumstances in which it was won.
The first Winter Olympics featured athletes from 16 nations competing in five sports – bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, skating (figure and speed) and Nordic skiing (four disciplines including the thrilling new sport of ski-jumping). It may surprise some to learn that the largest team came from Great Britain, although the medals went mainly to the Nordic and Alpine nations. Two of the Nordic nations – Finland and Norway – were expected to dominate the speed skating, and between them they did, winning all but one of the 15 medals on offer. They did not, however, win the first, the 500m.
The unlikely winner was 23-year-old Jewtraw. The American recorded a time of 44.0 beating Olsen of Norway to gold by 0.2 seconds. The problem was that no-one but no-one believed the time. In 1924 officials were still using manually operated stopwatches. The temperature outside for the speed skating was freezing, so the judges had real problems starting and ending the timings accurately. Jewtraw, had never previously competed in a 500m nor trained for it, in contrast to his experienced opposition. The Norwegians protested about Jewtraw’s time, but to no avail. The freezing cold had almost certainly meant that the first ever Winter Olympic gold medal went to the wrong man.
14. The Games that were too warm – Speed Skating, St Moritz 1928
If the USA had been lucky to win speed skating gold in 1924, they were equally, if not more, unlucky not to win one in 1928. As in 1924 they were ranged against the might of Finland and Norway in the four events, but they had a competitive squad and had placed well in the first three – a bronze in the 500m, then narrowly missing the podium in the 1500m and 5000m. They came to the final event, the 10,000m with high hopes. Their best distance skater was Irving Jaffee, a 21-year-old from New York, who had finished fourth in the 5,000m.
The event was to held over five timed heats, each with two skaters, with the fastest times determining the medals. Jaffee was put in the first heat against Bernt Evensen of Norway, the reigning world champion at the distance. In a very tight contest, Jaffee came out on top by a tenth of a second. The skaters in heats 2, 3 and 4 did not come close so, with only one heat remaining, Jaffee’s gold medal looked in the bag. Fate, however, intervened when the final heat was stopped by officials after about 2,000m due to the ice thawing and no longer being suitable to race on. With no time available for a re-run the whole event was cancelled and no medals awarded.
Some eyebrows raised at the fact that the lead judge was Norwegian, and after an American appeal the IOC decided to reverse the referee’s decision and awarded Jaffee the gold. The International Skating Federation, however, overruled the overrule so we were back where we started. Although the beaten Evenson argued that Jaffee should get his medal, it was never awarded.
Jaffee did exact some sort of retribution four years later at Lake Placid when he won both the 5000m and the 10000m events to take two gold medals. There was additional satisfaction for Jaffee, a Jewish athlete, in winning where he did. The Games had been built around the private Lake Placid Club, a notoriously anti-semitic establishment where signs were placed saying “No Hebrews Allowed”. Jaffee’s wins did not, of course, solve the underlying problem, but they really did deliver a slap in the face of the anti-semites.
13. The odd-ball drug cheat – Johann Muhlegg, Cross-country skiing, Salt Lake City 2002
Johann Muhlegg was a cross-country skier who was good but not quite good enough to make it to the very top. He did compete in almost 100 World Cup races winning seven of them, but in the event that really matters, the Olympic Games, he failed to make the podium in the 12 individual and team races he competed in from 1992 to 1998.
One of the reasons for this might have been his eccentric personality. In 1993 having fallen badly ill with diarrhoea, he chose to blame his coach for “damaging his spiritually” and poisoning him. He thereafter took to drinking only from a flask of ‘holy water’ (apparently prescribed by a Portuguese medicine woman), and taking his training advice not from his team but from his Portuguese cleaning lady / chaperone. Eventually, after many years of disruptive, unusual behaviour his federation tired of him and expelled him from the German team branding him a “team cancer”.
Muhlegg managed to find a new home in Spain – not a traditional cross-country skiing powerhouse – and it was here that his form and results started to pick up significantly. He won the first World Cup race in his career, and in the year before the Salt Lake Olympics he won gold and silver in the Nordic World Ski Championships. In Salt Lake the reborn Muhlegg was unbeatable. He won gold in the 30km freestyle, gold in the 10km + 10km pursuit and finished first in the 50km classical.
If his improvement seemed too good to be true, it was. The day after the 50km race it was revealed that he had tested positive for darbepoetin, a substance that was not specifically banned, but had much the same effect as EPO – increasing the production of red blood cells and thereby the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. He was immediately disqualified from the 50km and expelled from the games, although it took almost two years before he was stripped of his two gold medals. He retired before the two-year suspension that he was also given had expired.
Muhlegg, ever the wierdo, reputedly claimed that “extraterrestrials from space” had helped him win his medals. His claim was never successfully validated.
12. The abuse of a minor – Kamila Valieva, Figure Skating, Beijing 2022
In other circumstances, Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva might have been the star of Beijing 2022. Instead, the youngster was thrust into a scandal that anyone would have struggled to deal with, let alone someone of only 15 years of age.
Valieva was a phenomenon. She was well fancied to win gold in the individual womens’ event, particularly after she had helped her team – not Russia, but the ‘Russian Olympic Committee’ – win the mixed team event with a routine that included the first ever quadruple jump completed by a woman. She did, however, have a very significant cloud hanging over her in Beijing. In December 2021 she had tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication banned because it can increase endurance. Her failed test was made public between the team event and the individual event.
The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), not necessarily the number one most trusted organisation in world sport, put a provisional suspension on Valieva, but decided to lift it so she could compete in the women’s singles. When the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that preventing the 15-year-old from competing “would cause her irreparable harm” she was allowed to enter the event, although she would not be presented with a medal should she win one.
The upshot was that Valieva was thrust into a huge public storm, facing massive media attention and considerable hostility in an event that most competitors and observers did not think she should be in. She was a 15-year-old girl. In the event, she did incredibly well to hold it together sufficiently to finish fourth, but was clearly affected by the huge amount of pressure she was under.
Following the Games, she was disqualified and her earlier contribution to the team event rubbed out (her team dropped from gold to bronze). She was also given a four-year ban from the sport, despite many feeling that she had been an innocent youngster ‘abused’ by her Russian coaches and doctors. In fact, it transpired that Valieva had been treated as something of a guinea pig, fed 56 different medications and supplements over a two-year period prior to the 2022 Games. None of these were banned, but this sort of approach seemed seriously unethical for a developing teenager. The banned heart medication, trimetazidine, was not actually among the 56, but her story of how it might have been ingested (from a dessert prepared on a chopping board that her grandfather’s tablets had been crushed on) was simply not believed.
At time of writing, Valieva has returned to competitive skating but not soon enough to qualify for 2026. For her sake, we can all hope that her next appearance in top-class competition is less stressful that her last.
11. The shadowy figure – Karl Schranz, Men’s Slalom, Grenoble 1968
For a country that has hosted the Winter Olympics on three occasions, including the very first Games in 1924, France has a somewhat modest record when it comes to winning medals. When the hosted in Grenoble in 1968, their hopes were high in the alpine skiing events, with one skier in particular expected to shine, Jean-Claude Killy. Entered into all three events – downhill, slalom and giant slalom – the Frenchman really did shine, winning gold in each of them. Killy was the big story of the Games, but it took some sharp eyes to ensure he got all three golds.
The event in which he nearly fell foul was the third of the three, the slalom. The athlete who nearly denied him was Austrian Karl Schranz. Schranz was a top-class skier who was in his third Olympics, having won silver in 1964 (in the giant slalom) alongside a collection of World Championship medals and World Cup wins. Schranz had narrowly missed out in both the downhill (fifth) and the giant slalom (sixth), so was desperate to succeed in the slalom. He skied well in the first run of two, coming in third just 0.32 seconds behind Killy. In his second run, held in dismal conditions he looked to be going well when he came to an unexpected stop half way down the course. The Austrian claimed he had stopped because a man dressed in black had stepped into his path as he was descending. Despite no evidence to corroborate this, his story was believed and he was allowed to retake his run. Skiing now in better conditions, he recorded a fast enough time to overtake Killy and move into an unassailable first place.
The Austrian had won gold. For a few moments at least. French officials decided to review his original, thwarted, second run just to check that everything was in order. Close review of the TV footage revealed that he had missed a gate (#19) just before he claimed to have encountered the mystery man in black (at gate 21). Missing a gate meant disqualification, so home athlete Killy, was promoted to gold. On home soil/snow, Killy had secured the esteemed ‘triple crown’, only the second person ever to do so.
The Austrian team were livid and convinced they were victims of a conspiracy. Was the mysterious man in black a French policeman or soldier who had purposely interrupted Schranz’s run? And, so what if Schranz had missed an earlier gate, it was probably because he had already been distracted by the man. It was to no avail. The French, who were skeptical of Schranz’s story throughout, feeling he had made it up after missing a gate, stuck with the disqualification.
Schranz in fact was not finished with controversy. He qualified for his fourth Olympics, Sapporo 1972, still ranked among the best in the world and searching for his elusive first gold. In Japan, though, he found himself branded a ‘non-amateur’ on account of his commercial agreements by IOC President Avery Brundage (84 years old and a last bastion against professionalism). There was no good reason why Schranz had been singled out, as many others had similar sponsorships, but he was unable to mount his final challenge for gold. He did have the consolation of returning home to a hero’s welcome with a reported 100,000 Austrians greeting him at Vienna airport. And, perhaps, the later satisfaction of knowing that the furore surrounding his expulsion undoubtedly doubt paved the way for the future professionalism of Olympic sport.
10. The string puller – Vanessa-Mae, Sochi 2014
Many of us will occasionally have had a dream in which we’ve somehow qualified for the Olympics and are competing on the biggest sporting stage of them all. Sadly, at some point we wake up with the crushing realisation that there is no possibility at all of this actually happening. In Sochi 2014, someone who had had that dream did realise it, and actually did represent their country at the Winter Olympics. The sad truth, however, was that the ‘athlete’ was there under false pretences.
The person in question was best-selling classical violinist and crossover musician, Vanessa-Mae. Born in Singapore and brought up in the UK, her music had made her hugely successful and very wealthy. She felt, however, that something was missing in her life, say, an appearance as a competitor at the Olympics. A keen skier since childhood, she knew there was no chance whatsoever of making the GB team, but saw a glimmer of opportunity with the country of her father, Thailand. Thailand was not, of course, a traditional ski nation, but Olympic rules at the time allowed such less-established countries to send one man and one woman to the games. There was one condition, however, namely that any competitor they sent had to be capable of performing to a reasonable minimum standard. In the case of slalom and giant slalom, the skier would have to have 140 points or fewer (where fewer points means a better ranking) under the FIS ranking system, and to have started five internationally recognised events.
With the Sochi Games looming it was clear that Vanessa-Mae’s ranking was way too low to qualify, so the Thai Olympic Committee requested that a special competition be organised in Slovenia to give her a chance to improve it. Incredibly, the Thai skier’s results at this event saw her ranking score plummet from 269 to 131, falling just inside the IOC qualification limit. The International Ski Federation (FIS) thus confirmed that she was eligible to compete in the Games.
So, Vanessa-Mae went to Sochi to represent Thailand. As it happens, she did not entirely disgrace herself. She completed both runs in the giant slalom, which is more than 23 other racers in the field of 90 did. But, of the 67 who did finish, she came dead last, a full 50.1 seconds behind the gold medal winner, Tina Maze of Slovenia, and over 19 seconds behind the skier who finished one place above her. It was not quite Eddie Edwards in terms of the gulf in class, but it was not far off.
It transpired that the event staged in Slovenia to enable her to qualify was little more than a sham. In order to make the level of competition appear better than it was (and therefore help Vanessa-Mae’s ranking), entries were invented for skiers who were not actually there, times were adjusted downwards for some who did compete, and a retired ringer was brought in. The FIS issued bans for numerous officials involved in the bogus event, and banned Vanessa-Mae for four years, although her ban was later annulled as there was no evidence that she had herself orchestrated the event. Sadly it all left a bitter taste on what would otherwise have been quite a fun story.
9. Lugegate – Women’s Singles Luge, Grenoble 1968
The Winter Olympics of 1968 were the first in which teams were entered for both East and West Germany. Despite the division of the country in 1949 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the two countries had still competed as a United Team up to 1964. From their first appearance as a separate nation, it was clear that the East Germans saw the Olympics as a vehicle for demonstrating to the rest of the world that their communist model was superior to the capitalist model of the west. It was also clear that they were prepared to go to significant lengths, both legal and illegal, to prove their point.
The women’s luge in Grenoble gave a sign of how far they were prepared to go. East Germans had dominated the medals in 1964 as part of the United Team, and were keen to assert their superiority under the East German flag. They surprisingly missed out on gold in the men’s event, winning silver and bronze, but looked utterly dominant in the women’s. Their three athletes – Ortrun Enderlein, Anna-Maria Müller and Angela Knösel lay in first, second and fourth after three runs were completed, so with the fourth cancelled due to poor weather, the country was set to take gold and silver.
It was then, though, that suspicions were raised by some of the other teams who had noticed the East Germans arriving late to the track, then leaving quickly after their runs. A top official from the International Luge Federation (FIL) was sent to inspect the equipment, and reported that snow on the sled runners “hissed and vapourised”. He concluded that the runners had been heated, a treatment that reduces friction and increases speed, and is very much against the rules. As a result, all three East Germans were disqualified and the medals reallocated to an Italian and two West Germans.
East German officials vehemently denied the accusations, describing the whole thing as a ‘capitalist plot’, and pointing the finger principally at the West German Luge Association. There may have been something in this, as documents emerged many years later (admittedly from the release of Stasi files) suggesting that the FIL official had been bribed by West Germany and Austria. Whatever the truth is, the East Germans really took their revenge in future Games. From 1972 to their final Games as a separate nation in 1988, East German women won 12 of the 15 medals on offer (with the USSR taking two). West Germany collected only one bronze.
8. Skategate – Pairs figure skating, Salt Lake City 2002
In any sport that has a subjective element and that relies on peoples’ judgement, however expert, there is always a possibility of controversy. If the opinions of the judges do not match those of the competitors, crowd or expert observers, feelings of injustice and unfairness can all too easily rise up. Generally, though, you have to take it on the chin as it’s extremely difficult to prove bias or corruption.
There was one occasion, however, when the outcry was so great that not only did it result in a change to the judging process in future Games, but it also led to the losers being awarded the medal most felt they should have received first time around. The event was the Pairs Figure Skating at Salt Lake City 2002.
There were two pairs fighting it out for gold, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze from Russia, and Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada. The Russians were two-time World Champions and silver medallists from 1998; the Canadians were reigning World Champions and slight favourites. In the Pairs competition, the couples skate twice, first in a short programme where they have to complete a number of specific elements, and then in the free programme where they are given more opportunity to express themselves. The free programme is given more weight than the short when calculating the final standings.
In Salt Lake, the Russians were judged to have edged the short programme. The Canadian duo fell at the end of their routine, albeit after they had completed all elements, and this probably sealed it for the Russians. The free programme, though, was a different story. Whilst the Russians made a minor technical error in their routine, the Canadians skated a flawless programme. Most observers felt that the Canadians had skated the better, but when the marks came in, the nine judges had voted 5-4 in favour of the Russians.
Commentators and spectators alike were outraged. It was perhaps to be expected that the Russian, Chinese, Polish and Ukranian judges would favour the Russian. Similarly, the US, Canadian, German and Japanese might choose the Canadians. But why had the French judge gone with the Russians? When challenged, the French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, claimed she had been pressured by the head of the French skating federation to vote for the Russians so the Russian judge would favour the French Ice Dance pair skating later in the Games. Though Le Gougne later denied this, the seed had been sown.
The International Skating Union (ISU) immediately commissioned a review, the outcome of which was that Sale and Pelletier’s silver medals were upgraded to gold. There was no demotion of the Russian pair, since they had done nothing wrong (and several judges had genuinely rated them the better of the two), so the new medal ceremony was re-run with both pairs being presented with gold. (The bronze medallists from China refused to attend).
In a sense, the damage had been repaired, but the reputation of the sport had suffered. Even though the scoring system was subsequently changed, to become more based on technical elements and also to allow judge anonymity (a change which was then reversed), it remains imperfect, hence controversy is never far from bubbling up to the surface.
7. The lethal inhaler – Alain Baxter, Slalom, Salt Lake City 2002
There is a strong case for saying that the British effectively invented the sport of alpine skiing. Whilst Scandinavians had been skiing across-country for hundreds if not thousands of years, it was the British who turned downhill skiing into a regulated, competitive sport. Sir Arthur Lunn was the pioneer in the 1920s, creating the first slalom course that tested speed not style, and organising the first world championship in downhill and slalom in 1931. His relentless campaigning saw alpine skiing make its debut in the winter Olympics of 1936.
Despite this heritage, there has never been an Olympic medal of any colour for Team GB in the Winter Olympics. (There have, of course, been many in the Winter Paralympics.) This drought looked to have ended in 2002 when Scot Alain Baxter took a surprise bronze medal in the slalom. On a difficult course, Baxter managed to place a very respectable eighth equal on the first run of two. The second run is normally the more pressurised of the two, with skiers pushing themselves to the limit to hit specific targets, and this was no exception. Four skiers in a row going before Baxter were unable to complete the course having gone off too hard. Baxter, though, skiing eighth of the final group, skied impeccably to set the second fastest combined time of anyone. One after another the favourites, including Kostelic of Croatia and Bode Miller of the US, were unable to overhaul him. It took a solid run from Vidal of France, placed first after the first run, to drop Baxter to a still very impressive third place. Presented with his bronze at the Games, Britain’s first ever medallist in alpine skiing returned home to Aviemore, Scotland to a hero’s welcome.
Sadly, Baxter’s joy was cut short when he received a phone call a few days after the Games advising him that he had tested positive for methamphetamine. Pretty well everyone who tests positive will claim that they have no idea how the drugs got into their system, but in Baxter’s case it seemed truly mystifying. It turned out that it was because he had used a Vick’s nasal inhaler to clear his blocked nose and help him get some sleep. Whilst the Vick’s inhaler sold in Britain is entirely legal, the same product sold in the US contains the prohibited drug. Baxter had bought it in a local drugstore and hadn’t even considered the need to get it cleared.
Baxter never managed to get his bronze medal reinstated, but did at least have the satisfaction of being cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport of being a drugs cheat. He also knows that most followers of the sport consider him a medal-winner even if the record books state otherwise.
6. The luckiest man ever – Stephen Bradbury, Short-track Skating, Salt Lake City 2002
Short-track skating is perhaps the most perilous event in either the Summer or Winter Games. Sometimes called ‘roller derby on ice’ it is a race where the risk of accident is ever-present due both to the intrinsic physics of the event and to the high-contact nature of the contest. Skaters reach speeds of up to 50 km/h while racing around a tight oval against three or four competitors who are constantly jostling for position. Any tiny slip of the skate is likely to see you fall and be eliminated from the competition.
In Salt Lake City 2002, Australian Stephen Bradbury was the beneficiary not once, not twice, but an incredible three times of the unpredictability of the event. He won the unlikeliest gold medal of any Games, and in so doing created a new phrase – “Doing a Bradbury”.
Bradbury was a good international skater, but just a shade below the very best in the world. He had been part of an Australian team that had won the 5000m relay in the 1991 World Championships (when Bradbury was only 17), and the same team had then gone on to win Australia’s first ever Winter Olympic medal, a bronze, in Lillehammer 1994. In individual events, Bradbury had been regarded as an outside contender for medals in both 1994 and 1998 but had got nowhere near in either.
He was, though, a fighter. He had suffered a serious skating injury in 1994 that had briefly threatened his life, and in 2000 he broke his neck in another racing accident. Despite being told he would never race again, he persisted, determined to give himself one more chance to compete at the Games. So he arrived at Salt Lake City in 2002 for what would surely be a last chance.
He managed to qualify for the quarter final, but found himself up against hot favourite Apolo Anton Ohno of the US and Marc Gagnon of Canada, the defending world champion. Needing to beat at least one of the two to progress, Bradbury was never in contention and finished third. He was reprieved, however, when Gagnon was disqualified for pushing, so entered the semi-final. In the semi he was again well out of contention in last place when all three competitors in front of him crashed into each other, allowing the trailing Bradbury to skate past them and reach the final. To be fair to Bradbury and his coach, their plan, knowing that the Australian was not quick enough to win in a straight race, had been to avoid trouble at the back and hope that an accident ensued.
They deployed the same strategy in the final. Once again, as the race neared its conclusion, Bradbury found himself stranded at the back, well behind the four medal contenders. Extraordinarily, lightning struck for the third race in a row. As the top four manoeuvred for position, they collided and all four went down like a (very fast-moving) house of cards. Bradbury was able to weave his way through them to cross the finish line first.
It was the most unexpected of gold medals and for many it was truly undeserved. Bradbury himself recognised the absurdity of it, but did feel as though he had earned the medal. “I don’t think I’ll take the medal as the minute and a half of the race I actually won.” he said, I’ll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in.”
I know that many British readers will consider this cruel and unjust, but I have chosen to include this story, one of the best known of all, in my list of the worst things to happen in the Winter Olympics. Yes, Eddie Edwards was almost the definition of the ‘plucky Brit’, competing against all the odds, putting life and limb on the line for his country, and some would argue that he represented the true spirit of the Olympics – “What counts is not the winning, but the taking part.” Not me. The days when we were happy to send second-rate athletes to world competitions and applaud them for simply trying hard, are now happily in our rear-view mirror. Once Team GB started taking sport seriously, we actually started winning something, and this, for me at least, is far more enjoyable than seeing our amateurish representatives outclassed.
Notwithstanding this, the story of Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards is one that massively raised the profile of the Winter Games, not only in the UK but worldwide. In a Ski Jumping event dominated by one of the true all-time greats, Finn Matti Nykanen, media coverage was dominated by the guy who finished last in both of the events that he entered. Here are the bald statistics from the Normal Hill event:
Gold medal to Matti Nykanen with an average distance of 89.5m and an overall score of 229.1
57th and second last, position to Spain’s Bernat Sola with an average distance of 70m and an overall score of 140.4
58th and last position to Eddie Edwards with an average distance of 55m and an overall score of 69.2
In case you’re no good at arithmetic, Edwards’ score was less than half that of the guy who finished second to last in the whole competition. The same was pretty much true of the Large Hill competition, also won by Nykanen, but where Edwards scored 57.5 vs 110.8 for the next worst competitor (who I think actually fell on one of his two jumps).
Edwards was, to be fair, incredibly brave even to have attempted this. A very good downhill skier, he decided to try and qualify for the ski jump after he failed to make the GB team for skiing. Aside from the fact that there was no GB infrastructure whatsoever to support him in his quest, he also suffered from two natural disadvantages. One, he was heavy for his height (5’8”) at nearly 13 stone (by comparison Matti Nykanen was two inches taller and 25-30kg lighter); and two, Edwards was incredibly short-sighted and his ‘bottle-top’ glasses tended to steam up when inside his helmet. Nonetheless, he pressed on, and with whatever support he could beg, steal or borrow, and an acceptance that he would suffer pain and injury, he learnt to jump. And he did land all of his four jumps at the Olympics. But he did finish dead last in both of his events.
Edwards became a media sensation during and after the Games, but in terms of competing his exploits rebounded badly on him when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) changed the entry rules for future competitions. They effectively made it impossible for athletes as poor as Edwards to qualify and he never represented Team GB again at the Games. Despite his inglorious failure, he remains to this day perhaps Britain’s best known Winter Olympian.
4. The Salt Lake Scandal – 2002 Winter Olympics
In 1932, 1972, 1976 and 1998 Salt Lake City of Utah in the USA tried and failed to persuade the IOC that the Winter Olympics should be hosted in their city. When they bid, again, to host the 2002 Games, the organising committee was determined that it would not be fifth time unlucky. The methods that they employed to increase their chances of success would lead to the biggest scandal in the history of the Games.
Until the process was overhauled, partly as a result of the Salt Lake City scandal, bidding for either the Winter or the Summer Games was a laborious and expensive process. Interested cities would start by submitting a formal bid to the IOC, who would slim the list down to 3-5 names to make it manageable. The shortlist would then be evaluated by a team of IOC experts who would write a report for the voting members. A period of lobbying would then ensue, with each of the aspiring cities attempting to persuade the voting members, typically up to 100 representatives from across the globe, to vote for their bid. With ‘persuasion’ taking many forms, this phase was rife what some would call dubious practices, but what others would call downright corruption.
Here are some of the ‘services’ that were alleged to have been provided to IOC members and their families by the Salt Lake City bid committee to try and secure their votes:
Individual payments ranging from $5,000 to $70,000 were made to IOC members from African and Latin America
$400,000 was spent on a tuition payment and athletic training programme that benefited 13 people, six of whom were relatives of IOC members
$28,000 of medical services were provided to three people connected to the IOC
Shotguns, skis, shopping sprees, even expensive violins were gifted, many with a value well above the USOC’s $150 limit on gifts
One IOC member was allegedly helped to make a $60,000 profit on a real estate transaction
Not all of the allegations were proven but the concern was serious enough that four separate investigations of the process were mounted, including one by the US Department of Justice. The joint heads of the organising committee both resigned before the investigations got underway, and then subsequently, 10 IOC members were expelled or resigned, and a further 10 were sanctioned.
The Games itself was not moved from Salt Lake City. Notwithstanding the bribery and corruption it was actually a good venue for the Games, and the scandal broke too late for the IOC to find an alternative. One thing the IOC did do, though, was totally reform the process for host city selection. Interestingly, the new process has resulted in Salt Lake City again hosting the Games in 2034. Apparently their ‘hospitality’ budget was much reduced this time.
3. The devastating crash – Sabena Flight 548, Brussels 1961
Technically this is not really a story from the Winter Olympics, but it is probably the greatest tragedy in winter sports history and certainly had a significant effect on the 1964 Games.
On February 15, 1961 Sabena Flight 548 was en route from Idlewild International Airport (now JFK) in New York to Brussels Airport in Belgium. The Boeing 707 had reported no difficulties in its seven and a half hour flight across the Atlantic, and was set to land on a clear day at Brussels. After the first approach was aborted due to a smaller plane failing to clear the runway, a second attempt was then also aborted. As the plane circled again for a third attempt, it looked as though the pilots lost control. The aircraft veered sharply upwards before levelling, then plummeting almost vertically from about 500m straight into the ground.
All 72 people on board plus one on the ground were killed. It would have been a tragedy in any case, but it had special poignancy and significance for US winter sports. All 18 members of the American figure skating team plus 16 others – family members, coaches, officials – who were accompanying them were on the plane. They were on their way to the 1961 World Championships being held in Prague. All were killed.
The fatalities included nine-time US champion-turned-coach, Maribel Vinson-Owen, and her two daughters, 16-year-old Laurence, recent US ladies’ champion and 20-year-old Maribel, US pair’s champion. Laurence had appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated just two days previously. The men’s champion, Bradley Lord was also on board, as was Maribel’s pair’s partner, Dudley Richards. In a period in which the US was the strongest figure skating nation in the world (they had won two gold and two bronze from the three events in 1960) all of these would have expected to be medal contenders in 1964.
American figure skating had to rebuild from the ground up but, incredibly, managed two bronze medals with a very young team in 1964. Four years later, they could rejoice when Tim Wood won silver in the mens singles, and Peggy Fleming, whose early coach William Kipp had been killed in Brussels, went one better with gold in the ladies. USA figure skating was back after seven very painful years.
2. Tonya and Nancy – Ladies Figure Skating, Lillehammer 1994
In the early 1990s two US figure skaters waged a bitter battle for supremacy in their sport. In the red corner, the golden girl of American figure skating, Nancy Kerrigan. Graceful, balletic and precise on the ice, classically pretty and with a beaming smile, she was loved by skating fans and non-fans alike. In the blue corner, the ‘bad girl of skating’, Tonya Harding. Athletic, strong and capable of landing big jumps including the elusive triple axel, she was a brilliant skater but of a different style to Kerrigan. She was also a different style off the ice, brash, sassy, blue-collar, a girl from ‘the wrong side of the tracks’.
A year apart in age (Kerrigan was the older) they found themselves competing against each other in all the major competitions. In the 1991 US Championships Harding won gold with Kerrigan getting bronze. Harding also finished ahead in the 1991 World Championships with silver to Kerrigan’s bronze in an American clean-sweep (Kristi Yamaguchi won gold). In 1992 the positions were reversed when Kerrigan earned Olympic bronze with Harding just out of the medals in fourth, then in the Worlds Kerrigan took silver with Harding sixth. 1993 saw Kerrigan draw ahead, establishing herself as US number one, while Harding’s form dropped off a little.
With the 1994 Olympics looming, Harding would have felt that action was required. No one, though, could have predicted the action that actually transpired.
The US Championships were set for early January and were to be used as qualifiers for the Games. Both Harding and Kerrigan were expected to qualify, but the showdown between the two was the undoubted highlight of the Championships. It never happened. The day before the women’s competition was due to start, Kerrigan was leaving practice when she was attacked by a man dressed in black who began hitting her on the leg with a metal baton. She was left on the floor, screaming in fear and pain as the man fled. The attack was massive news in the US, not least because TV cameras were quickly on the scene and recorded Kerrigan howling “Why? Why? It hurts so much. Why me?”. There was some vague suspicion that Harding might have been involved in some way, but the prevailing reaction was one of shock and disbelief.
If Harding was affected by the incident and the associated innuendo, she did not show it. With Kerrigan unable to compete, Harding won the event to qualify for the Olympics. The US skating officials sportingly and sympathetically kept the second slot on the team open for Kerrigan, should she recover in time to compete.
Things now unravelled very quickly. A mere four days after the US Championships had finished, the FBI received a confession from Harding’s bodyguard, Shawn Eckardt. He admitted that he had been involved in the attack, and implicated Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly plus two friends, Shane Stant and Derrick Smith, as well as Harding herself. Within a week both Stant (who had been the actual attacker of Kerrigan) and Gillooly had surrendered to the FBI. Gillooly also corroborated Eckardt’s claim that Harding had been party to the incident.
Somehow, Harding, who gave an emotional press conference admitting that she did know more about the attack than she had let on, was still allowed to represent the US at Lillehammer. She would be up against Kerrigan, whose injuries were not as bad as everyone originally feared and had recovered sufficiently to compete.
There has never been more focus in the US on a women’s sporting event, indeed some estimates suggest that the figure skating showdown in Lillehammer was the sixth highest-rated TV broadcast of all time. Of the two, there was only one winner. Kerrigan skated beautifully and was denied gold (which went to Ukraine’s Oksana Baiul) only by a very narrow and controversial decision by the judges (4-5). Harding finished only eighth, after being allowed a reskate when her laces became untied.
Soon after the Games, Harding and all of the co-conspirators were convicted of offences relating to the attack. Harding was spared jail time due to a plea deal, but was stripped of her 1994 US Championship and banned from competitive skating for life. Her life since skating has been one of almost constant grifting, using her (infamous) celebrity status whenever she gets a chance. She made a bit of money from the film, ‘I Tonya’ released in 2017 and starring Margot Robbie. Kerrigan lives relatively quietly with her husband and three children.
1. Putin’s propoganda – Sochi 2014
With the benefit of hindsight, it is astonishing that the 2014 Winter Olympics were ever awarded to Valdimir Putin’s Russia. In truth, it didn’t really require much hindsight to know that awarding the Games to one of the most corrupt and dangerous countries in the world was a bad idea. The Games were still going on when Russia effectively annexed the Crimea in Ukraine, and plenty worse was to follow in the ensuing years.
On the face of it, the Games went pretty well, but aside from the rather dubious politics, there were other significant scandals. First was the massive cost and corruption involved. The Games were supposed to cost $12Bn but costs ballooned to around $50Bn. Russian opposition leaders alleged that up to $30Bn of this was stolen through corruption and kickbacks, and there were many examples of huge contracts being awarded to cronies of Vladimir Putin.
Second, were the human rights concerns. Only one year before the Games, in 2013, Russia had instituted Federal Law #135-FZ, prohibiting the ‘propoganda of non-traditional sexual relations’. While it stopped short of banning homosexuality, many saw this as discriminatory and homophobic, and against the principles of the Olympic movement. There were also concerns about environmental damage caused as a result of the construction of the site, and about the campaign to exterminate thousands of stray dogs in advance of the competition.
There were also judging controversies, with home athletes appearing to be favoured in some events, but the biggest controversy related to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and the clear involvement of the state in covering this up. The centrepiece of the cover-up was simplicity itself – a hole built into the drug-testing laboratory wall, through which tainted urine samples were swapped out with clean samples coming in. The whistle was blown by Grigory Rodchenkov, former head of Russia’s anti-doping lab, who also revealed how steroids had been administered to athletes in ways that would speed up absorption into their bodies, and thus shorten the window for detection.
An independent report, fronted by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren was launched, and its findings were damning. The investigation found that more than 1,000 Russian athletes – not only in Winter Sports, but across all Olympic and Paralympic disciplines – had benefited from the state-sponsored drugs programme. A handful of medal winners from 2014 had their medals stripped (although it really should have been far more of them) and many received bans. Perhaps more significantly, Russia itself was barred from entering a team in any Olympic Games, although individual athletes may compete under the Olympic flag. As we approach Milano-Cortina 2026, this ban still holds and there is no sign of it being lifted any time soon. It may be some time before Russia hosts another Games.
Relive the greatest moments and best stories from the history of the Winter Olympics.
Like many of a certain generation, I got into winter sports in the 70s when I saw Franz Klammer descend almost suicidally down the Hahnenkahm on Ski Sunday. The Winter Olympics have got bigger and better over the years, with new events like the slalom cross, halfpipe and big air adding drama and excitement, and with the increasing prospect that Team GB might actually pick up a medal or two.
With Milano-Cortina 2026 almost upon us, I’ve dipped into the history of the Games to pick out 20 great moments to whet your appetite for what is to come. If you’re more interested in the scandals, failures and controversies you will also enjoy my companion piece https://bestandworst.net/the-worst-of-the-winter-olympics/
20. The rare (and brief) moment of unity – Korea, PyeongChang 2018
The Japanese surrender in 1945 at the end of WW2 set in train one of the most damaging and so-far long-lasting divisions of a nation ever seen. The Korean Peninsula, under Japanese colonial rule Japan since 1910, was split into two zones – the North, occupied by the Soviet Union, and the South, occupied by the US. The splitting of Korea survived a brutal and bloody war from 1950-53, and remains to this day, having become much, much more than a matter of geography. Whilst the South has become one of the most successful, prosperous and open nations in the world, the North has become impoverished and isolated under the totalitarian leadership of the Kim family.
Officially the two countries have been ‘at war’ since the conclusion of the Korean War in 1953, but the reality is an uneasy peace, with tensions that rise or falls according to events. The occasions when the two nations come closer together tend to occur around world sporting events. For example, during the ‘Sunshine Policy’ era from 1998-2008, when the South reached out to the North, there were three Olympic Games where the two teams marched together in the opening ceremony although they competed separately. After this, there was a cooling, and it took another decade before the two nations were ready to show any sort of unity.
It came with the 2018 Winter Olympics set for PyeongChang in South Korea. Tensions between the two were actually pretty high, with North Korea accelerating its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and giving every indication that it was willing to use them. But, the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, seemed keen to participate in a Games on his doorstep so he reached out to the South. His approach was received positively.
So it was, on Friday February 9th 2018 that in an opening ceremony under the theme of ‘Peace in Motion’ and a message of reconciliation, athletes from the two nations entered the stadium, walking hand-in-hand behind twin flagbearers bearing the Korean Unification Flag. It was hugely emotional, particularly for Koreans on either side of the divide. There was the added show of unity in the ice hockey arena, where a combined North and South women’s team played together (sadly, they were outclassed and finished last, but that didn’t really seem to matter).
Did it make any difference in the long term? Possibly not, but, even if it was only for a brief moment, it did show that unity and fellowship are possible even in the most difficult of circumstances.
19. The double McTwist – Shaun White, Half-Pipe, Vancouver 2010
There may be no better feeling in sport than starting your final run in an event knowing that there is no way you can lose. In 2010 this was the situation that faced American boarding legend Shaun White. White, a world champion in both snowboarding and skateboarding, and reigning half-pipe gold medallist from Turin 2006, had secured gold with a superb score of 46.8 (out of 50) in his first run. With all of his competitors having completed their second run and none getting anywhere near his score, his second run was just for show, effectively a lap of honour. Many would have taken it easy, rolling out their most reliable tricks. Not White.
White, a truly global star, particularly after the huge success of the video game Shaun White Snowboarding, wanted to produce something for his fans that had never been seen before in his event. He wanted to call his trick the Tomahawk, after a 30-ounce steak he had eaten at the Winter X Games, but it is most commonly referred to as the Double McTwist 1260. It involves three and a half twists and two flips and, at the time, was thought impossible. For anyone but White, that is. He went for it as the final trick of his celebratory run and delivered. His score, a little unnecessary in the circumstances, was a massive 48.4. He could and perhaps should have won two golds for it!
Four years later, in Sochi, White, surprisingly, missed his third consecutive gold, indeed a medal of any colour, but he returned in 2018 to win his third. Older, but no less of a risk taker, he had a bad crash before the Games that led to him needing 62 stitches in his face. He nevertheless made it to Tokyo, where he trailed coming into his second run. This time he produced back-to-back 1440s to overhaul Japan’s Ayumu Hirano. White had his third and final Olympic gold, a great haul for an extraordinary athlete and performer.
18. The dead heat – Two-man bobsleigh, PyeongChang 2018
Competition in many Winter Olympic sports has become a lot closer in recent years. It’s more difficult to keep advances in technology and training methods secret, and there’s more knowledge transfer as the best coaches and technologists get poached by countries looking to improve their prospects. Never has a competition been closer than the two-man bobsleigh in PyeongChang.
The two-man bob competition requires each team to make four runs down the track. The times from each of the four runs are added together to create a combined time and this is what dictates who wins the medals. In 2018 after four rounds of competition, there were nine teams that finished within one second of the winners. The fourth-placed finishers (Germany 2) were just 0.20 seconds behind gold – that’s five hundredths of a second each run. The bronze medallists (Latvia) were a minuscule 0.05 behind, or just over one hundredth of a second for each run. And the winners could not be separated at all so both were awarded the gold medal. Canada and Germany 1 both recorded exactly 3 min 16.86 seconds across four runs so took to the podium together.
There surely cannot be a sport in which the pursuit of marginal gains is more relevant. It could be the speed of reaction from the start buzzer, the spikes on the running shoes, the number of strides taken, the aerodynamics of the helmets, the tiny adjustments to the lines taken, even whether they’ve gone to the toilet that morning. Both Canada and Germany would doubtless have been delighted with their medals in 2018, but I suspect both left wishing they could have found that extra hundredth of a second and going to work immediately on finding it for next time.
17. The ‘slacker’ – Red Gerard, Slopestyle, PyeongChang 2018
Slopestyle is a boarding event that was introduced into the Winter Games in Sochi 2014. It’s a peculiar event in which the competitors have to negotiate a course in two distinct halves:
The Jib section (or Upper Course) – containing rails, boxes and wall-rides, almost like an urban ice zone.
The Jump section (or Lower Course) – featuring three or four massive ‘kickers’ that launch riders high into the air, allowing them to complete multiple flips and spins.
The goal of the event is not to be the fastest, but to impress the judges with the creativity, difficulty and style of the tricks that you perform as you descend.
In 2018, one of the favourites for gold was Redmond ‘Red’ Gerard, a 17-year-old American. The sixth of seven children, Gerard came from a family where outdoors activity was everything, and where caution was a dirty word. He grew up with dirt bikes, mountain bikes, snowboards and had the unusual and significant advantage of having a miniature snowboarding park built in his backyard, together with a rope tow.
Having qualified in PyeongChang for the 12-man final, Gerard got off to a dismal start. The story goes that the evening before the final he binge watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine, then overslept in the morning and had to borrow a teammate’s jacket because he could not find his own in his rush to get to the start line on time. Whatever the truth was (and Gerard always denied the rumour), he struggled on his first two runs, and it looks to the layman as though the ill-fitting jacket is a factor. His poor start left him with just one more chance to get into the medals (the riders are allowed three runs from which only the best score counts). Having recorded the fourth best score in qualifying, he knew he could do it, but he was under huge pressure.
The Jib section does not really give much of an opportunity to build a big score, but it is fraught with elements that you can mess up. In his final run, Gerard negotiated all these elements cleanly and confidently. In the lower section, he made his first big jump a switch backside 1260. His second, which many felt was the key jump on his run, was a frontside double cork 1080, then he finished with a backside triple cork 1440 – three off-axis flips and four full rotations (don’t ask). All three were executed to perfection with big height, good looking in-air rotations and solid landings.
When the judges’ scores came up, they showed 87.16, catapulting Gerard from almost last to first place, with only a handful of competitors still to make their final runs. Although Maxence Parrot of Canada came close (with 86.00), Gerard held on to become not only the youngest snowboarding gold medallist, but also the youngest gold medallist in any men’s event since 1928. Gerard was disappointed to miss out in 2022, when he came fourth in slopestyle and fifth in big air, but he goes again in 2026, still nicely chilled but perhaps with a new alarm clock.
16. The triple axel – Midori Ito, Figure Skating, Albertville 1992
The axel is the only jump in figure skating that requires the skater to be going forward when they take off. And because all jumps finish with a backwards landing, if effectively means there is a half-rotation ‘tax’ on the jump, such that a double axel requires two and a half rotations, and a triple requires three and a half. The triple is considered the ‘wall’ that separates the very good skater from the elite skater. It took until 1978 for a man to land the jump in competition, and it was another 10 years before a female skater did so.
The woman who achieved it was Midori Ito of Japan in 1988. Standing only 4 ft 9 in tall, and powerful for her size, she was a supremely athletic jumper. She landed her first triple jump aged only eight, and as a junior attracted the nickname of the ‘Jumping Flea’ due to her prowess for triples (and her diminutive size). Jumping remained her strength as she progressed into senior competition, but her relative weakness in compulsory figures (a core component of the event when she started) and lower marks for artistic impression, meant that her incredible athleticism was often not rewarded with medals. Although her free programme always scored well, she usually had too big a points deficit to make up to win.
The 1988 Olympics in Calgary was a case in point. This was a three-stage event with Compulsory Figures, Short Programme and Free Skating. Ito’s free skating routine included seven triples, two more than anyone else, and was scored third, but her poor figures and short programme saw her finish only fifth overall. (In fact, some think her free programme was better than third, but that her poor figures saw the judges mark her down.)
Undeterred, Ito set about mastering the triple axel. She already had the triples lutz, salchow, loop and toe-loop in her locker, but the axel would be the piece de resistance. She became the first woman to land it in 1988, the year of her Olympic disappointment, in a regional Japanese competition. She then did it again in the 1989 World Championships, where it pushed her free skating scores so high that she rose from sixth place after the figures to first. In so doing, she became the first ever Asian to win gold in the sport. Could she repeat the act at the Olympics?
Ito’s chances in Albertville 1992 were improved when the Compulsory Figures, her nemesis throughout her career, were removed from the programme. It would now just be the Short Programme and the Free Programme. Ito planned to unveil the triple axel in the Short Programme, but changed her mind opting instead for a triple lutz combination. She must have wished she had stuck to her plan when she fell on this jump. She still placed fourth, but knew that she now had to include the triple axel in her free skating routine.
The jump came early on in her routine. She accelerated into it, took off from her front foot, completed the turns in the air, but missed her landing by a whisker and fell. She was straight up on her feet, though, and continued her routine. Crowd and commentators alike wondered whether she would attempt the jump again. Undeterred by her failure she did, and this time she landed it perfectly for the first triple axel by a woman in the Olympics. Ito’s score was enough to promote her from fourth to second, and her medal, a silver, was the first ever won by an Asian, male or female, in Olympic figure skating.
An aspect of the Winter Olympics that distinguishes it largely from the Summer Games is fear. In many of the winter events – downhill skiing, half pipe, freestyle boarding, bobsleigh, skeleton – there is a significant element of danger. If you push too hard or get it wrong, there’s a risk you could get injured and in some cases even killed. The winter sport that to most people’s eyes is the scariest must be ski jumping.
A jumper has to set themselves at the top of a narrow slide (officially called the inrun) about 100m long and accelerate down it at roughly the rate of a decent sports car. As they approach the takeoff, having reached a speed of around 55-60 mph, they have to transition at exactly the right moment from a crouch to a full-body extension in order to launch themselves upwards and forwards. They then have to hold a very precise gliding position with their skis in a V-shape and their body almost parallel to their skis as they ‘fly’ through the air for up to 10 seconds. They are fighting gravity and wind resistance all the way down knowing that any wrong movement or slight twitch could throw them off course. They then must land smoothly on the downslope. Ski jumpers need power, core strength, flexibility, the ability and skill to make micro-movements and, of course, nerves of iron. The best of them make it look remarkably easy.
The best of all time is probably Matti Nykanen, the flying Finn, who won five Olympic medals including three golds in Calgary 1988, but thereafter led a troubled life. Simon Ammann of Switzerland (four golds) and Jens Weissflog of East Germany (three golds) also enter the debate as well as Japan’s Noriaki Kasai who appeared in eight Winter Olympics and became the oldest ever medal winner.
One who perhaps does not often feature in list of the greatest of all time is Kasai’s fellow countryman, Kazuyoshi Funaki. Funaki, however, holds a distinction that no other ski jumper in history has – a ‘perfect’ jump. Competing on home snow in his debut Olympics aged 22, Funaki was lying fourth in the Individual Large Hill event after the first round (of two) of jumps. He knew he needed to produce something special for his second, and he did. His jump was not the longest at 132.5m, but overall scores are made up not only of distance but also of style. Five judges each award up to 20 points for the form that the jumper has displayed in the jump. The judges, though, are notoriously demanding, looking for any tremor or asymmetry in skis or arms to deduct a point or a half.
Until 1998 no-one had ever received a perfect score in Olympic competition. Funaki’s flight, though, was so stable and his landing so flawless that all five judges had no choice but to award him the maximum 20 points. His overall score for the jump propelled him from fourth place to first, and Japan had a home gold medal winner to celebrate. Funaki never quite hit these heights again, but, to be fair, it’s difficult to improve on perfection.
14. The sprint finish – Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall, Team Sprint, PyeongChang 2018
The US has entered a men’s team in the cross-country skiing in every Winter Olympics since 1924. They were a little later coming to the party in the women’s events (which were added in 1952), but they’ve put a team together for this every Games since Sapporo 1972. Their success rate prior to 2018 was low, with only one medal in all of that time, a silver in 1976 in the 30km for Bill Koch, the pioneer of freestyle (or skate) skiing.
Their chances started looking up with the emergence of some world-class women skiers in the 2010s, in particular Jessie Diggins from Minnesota. Diggins was able to break the stranglehold exerted by Northern Europeans and, having won medals in the worlds, looked a decent prospect for a podium in South Korea. Her best chance, perhaps, would come in the team sprint event, where she partnered with Kikkan Randall, another world championship medallist.
The team sprint consists of six 1.25km sprints, alternating between two teammates. Each leg is utterly punishing, but the athletes have two and a half to three minutes between each to recapture their breath and their energy. The US pair qualified fastest for the final, but knew they would be up against two very strong teams in the final, Sweden and Norway, both comprising duos each with multiple Olympic medals.
By the start of the sixth and final lap the three were the only teams in contention. USA had Diggins but Sweden had Stina Nilsson, individual sprint champion from this Games, and Norway, Miken Casperson Falla, sprint champion from 2014. All three would be running on fumes, so it would likely come down to whoever could summon up the energy and determination to reach the finish line first. The lead changed hands several times on the final lap, but with 250m to go the three athletes were more or less level. Just before the final turn Nilsson of Sweden moved into what looked like a decisive lead, while Falla dropped off. Diggins, though, stayed in touch, and launched one last desperate effort down the finishing straight. With the US TV commentators utterly losing it (the video is worth watching for this alone), she drew level then inched ahead with metres remaining. A final lunge and she crossed the line less than a ski (and only 0.19 sec) in front. It was the first medal ever won by US women in the cross-country and it was a gold.
When the commentators had calmed down, they captured the moment nicely, “Olympic dreams are nurtured over a lifetime but realised in an instant.” Diggins and Randall had realised a dream that they may not even have known they had.
Great Britain, despite its formidable record in the Summer Olympics, has never really been a major player at the Winter Olympics. The country does not have much in the way of hills and less in the way of snow so it’s not entirely surprising. There has been a smattering of medals along the way, and a brief period in which we did well in figure skating (John Curry in 1976, Robin Cousins in 1980 and Torvill and Dean in 1984), but otherwise the pickings have been slim to say the least. There is one event, however, in which GB has consistently delivered, the slightly terrifying sport of skeleton. With the exception of Beijing 2022, GB has medalled at every Games in which skeleton has featured.
The sport was reintroduced to the Winter Olympics in 2002 after a 54-year gap. It’s an event in which the competitor lies face down on a shallow sled (really not much more than a tea tray) and slides as fast as they possible can down a bobsleigh run. Speeds can reach up to 90mph, G-forces can get up to 5G and a slider can experience dizziness or loss of consciousness while trying to propel the sled down the optimal line. It really is not for the faint-hearted. It was, however, a sport that Team GB targeted from its reintroduction, seeing that it did not favour the more established winter Olympics teams.
Alex Coomber was first to medal in 2002 with a bronze, then Shelley Rudman went one better in 2006. The big breakthrough came in 2010 with Amy Williams. Williams was introduced to the sport when the University of Bath, where she was studying, opened a 140m push-start track to mimic the start of a skeleton race. She tried it, liked it, showed promise, then started training on ice. She nearly made it onto the 2006 GB team, but could only travel as reserve (to Rudman). Her big chance came when the field was expanded for Vancouver, and she took it superbly. She recorded a track record in the first run (of four) and thereafter was never dislodged from first place. In the end, her winning margin was a very comfortable 0.56 seconds.
Williams’ baton was picked up in 2014 by Lizzy Yarnold. Yarnold had been talent-spotted in UK Sport’s Girls4Gold initiative and directed towards the event. It turned out she was a natural, winning a World Cup race at only her second attempt. She kept on improving, and as Sochi 2014 approached she was ranked a clear number one in the world. She justified her ranking with a dominant victory in Sochi, recording the fastest time in each of her four runs.
Four years later and Yarnold was back to defend her title. This time the circumstances were less propitious. Yarnold had taken a break between Games due to burnout, then on her return to competition had discovered that the dizziness and disorientation she often felt during racing was due to a vestibular disorder. Somehow, she was still able to race, although her arrival at PyeongChang coincided with a flare-up of her condition, as well as a debilitating chest infection. It also transpired later that she had a tumour in her knee AND two displaced discs in her back. What a trouper.
The event was closer than in Sochi. After three of the four runs, Yarnold was in first place, but held a narrow lead of only 0.08 seconds over Lolling of Germany in second, and 0.17 over Laura Deas of GB in third. Any errors in the final run and Yarnold might lose it. We need not have worried. She saved her best to last, starting fast and finding the optimum line to record a new track record to slide to glory. A bronze for Deas made it a stunning finale for team GB.
12. The flawless performance – Yuna Kim, Figure Skating, Vancouver 2010
In 2010 there were a number of incredible performances on the skating rink at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. In the Pairs, the Chinese duo of Xue and Hongbo needed a new record combined score to beat their compatriots Qing and Jian, who had themselves set a record in the free programme. In the Ice Dance, the home crowd was thrilled to celebrate a first ever Canadian victory in this event by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. And Evan Lysacek of the US won a supremely tight contest in the men’s singles. All of these were surpassed, however, by a stunning performance in the ladies’ singles.
Yuna Kim arrived at the Games as the clear favourite. The 19-year-old had won the previous year’s World and Four Continents Championships and was achieving scores previously unthought of in the sport. Her combination of technical brilliance and artistic interpretation had never been seen before. She could jump, spin, maintain perfect body positions and skate fast, all the while looking effortless, graceful and in tune with her music. She could also deliver on the highest stage and under pressure; in fact, in her entire professional career she never finished off the podium in a major tournament.
In Vancouver she did not miss a beat. In the short programme, where there are seven required elements to be performed within a time limit of 2 min 40 sec, she recorded a new world record score of 78.50, almost five points ahead of second-placed Mao Asada of Japan. Two days later in the free programme, she demolished her competition with another world record, this time almost 20 points ahead of Asada. Needless to say, her combined score was a new world record and effectively put her in a different league to all her competitors. It’s impossible to do the free routine justice in words, so it’s worth looking at the video attached to this piece.
Kim was the first South Korean to medal at the Olympics, a feat she repeated in 2014 when she controversially was denied gold by a judging scandal. In the Sochi Games, for reasons we can only surmise, the winner was a Russian who, to add insult to injury, subsequently failed a drug test. Kim retired from competitive skating soon after, so was unable to fight for the title on home ice in 2018, but she did have the honour of being the final torch bearer and of lighting the Olympic flame. It was a fitting tribute to someone who had lit up every Korean’s life when she won in 2010.
11. The miraculous recovery – Hermann Maier, Nagano 1998
Austrian Hermann Maier is without doubt one of the greatest alpine ski racers in history. His 54 World Cup race wins – split across downhill, giant slalom and super-G – place ‘the Herminator’ third in the all-time list for men. Something of a late developer, he was 23 before he made his World Cup debut for the hugely competitive Austrian team, but once he started winning races there was no looking back. Hard-working, strong and willing to take risks, he came to the 1998 Olympics in Nagano fancied to medal in all three of his disciplines. His campaign, though, very nearly came to an end in the first of them.
The first competition in Nagano was the downhill. Maier had seen the previous skier, Cretier of France, set an early fastest time, despite visibly slowing down at the seventh turn early in the run. The Austrian was less cautious and approached the same turn aggressively, skiing at over 105 km/h. Too fast and too straight, Maier took off and starting flying through the air completely out of control. When he finally came to earth it was on his head, before tumbling head over heels, crashing through two layers of protective netting, then coming to rest several hundred metres from where he had got airborne. Lucky not to break his neck, never mind any other bones, he got up and gave a welcome and surprising thumbs-up to the TV cameras.
Maier was, though, badly bruised, and fortunate that poor weather delayed his next event, the super-G, giving him extra time to recover. If he was mentally shaken by his crash, he did not show it. Perhaps he did exercise a little more caution at the top of the run, but he was still fast enough to record the quickest time, a full 0.61 seconds (that’s a lot in this event) ahead of second place. Not content with one stunning comeback victory, he followed it up with a second. In the giant slalom he skied to the fastest times in both the first and the second legs to win another gold. The 24-year-old Austrian had recovered from his dramatic crash to win the double.
As it happens, Maier was not finished with comebacks. Three years after Nagano he was involved in an awful motorbike accident, sustaining injuries that came close to requiring amputation of his right leg. He was unable to compete in Salt Lake City 2002, but dedicated himself to his rehab with the aim of returning to competitive ski-ing. Amazingly he started winning World Cup races again and qualified for Turin 2006. In Italy he could not quite bring home a gold, but did win a silver (super-G) and a bronze (giant slalom). The indestructible Maier had shown, like another famous Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger, an ‘I’ll be back’ mentality that was more than just words.
10. The medal collector – Marit Bjorgen, Cross Country Skiing, 2002-2018
To earn the title of all-time great in any sport, an athlete should demonstrate longevity. Getting to the top is difficult, repeating the act is harder, doing it multiple times confers the mark of greatness. Norway’s Marit Bjorgen competed at her first Olympics in 2002. When she retired after her fifth, 16 years later in 2018, she did so as the most decorated athlete in Winter Olympic history.
Bjorgen’s sport, cross-country skiing, is almost a national religion in her native Norway. It’s more than a sport for many, it’s a primary mode of transport and there’s a common saying that “Norwegians are born with skis on their feet”. Bjorgen started off as ‘sprinter’ (a sprint in cross-country is not what you or I would call a sprint, typically lasting about a mile) but soon developed into an excellent all-round skier, capable of winning endurance events up to 30km and beyond.
Her first Games, in Salt Lake City 2002, saw her win silver as part of the Norwegian 4 x 5km relay team. By Turin 2006 she was a triple world champion and entered into five events as a big favourite, but the Games were to be a crushing disappointment. Falling ill shortly before the Games, she underperformed badly, and took home only a silver in the individual 10km. She was desperate for redemption in Vancouver 2010 and she got it. If not utterly dominant, a haul of three golds, a silver and a bronze showed her at her best. Her long-awaited first Olympic gold came in the sprint, and she quickly followed it up with the 15km pursuit and the 4 x 5km relay.
Once the dam had broken she was unstoppable. Four years later, in Sochi she won another three golds (the 15km pursuit again, plus the 30km freestyle and the team sprint relay). In 2018, and very much in the veteran class for athletes, she won another two golds plus a silver and two bronze. Over her five Olympic Games her total haul was eight gold, four silver and three bronze – 15 medals in total.
For someone largely unknown outside of Scandinavia, Marit Bjorgen is more than a household name in Norway. She’s a national hero, inspiration and role model.
Other legendary Norwegian winter sportspeople you might not have heard of:
Ole Einer Bjorndalen – biathlete who competed at six consecutive Games from 1994 to 2014 and won eight golds, including all four in Salt Lake City 2022, plus four silver and one bronze
Bjorn Daehlie – the greatest male cross-country skier of all-time, who won eight golds and four silver from 1992 to 1998
Kjetil Andre Aamodt – skier who competed in five games and medalled in Downhill, Giant Slalom, Super-G and Combined; four golds, two silver and two bronze
Sonja Henie – an ice-skater from between the wars, she won three consecutive golds in figure skating, the first aged only 15, before going on to a successful career as a movie star
9. The perseverer – Dan Jansen, Speed Skating, Lillehammer 1994
In 1984, speed skater Dan Jansen impressed many when he qualified, aged only 18, for the US Winter Olympic team. He placed only 16th in the 1,000m, but came very close to a surprise medal in the 500m, finishing only one sixth of a second behind the bronze medallist. Assuming he developed in the coming years, there seemed to be no question that Jansen would be contending for medals in future Olympics. Little did Jansen know, however, that a string of challenges and misfortunes would bedevil his career and prevent him from reaching his goal for a decade.
After Sarajevo, he progressed fast on the track. By 1986 he was top of the World Cup rankings for both the 500m and the 1,000m events. He suffered a physical setback with a bout of mononucleosis in 1987, but a bigger, mental blow was dealt with his elder sister Jane’s diagnosis of leukemia. Jansen travelled to Calgary in 1988 with his sister gravely ill, and learnt on the day of his 500m final that she had died. Although he competed, he was badly off his game and, after surviving a rare false start, slipped and fell in the race proper. He fell again in the 1,000m when on target for a world record and gold.
Four years later in Albertville he was again the form horse coming into the Games. Favourite for the 500m and 1,000m he badly underperformed, coming in only fourth in the shorter event, and a dismal 26th in the 1,000m. Some said it was due to the soft ice which did not suit his powerful frame, the less charitable felt that Jansen was showing signs of being a choker in the big moments.
Jansen, despite the disappointments, kept on going. Due to the changing schedule for the Winter Olympics (it was moved to the years between summer Olympiads in 1994) he had to wait only two years for an opportunity to redeem himself in Lillehammer. Once again, though, he seemed to choke in his best event, the 500m. A slip during the race meant the hot favourite finished only eighth. His last chance, surely, would come in the 1,000m, but in this event he was ranked only seventh in the field. Perhaps the low expectations helped him. “Just skate,” he said to himself. “It’ll be over soon.” Finally, Jansen turned up. He set off fast and managed to maintain his pace. When the clock stopped he had recorded a new world record time of 1:12.43, a time that none of his competitors could beat. Ten years after his near thing, he had finally laid his demons to rest and won a gold.
His victory scenes were truly emotional. He took his eight-month-old daughter, named Jane in memory of his sister, in his arms as he took his lap of honour. Jansen was in a daze. “I was shaking,” he said. “I guess my first thought was ‘Finally it’s happened for me.’”
His job finally done, he retired soon after the Games and dedicated himself, amongst other things to the Dan Jansen Foundation. Its main purpose, to fight the disease that had killed his sister.
8. Ice hockey comes home – Canadian Ice Hockey, Vancouver 2010
There are many countries around the world where a sport has become inextricably linked to that country’s sense of national identity. Think rugby union and the All Blacks in New Zealand, football in Brazil, cricket in India. Perhaps nowhere, though, is the link stronger than in Canada with the sport of ice hockey. The country invented the sport, institutionalised the sport and, for most of its history, dominated the sport. It matters a lot to Canadians.
In the early years of the Winter Olympics they were nigh on unbeatable. They won six of the first seven Olympiads and were only beaten in 1936 by a GB team comprised mainly of players who had grown up in Canada. Their fortunes suffered a downturn in the days of ‘shamateurism’, when teams from the Eastern bloc were state-sponsored and effectively professional, but they returned to the top once NHL players were allowed to compete. After winning Olympic gold in 2002, however, they fell back to earth in 2006, finishing only 7th after a dismal campaign. With a home Olympics in 2010 (Vancouver) on the horizon, and another failure unthinkable, a radical rethink was required.
Out went the management team of Pat Quinn and “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky, and in came a total change in the philosophy of team selection. The focus shifted from grit and experience, to youth, elite speed and versatility. A key symbol of the change was the inclusion of 22-yr-old Sidney Crosby, left out in 2006 due to his relative youth, but about to become a hero of 2010.
Things did not go entirely to plan at first. A loss to the US team in the group phase meant they needed a qualification playoff to reach the knockout stage. Things then started to click and they got past Germany and Russia easily, before a less than comfortable semi-final win against Slovakia took them to the final. Fighting them for gold would be their oldest adversaries and the form team of the competition, the US.
The final was, as expected, a close, hard-fought encounter. Canada took the lead in the first period, then extended it in the second before conceding a slightly fortunate US goal. They had chances to pull away in the third, but allowed in a late equaliser so the game went into a golden goal overtime. It took seven minutes and 40 seconds for Canada to score the critical goal, a shot from the left from Sidney Crosby beating the US goaltender. The players went wild as did the hugely partisan crowd of nearly 18,000 in the arena. Indeed, as did most of Canada – it’s estimated that two thirds of the population were watching TV when the overtime goal was scored, the highest TV audience ever in the country.
The win for the men actually completed a beautiful double for the home nation. Their women had also beaten the US in their final for a third consecutive Olympic gold. For a country built on ice hockey, nothing could have been better.
The addition of snowboarding and events like the half pipe and freestyle to the Winter Olympics has brought a different spirit to what were traditionally quite a serious Games. A little more rebellious, creative, freeform, fun, younger, the boarders tend to have a different mindset.
Lindsay Jacobellis, a 20-year-old American boarder, demonstrated this to her massive cost in Turin 2006. Competing in the Snowboard Cross Final, a four-person race down a winding banked course across numerous rollers, she had established a comfortable lead over Tanja Frieden of Switzerland. As she approached the final jump, she knew she could not be beaten so did what boarders do, she showboated with a celebratory ‘method grab’ in mid-air. Unbelievably she missed her landing, fell and allowed a stunned Frieden to overtake her. Here’s how the BBC commentator described it. “This is a lap of honour for Jacobellis. The American’s … OH! Drama. Jacobellis is down. Oh, look at her! FRIEDEN! FRIEDEN! This is incredible. Linsday Jacobellis has thrown a gold medal away in the last 100m. Oh, what has happened … What on earth was Lindsay Jacobellis thinking. This is ridiculous. I have never seen anything like it.”
Most athletes would have been devastated but, to her credit, Jacobellis claimed, “I was having fun. Snowboarding is fun, and I wanted to share my enthusiasm with the crowd.”
As time passed, she may have grown to rue her act of ‘fun’ more and more. Although she won gold after gold at the World Championships, the Olympic title remained agonisingly elusive. In 2010 she had to take evasive action after a poor jump and slid out of her semi-final; in 2014 she crashed out when leading her semi-final; in 2018 she made the final, but made a small error when leading and finished 0.03 seconds off the podium. She must have felt that her time would never come, but she kept coming back for more. In 2022, she got what would surely be her final opportunity in her fifth Olympics.
She progressed reasonably comfortably to the final where she came up against Trespuech of France, O’Dine of Canada and Brockhoff of Australia. There was never much in it, but Jacobellis went to the front early on and never relinquished her position. As she crested the final hump there was no showboating this time and no loss of concentration. She crossed the line 0.21 seconds ahead of the Frenchwoman. At 36-years-old, and 16 years on from her inglorious failure, Jacobellis had finally laid the ghosts of Turin to rest.
6. The unprecedented double – Ester Ledecka, PyeongChang 2018
In 2018 22-year-old Ester Ledecka of Czechia did something that had never been done before at a Winter Olympics. She qualified to compete in both the snowboarding and the skiing events at the same Games. Not content with achieving this distinction, she went many, many steps better by winning gold in both disciplines, a truly remarkable feat.
Ledecka’s real strength was in snowboarding, where she was amongst the favourites for the parallel giant slalom. Realistically, she would have viewed her skiing event, the Super-G (which came earlier in the Games programme), as a warm-up for the main event. She had competed in World Cup Super-G (and downhill) events during the season, but had never come close to the podium and was ranked outside the top 40 in the field.
In the Super-G the skiers get one run only with the higher ranked skiers going off earliest. Top ranked American superstar Lindsay Vonn kicked things off, but was below her usual standards. She soon found herself edged out of the medals, and after the seeded skiers had all gone it was Anna Veith of Austria who had the fastest time. With the ‘weaker’ skiers to come, the Austrian looked to have it in the bag. That was until 26th starter Ledecka came out of the gates. Perhaps her relative lack of skiing experience played in her favour as she took a more aggressive line than most. She certainly rode her luck on the run. Unbelievably, she crossed the line one hundredth of a second quicker than Veith. At first, she couldn’t believe it, assuming the timing equipment must have been faulty, but it wasn’t. She had come from nowhere to win a medal that no-one had predicted.
The win was as unexpected to her as it was to everyone else. In her post-victory press conference she refused to remove her goggles as she was embarrassed about her lack of make-up. She hadn’t bothered to put any on, assuming she that she would just slope off after the race unnoticed.
One gold in the bag, her victory in the snowboarding parallel giant slalom was a little more straightforward. It’s a demanding event, with two qualifying runs, then four knockout races, but Ledecka was up to it. She qualified fastest then won all her races to the final, where she beat Jorg of Germany. In a way she hadn’t achieved the impossible, because no-one previously had really questioned whether it was even possible. She had, though, achieved something remarkable and she still remains the only athlete ever to have done it.
In 1978 the BBC launched a new weekly sports show, Ski Sunday. Fronted by David Vine it was something of a risk, given that it featured sports in which Britons rarely competed at the highest level. The show though became a fixture in many households, and it was principally down to one man, the Austrian skier Franz Klammer.
Klammer was born in the alps and put on skis pretty much from birth, but was comparatively late to competitive skiing. Despite this he made the Austrian team – one of the toughest national teams to get into in any sport anywhere – and competed in his first World Cup race at 19. He quickly established himself and in 1975 he won every downhill bar one in the World Cup season. His form and fitness remained strong going into the 1976 Olympics, so he was installed as favourite for his home Olympics.
The pressure was well and truly on the 22-year-old as Austria, the hosts, were several days into the Games and yet to win a gold. The men’s downhill was seen as the marquee event, but Austria had not won it for 12 years. The omens were good, though. The 1964 downhill, won by Egon Zimmerman, had been run on the same Patscherkofel course that Klammer was about to come hurtling down.
And hurtling is a pretty good description. Klammer started 15th, the last of the top seeds to go. He faced a really stiff target set by reigning Champion, Bernhard Russi of Switzerland. The Swiss’s time of 1:46.06 looked unbeatable, but if anyone could do it, it was Klammer. Klammer knew he needed to attack the course to overhaul Russi, and he very nearly came to grief at the top of the run while only just holding it together. At the first checkpoint he clocked 32.24 against Russi’s 32.22. He continued to ski right on the edge, often looking like he was going to lose it, but still could not make ground up on Russi. At the intermediate checkpoint he was a little further behind with 1:13.24 against 1:13.05. Klammer, though, was renowned as a fast finisher and taking the tightest lines he could, he sped to the finish. His target was 1:46.06. When he crossed the line the clock stopped at 1:45.73. The Kaiser had done it for his country – he had won the big one.
Such was the strength of Austrian skiing that Klammer could not make the team to defend his title in 1980. He did qualify for Sarajevo in 1984 but was by then a little past his best. He was still good enough, though, to record his final World Cup win on the legendary Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuhel, a slope he had made his own. He retired from ski racing soon after, and Ski Sunday has never been quite the same since.
4. Unbeatable – Eric Heiden, Lake Placid 1980
For a sport that occupies only the tiniest of niches in the USA, it is perhaps surprising that long track speed skating is the sport that has delivered more Winter Olympic medals for the US – 71 in total – than any other. Great American skaters have included Bonnie Blair, winner of five gold medals over four Games, Shani Davis, the first black athlete to win an individual gold at the Winter Olympics and Dan Jansen, emotional winner in 1994. Standing above them all is the figure of Eric Heiden.
Heiden had dedicated himself to skating as a teenager, and competed at his first Games in Innsbruck 1976 aged only 17. He placed well down the field, but his development was rapid and only a year later he won the overall title at the 1977 World Championships. He repeated the act in 1978 and 1979, showing a combination of poise, power, technique and, critically, an ability to live with pain.
He entered the 1980 Games as the undisputed number one in the world, and with a chance to win five gold medals. He was considered most vulnerable in the shortest event, the 500m, and this came first, with a tough challenge coming from 1976 champion, Yevgeny Kulikov of the USSR. Heiden brushed this off, recording a new Olympic record to win gold. With this in the bag, it became a bit of a procession. He won the 1,000m, the 5,000m and the 1,500m (which included a small slip) all in new Olympic records, leaving only the 10,000m for the complete set. The night before the race, though, Heiden attended the US-Soviet Union ice hockey match, the ‘miracle on ice’, and was so amped up that he struggled to get off to sleep. Even this, though, could not deter him, and he produced not only an Olympic record, but also a World record to win his fifth gold medal out of five.
Heiden always seemed remarkably unimpressed by himself, and his medals. “Heck, gold medals, what can you do with them?” he said. “I’d rather get a nice warmup suit. That’s something I can use. Gold medals just sit there.” In fact, he retired from speed skating shortly after the Games and switched to cycling, in which he also became world class, competing in the 1986 Tour de France. He also did pretty well in his professional career, becoming an orthopaedic surgeon of some repute. All-in-all a special guy.
3. Curling comes home – GB Women’s Curling team, Salt Lake City 2002
Outside of Scotland, where the sport originated, it’s fair to say that not many people in the UK would have been too familiar with curling before its reintroduction to the Winter Olympics after 74 years in 1998. Nonetheless, one famous night in February 2002, around 6 million Britons tuned in after midnight to watch Rhona Martin and her GB curling team compete for the biggest title of them all. They would experience a magnificent roller-coaster of a contest.
The five-person team (four plus a sub) led by Martin came perilously close to not being selected for the Olympics. A team led by fellow Scot Julia Ewart was better placed to go, but just missed selection when they failed to make the final at the 2001 World Championships. Martin’s team was selected, but a serious knee injury for the skipper, then a bad stomach bug nearly nipped her challenge in the bud.
At the Games, her team were very nearly eliminated at the first stage. Their modest 5-4 record in the group stage meant they had to get through two tie-breakers, against Sweden and Germany, to reach the knock-out stage. Having safely negotiated these, they had to face the strongest team in the competition so far, Canada, in the semi-final. A tense contest went to the final stone in the final end, which Martin managed to land in the house for a 6-5 victory.
The final was, if anything, even more nerve-wracking. GB went out to a two-stone advantage, but opponents Switzerland clawed it back in ends 8 and 9. GB had the advantage of throwing last in the 10th and final end, but when skipper Martin stepped up to the line, she had an incredibly tough shot to execute. She needed to nudge out a Swiss stone that was lying in the house, and do it with just the right amount of pace to leave her stone in position. Under the utmost pressure she delivered a perfect stone, and GB had won their first gold for 18 years.
On the team’s return home, they were reminded how high the standard of Scottish women’s curling is. They found themselves defeated in the final of the Scottish championships, so did not qualify for the next World Champs, which their opponents promptly won. Scotland, the home of curling, was now home to not only the Olympic but also to the World Champions.
2. The Miracle on Ice – USA 4-3 USSR, Men’s Ice Hockey, Lake Placid 1980
In the three or so decades before Olympic ice hockey was opened up to professional players, there was little expectation that teams from the west could compete effectively with those from the east. Teams from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia were amateur in name only, made up of ‘students’, ‘soldiers’ or other ‘professionals’ who in reality were full-time state-sponsored athletes. Those from ice hockey powerhouses like the US and Canada, by contrast, were made up of college players or those just about to embark on their NHL careers. The US team had surprisingly managed to win gold on home ice in 1960, but the ensuing 20 years had been entirely dominated by the Soviets. They had won gold in four successive Winter Games, while losing only once in 29 outings.
Although the 1980 Games were back on US soil, the Soviets remained hot favourites to win their fifth consecutive title. The format was two pools of five teams, with the top two from each pool proceeding to a medal group in which the country placed first would win gold. The Soviets utterly dominated their pool, winning all five games with a massive goal difference of +40. The US team, in the other pool, qualified well with four wins and a draw, a good result for an inexperienced team seeded only seventh at the start of the tournament.
The two teams faced off against each other in the opening medal group game. Despite the overwhelming odds, a partisan capacity crowd filled the arena, ready to cheer on their countrymen. For many, it was not just a hockey match, it was a symbol of the ideological struggle between West and East.
The Soviets got off to a good start, scoring first, but this was answered by a goal from Buzz Schneider, the only player on the US team to have played previously in the Olympics. The Soviets kept on the attack, scoring a second to retake the lead, but again the US equalised, this time scoring in the very last second of the first period. The second period was dominated by the Soviets but they could only put one past US goaltender Jim Craig, so the third and final period began with the game still in the balance at 3-2.
The third period saw the unimaginable come to reality. Midway through the period, American Mark Johnson tied the scores, then about a minute and a half later his teammate Mike Eruzione scored a second. 4-3 to the US, but still almost 10 minutes to hold out. Hold out they did, with Craig making several crucial saves. As the game entered its final moments, the crowd counted down the seconds and the final horn sounded with the Americans victorious.
The game was almost immediately described as ‘the miracle on ice’, leaning on the words of ABC sportscaster Al Michaels who described the last few seconds thus, “Do you believe in miracles? YES!!”. As it happens, the US team had not yet secured gold – they still needed to beat Finland, which they did in another come-from-behind win.
The backdrop of the Cold War certainly gave the game more significance than it would otherwise have had. Relations between the US and the USSR were colder than usual following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979, with the US government in the throes of deciding whether or not to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. So, to many Americans it was seen as an ideological victory as well as a sporting one. As such, it remains hugely significant in US sporting folklore, being voted the top sports moment of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated in 1999. Even as recently as December 2025, the team were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Trump.
1. Bolero – Torvill and Dean, Sarajevo 1984
On Valentines Day 1984, over 24 million people in the UK turned on their televisions to watch a modest duo from Nottingham perform a dance routine on ice in Sarajevo. The pair were Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and their routine would win them one of the most memorable gold medals of all time in the Winter Olympics.
The pair were red-hot favourites to win. Since placing fifth at their first Olympics four years earlier, they had won every competition they had entered. World and European Champions for three consecutive years, they were hugely talented technically, but more than that, they had an ability to express emotion through dance that was unmatched by any of their competitors. One reason was that they chose to perform their longer ‘free dance’ to a single piece of music, whereas almost all other performers used medleys. This allowed for enhanced story-telling and characterisation, a skill in which they were coached by a legend of musical theatre, Michael Crawford.
In Sarajevo they looked nailed on for gold after the Compulsory and Original Set Pattern Dances, but they still had to come out and deliver in the Free Dance. They made their entrance and knelt down on the ice facing each other as the music of Bolero by Ravel struck up. Interestingly, their start was not just for artistic reasons. The shortest time they could edit their music down to (from its complete 17 minutes) was 4 min 28 seconds, 18 seconds more than Olympic rules allowed for. The time allowance, however, began only when the skating commenced, so for the first 18 seconds of the piece, the two Britons simply faced each other with their skates not touching the ice.
When they did start, what followed was four minutes of synchronised perfection. Veteran TV presenter Alan Weeks did not utter a single word of commentary as the duo danced to Ravel’s music. After they had finished, artfully draped on the ice connected by their fingertips, there was a brief wait for the scores to be announced. Their score for technical merit was superb – three perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s – but it was surpassed by their marks for artistic impression – an unprecedented nine perfect 6.0s! As the scores came up on the screens, the crowd went wild, TV audiences around the world went wild, grown men were in tears.
It’s impossible to do the dance any justice in words – instead I humbly suggest you simply watch it again.
The history of Liverpool FC is one of, if not the most distinguished in English football. 20 times league champions and six times European champions, their history is one of massive success. There have, of course, been barren periods but so many triumphant moments that selecting the best is a tough task. I’ve tried my best to pick out the most significant, memorable or enjoyable. Fans will doubtless disagree with the selection or the order, but hopefully all will enjoy reliving these incredible moments from one of the greatest clubs in the world.
12. The slaughter of the not-so-innocents – Liverpool 7-0 Man United, March 2023
2022/23 was not a great season for Liverpool. Expected to contend for the league title, they started the season slowly, and had they not enjoyed an unbeaten run from April they would have finished in mid-table. They did, though, have a handful of consolations. One was a Premier League record-equalling 9-0 win in early season against Bournemouth. Another was the record win they inflicted against Manchester United in March.
United were actually sitting above Liverpool in the table, and had just a week earlier given under-pressure manager Erik Ten Haag a lifeline by winning the League Cup final. The start of the game to some extent reflected United’s new-found confidence. There were presentable chances for Fernandes and Rashford, and United were actually first to have the ball in the net, although Casemiro’s effort was clearly offside. Liverpool, though, went into the lead when Gakpo curled in a shot from the left after some neat footwork.
The second half was one-sided to say the least. The goals just kept coming. On 47 minutes a sharp header from Darwin Nunez; on 50 a breakaway move finished smartly from Gakpo; on 66 another breakaway and a clinical volleyed finish from Salah; a second headed goal from Nunez on 75; a second for Salah on 83 after a goalmouth scramble; then finally a lovely turn and finish for Firmino with only two minutes remaining. 7-0 and it could have been more. This was not a vintage United by any standards, but it was a vintage performance from Liverpool.
11. The thriller – Liverpool 4 – 3 Newcastle, April 1996
For a player who became England’s most expensive player, Stan Collymore got off to a relatively slow start in his footballing career. Released as a teenager from Wolves’ academy, he was almost 20 years old before he made his football league debut for Crystal Palace. He soon, though, showed his worth as a goal scorer, scoring better than a goal every two games for first Southend, then Nottingham Forest. It was from the latter that he was signed, for an English transfer record of £8.5m, by Liverpool on 1995.
At Liverpool he quickly formed a potent striking partnership with 20-year-old wunderkind Robbie Fowler, the two sharing 42 goals between them in Collymore’s first season. Fowler famously scored home and away doubles against Man United, but it was a Collymore brace towards the end of the season that had perhaps most impact.
The venue was Anfield, the visitors Newcastle United. The Magpies, under the inspirational leadership of Liverpool legend Kevin Keegan, had led the league for most of the season, but had begun to falter in the face of relentless pressure from Manchester United. They came to Anfield desperately needing a win to keep their title pursuit alive. Liverpool, although statistically still in the race, were playing mainly for pride.
The game was a classic, one of the greatest Premier League games ever. Liverpool got off to a flier, a superb Collymore cross from the left converted by a Fowler header after only two minutes. Newcastle responded on 10 minutes, as Les Ferdinand turned and shot after an Asprilla dribble. Four minutes later and the visitors were ahead, David Ginola running onto a long ball from the back and firing past David James. Despite plenty of goalmouth action, half time arrived with the score still at 1-2.
After Newcastle’s Rob Lee missed a great chance early in the second half to put his team 3-1 ahead, Liverpool equalised when Fowler connected first time with a cross-ball from McManaman. Newcastle, though, went ahead soon after when Asprilla ran onto an incisive through ball from Rob Lee, and spun his first-time shot past James. Parity, though, was restored in the 68th minute when Collymore got onto the end of a cross from Jason McAteer. 3-3 and still more than twenty minutes to go.
Either team could have shut up shop, but neither did. Both wanted a decisive goal. As the game entered added time, Liverpool mounted a final attack. An interplay between Barnes and Rush on the edge of the box looked to have run aground when Barnes spotted Collymore unmarked on the left of the goal area. Collymore had time to take a touch with his right, then fired home with his left. There was no time for United to reply so an absolute thriller had ended 4-3.
In retrospect, some Liverpool fans may have preferred their side to have lost, as they inadvertently helped deliver the title to big rivals Manchester United. Was it worth it? Possibly not, but it was a great game and a memorable win.
10. The late late ‘treble’ – 2000/01 season
Liverpool’s third season under Frenchman Gerard Houllier was not a vintage one in the league, but did see three cups come to Anfield in a tribute to the side’s never-say-die attitude, a precursor perhaps to Jurgen Klopp’s ‘mentality monsters’.
The first trophy to be captured was the League Cup. The team had shown signs of their resilience in the second and fourth rounds, both won in extra time against London opposition. There was also a come-from-behind win in the semi, this time recovering from a first leg deficit to convincingly defeat Crystal Palace 5-0 (6-2 on aggregate) at Anfield. After all that drama, the final should have been relatively straightforward, the Reds taking on First Division Birmingham City, but this too proved to be a tense affair.
After an early Liverpool opener, the game looked over and done with, but the lower division side managed to equalise with a penalty in the last minute of normal time. City actually looked the more likely to score in extra time, but could not break through so it went to penalties. The first instalment of Liverpool’s late-late show saw Dutch keeper Sandor Westerveld make two saves to win his team the trophy.
Next came the FA Cup. Liverpool’s progress to the final here was a little more serene, although it took two late goals to get past Leeds in Round 4, and they were given a scare by third tier Wycombe in the semi-final. The final pitted them against Arsenal, then close to the peak of their powers, and full of quality. The Gunners had much the better of things and could have been ahead well before Freddie Ljungberg scored in the 72nd minute. They were to regret their missed chances. In the 83rd minute, Michael Owen pounced on a loose ball in the Arsenal box and hooked a right-foot finish past David Seaman. Then with only two minutes of normal time remaining, the young forward ran onto a speculative long ball from Patrick Berger and outpaced Tony Adams before firing low into the opposite corner. After posing little threat for most of the game, Liverpool had once again come to life late in the game to win.
Four days later, the late-late triple was completed when Liverpool took on Spanish side Alaves in the UEFA Cup Final. Alaves were the surprise package of that year’s UEFA Cup, enjoying their first taste ever of European competition with a run to the final. Liverpool were expected to walk it, but the final proved to be a minor classic. A great start saw Liverpool go 2-0 up, but after an exchange of goals for 3-1, Alaves scored two themselves to level at 3-3. A late goal from Fowler looked like it might be decisive, but a headed equaliser in the 88th minute from ex-Man United player Jordi Cruyff sent the game into a golden goal extra-time. Alaves did their best to help Liverpool, getting two players sent off before they scored an unfortunate own goal to settle the tie with only four minutes to go before penalties.
Liverpool had won a treble, with extra time, penalty and come-from-behind wins. For those with a nervous disposition, it had probably been a little too much; for others it provided great excitement and enjoyment.
9. The bitter-sweet success – Liverpool 3-2 (a.e.t) Everton, May 1989
On 15th April 1989 Liverpool’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest had been abandoned after six minutes due to the catastrophe unfolding at Hillsborough. In the aftermath of the tragedy there was some debate as to whether Liverpool should withdraw from the competition, but it was decided that they should continue as a form of unity and catharsis.
It seemed fitting that if they won the rescheduled semi-final, their opponents in the final would be city rivals, Everton. They duly beat Forest, so on 20th May 1989 both the blue and the red sides of the city of Liverpool met in London for an intensely emotional FA Cup final. Jeff Goulding from This Is Anfield put it nicely, “It was a year when we realised that football wasn’t more important than life and death, but it did have the power to unite and lift people from despair.”
Both teams wore black armbands and the minute silence at the start of the game was immaculately observed by both sets of fans. The rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, led by Gerry Marsden, has perhaps never been sung with more passion by Everton fans. If the players were knocked a little off-balance by the occasion, they still managed to settle into a game that became a classic.
It was Liverpool who started best, a quick length-of-the-field move on four minutes being finished smartly by John Aldridge from near the penalty spot. The Reds had the best of the play and several great chances to add to their score, but with the full-time whistle about to be blown they suffered a sucker punch when Everton’s Stuart McCall forced the ball over the line after a goalmouth scramble.
Extra time was a thriller. In the 95th minute Ian Rush, on as a substitute, received a ball in the box from Steve Nicol. He controlled it, swivelled sharply and shot first time past Southall’s left. Everton responded with a stunner from McCall who, just outside the box, controlled a defensive header on his chest and volleyed in past Grobbelaar. Liverpool came straight back, a cross from Barnes cleverly directed by Rush with his head to slide past Southall. There were chances for Liverpool to extend their lead, but 3-2 was enough to secure an emotional victory.
Did Liverpool or Everton really care who won? You bet they did, but the real winner was the city of Liverpool, united in both grief and solidarity, and finding some small amount of joy within the heartache.
8. Paisley’s finale – Liverpool 2-1 Man United, League Cup Final, 1983
When Bob Paisley stepped into the enormous shoes of Bill Shankly in 1974, he must have wondered whether he could live up to the standards that his charismatic predecessor had set. When he stepped down as manager nine years later, he had not only surpassed Shankly’s achievements, he had also become the most successful English manager in history.
Paisley, although hailing from the North East, became a Liverpool man through-and-through. He joined the club as a 20-year-old in 1939, but the war intervened and he had to wait a full seven years (and survive his Army service) before he made his first appearance for the first team. He was an instant success, featuring in the title-winning side of 1946/47, before later becoming club captain. When he retired from playing in 1954, he joined the club’s staff as reserve team coach and physio. He was promoted to assistant manager when Bill Shankly came in manager in 1959, and became an integral part of Shankly’s legendary boot room, alongside Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett.
When Shankly retired in 1974, the then 55-year-old Paisley reluctantly took over as manager. If Shankly had laid the foundations, then Paisley, over the next nine years, built the fortress that stood upon them. His record was remarkable – six League Championships, three League Cups, three European Cups and one UEFA Cup plus one UEFA Super Cup and six Charity Shields. No Englishman before or since had led his teams to such a haul of silverware.
In 1982 the great man announced that he would be retiring at the end of the season. He figured that by giving a year’s notice he would allow the club to manage the succession most smoothly (which they did, appointing his great colleague Fagan). He probably did not anticipate (or indeed desire) that the season would also become a lap of honour for himself, but it gave the fans a chance to say a long, heartfelt goodbye.
It was not a season in which everything went well – there were early exits from the FA Cup and the European Cup – but there were two huge highlights. The first was a very convincing sixth League title. The Reds finished 11 points ahead of second-placed Watford with an extraordinary goal difference of +50. Incredibly, they did this despite not winning any of their last seven games.
The second was the League Cup final against the old enemy, Manchester United. United were yet to become the powerhouse that they became under Alex Ferguson, but were still one of the top sides in England and featured a team full of internationals. They had earned draws home and away against Liverpool during the regular season.
On the day, it was United who took the lead, a superb turn and shot from 17-year-old Norman Whiteside beating Grobbelaar in the 12th minute. Liverpool, though, were the stronger side and began to dominate possession in midfield and create chances for Rush and Dalglish. It still took until the 75th minute for them to equalise, the goal coming from the boot of Alan Kennedy. Kennedy, a scorer of rare but crucial goals (equaliser in the 1981 League Cup final, winner in the 1981 European Cup final, decisive penalty in 1984 European Cup final) took aim and fired from outside the box and his shot beat United keeper Gary Bailey just inside his left post.
Kennedy was also involved in the extra time winner. A Dalglish shot was blocked but fell to the Geordie who once again was up supporting the attack. He passed to Ronnie Whelan, positioned just outside the box on the left, who tried to play a one-two. When the ball was blocked back to the Irishman he hit an instinctive first time shot that curled into the far corner of the net. It was the definition of a ‘worldie’ and gave Bailey no chance at all. Liverpool had chances to add to the score (‘supersub’ David Fairclough could easily have helped himself to a hat-trick) but 2-1 proved to be enough.
Fittingly, Paisley himself was given the honour of picking up the trophy and raising it to the fans. He did not normally crave the spotlight, but he surely would have enjoyed this triumphant finale.
7. Unstoppable – Liverpool 7-0 Tottenham, 2 Sept 1978
The 1977/78 season had perhaps been something of a disappointment for Liverpool fans. Yes, they had retained the European Cup, the first British club to achieve this, but Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest had denied them not only the League title but also the Football League Cup. Liverpool’s clear target for 1978/79 was to beat Forest and recapture the league title.
The starting XI for the season was arguably the strongest in the club’s history. Kevin Keegan had departed in 1977 but his replacement somehow managed to represent an improvement, Kenny Dalglish, arguably Liverpool’s greatest ever player. The side had been further strengthened in January 1978 when another great Scot arrived, Graeme Souness. The team had no discernable weaknesses, super solid in defence, skilful and hardworking in midfield and capable of scoring goals throughout the team.
A player who epitomised everything good about the team was midfielder Terry McDermott. McDermott had been one of Bob Paisley’s first signings but had a slow start at the club. By the 78/79 season, though, he had established himself in the first XI. His team set off like a train. Three wins out of three and nine goals scored. Game four brought newly promoted Tottenham to Anfield. Spurs were a decent side featuring recently0-signed Argentinians Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa alongside Glenn Hoddle, Peter Taylor and Steve Perryman. They were, however, no match for a rampaging Liverpool side.
It took only eight minutes for the home side to break the deadlock, Dalglish converting smartly after a diagonal pass from Case. The second goal, on 20 minutes featured the same two players. Next Ray Kennedy headed in from the edge of the six yard box to give Liverpool a 3-0 advantage. David Johnson added two more in the first 13 minutes of the second half and had a hat-trick goal narrowly cleared off the line. Spurs might have felt that the pain was over when Barry Daines saved a Phil Neal penalty, but the ref judged (harshly) that the keeper had moved early, and Neal slotted home the retake. 6-0 and the best was yet to come.
Enter McDermott. Spurs had a rare foray into the Liverpool goal area, but the ball was cleared to Ray Kennedy just inside his own box. He nodded it on to Dalglish who took one look up and passed first time to Johnson free on the half way line. He took one touch then sent a long diagonal to Steve Heighway sprinting up the left wing. Heighway crossed first time to the far post where Terry McDermott was steaming in, having literally run the length of the pitch. McDermott powered his header into the back of the net for one of the greatest team goals of all time. Bob Paisley, not a man known for hyperbole, said “That must be the best goal Anfield has ever seen”. Michael Charters in the Liverpool Echo was effusive about the overall performance, “This display confirmed for me … that the current Liverpool team is playing better, more exciting, attacking football than any side I’ve seen since the war”.
Charters’ judgement proved to be prescient. The team scored freely throughout the season, totting up 85 goals, but even more impressively, conceding only 16 goals, the lowest ever in a 42-game season. Liverpool finished a commanding eight points ahead of second-placed Forest (there were still only two points for a win) and had their fourth title in seven years. It would not be their last, but few would be as dominant as this one.
6. Dalglish’s double – Liverpool 3-1 Everton, May 1986
On 22nd February 1986 Liverpool hosted the old enemy Everton at Anfield. The Everton side, as strong as it has ever been in recent history, were riding high at the top of Division One and looking odds-on to successfully defend their crown from the previous season. Second half goals from Kevin Ratcliffe and Gary Lineker saw the Blues stretch out their lead at the top, a full eight points ahead of third-placed Liverpool.
Liverpool, whilst not exactly in transition, were under new leadership. The great Bob Paisley had gone as had his successor, Joe Fagan, and the man chosen to pick up the mantle on was 34-year-old Kenny Dalglish, still a great player but now in the dual role of player-manager. His team was a decent mix of seasoned pros, such as Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson at the back, plus a group in their early to mid-20s coming to their peak, such as centre forward Ian Rush and Danish midfielder Jan Molby. And, of course, he could still select himself. Despite this, some judged his team to be ‘the worst Liverpool team for 20 years’. It soon became clear that they were not.
While the loss to Everton was disappointing, it may well have been just the spark that Liverpool needed to reinvigorate their season. They squeaked past Spurs in their next match, but thereafter were unstoppable. In their last 12 games they won 11 and drew one, scoring 32 goals and conceding only four. Everton themselves finished pretty well, but two defeats and three draws were enough to allow Liverpool overhaul them and give Dalglish a title in his first season in charge.
The Scotsman then had a chance to create history. Incredibly, despite all of their league titles and cup wins, Liverpool had never yet managed to win the League title and the FA Cup in the same season for the coveted double. In 1986 they had a great chance and the only team standing in their way was… Everton. The final was set for 10th May, just one week after Liverpool had clinched the title.
Given the storied history of both clubs, it’s surprising that this was the first ever all-Liverpool FA Cup final, and it could not have been more significant. The sides were comfortably the top two in the country (Everton could easily have been the ones trying to complete a double) and were very evenly-matched. Everton got off to a stronger start in the final and on 27 minutes their star centre-forward, Gary Lineker, put them ahead with a sharp shot from just inside the box. Both sides had chances, but no more goals were scored before the break.
Liverpool came out stronger after half time, with Jan Molby taking control of the midfield and pulling all manner of strings. On 56 minutes, he threaded a superb ball through to Ian Rush who rounded the Everton keeper, Mimms, and slotted in. Six minutes later and he skipped through the Everton defence and pulled a ball across the box where Craig Johnstone was on hand to tap it in. Everton had chances to level, but with six minutes remaining another smart pass from Molby found Whelan, who chipped over the back-tracking Everton defenders to find Ian Rush. The Welshman converted clinically. He could and perhaps should have had a hat-trick but it was not needed. Liverpool were 3-1 victors and had their first ever double.
Dalglish had followed in the footsteps of greatness and had lived up to his predecessors. Indeed, when he stepped down from the role in 1991 he had the ‘winningest’ record of any Liverpool manager ever. King Kenny had proven himself to be great off the pitch as well as on it.
5. Champions of Europe – Liverpool 3-1 Borussia Monchengladbach May 1977
The 1970s and 1980s were pretty decades in which to be a fan of Liverpool. A side with the foundations built by Shankly, then further developed by Paisley and Fagan and built upon by Dalglish, established itself as clearly the best in England. Over a 19-year period, apart from a rogue year in which they finished fifth (1980/81), Liverpool finished either first or second in every Division One season. There were multiple domestic cups, and a stunning six European titles.
The first European Cup title came in 1977. Liverpool had already shown that they could compete effectively in Europe by twice winning the UEFA Cup, but had had few chances to shine in the big one. They embarked on their campaign in 1976/77 with a strong squad and a lot of confidence.
In the 1970s the premier European competition was years away from being the bloated competition that we have today, so Liverpool had only four rounds, home and away, to negotiate in order to make the final. The draw was pretty kind to them. The first round saw an easy tie against minnows Crusaders of Northern Ireland, before Trabzonspor of Turkey were despatched in the second. There was then a huge scare in the third round against French side Saint Etienne, where Liverpool needed to score twice in the final 40 minutes in the second leg to go through. In an epic night at Anfield, it required a great performance from Clemence in goal and an 84th minute goal from, who else but, super-sub David Fairclough for Liverpool to scrape through. After that drama, the semi, against Zurich, was a more straightforward affair, meaning Liverpool had made it through to a final against Borussia Monchengladbach of Germany.
Liverpool fielded a side made up almost entirely of current or future club legends. Seven of the 11 starters feature in the list of the club’s top 30 appearance makers ever. Their German opponents featured Dane Allan Simonsen who would go on to win that year’s Ballon D’Or, and a host of German internationals, but Liverpool were rated favourites to win.
The Reds went into the lead when Terry McDermott produced one of his trademark penetrating runs from midfield to get onto a clever through ball from Steve Heighway and score. Simonsen scored an equaliser with a stunner early in the second half, but Liverpool kept on coming. The second goal came from an unexpected source, centre back Tommy Smith, who had announced he would retire after the game. (He later changed his mind and played for another season.) He met a corner from Heighway with a thundering header that the German keeper was unable to touch never mind save. The coup de gras was applied in the 83rd minute when Keegan was pulled down bearing down on the goal, and Phil Neal sent the keeper the wrong way with the penalty.
Liverpool under Paisley became nigh-on unstoppable after this win. They would retain the trophy in 1978 and win it again in 1981. There would be four more league titles, making it six in total for the Geordie, and three League Cups although strangely no FA Cup. No other English manager has come close to Paisley’s record. Not bad for someone who had not really wanted the job.
4. The unbelievable comeback – Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona, Champions League semi-final, May 2019
In May 2005 Liverpool achieved one of the greatest comebacks of all time in the Champions League when they came from 3-0 behind to beat AC Milan in the final on penalties. They arguably went one better in 2019 when they faced Barcelona in the semi-final of the same competition.
Liverpool had ridden their luck a little to get as far as the semis. A record of won three, lost three in the group stage was hardly the stuff of champions, and it was only by dint of goals scored (nine to Napoli’s seven) that they qualified for the knockout stages. They had then made life tough for themselves in the round of 16 by only drawing at home to Bayern, but had stormed to a 3-1 win in the away leg at the Allianz Arena. They looked to be coming into their stride by the quarters with a comfortable win against Porto, but this brought them up against La Liga champions and European powerhouse, Barcelona.
The Spanish team boasted a team of all talents including a front three of Suarez and Countinho, both former Liverpool stars, and the great Lionel Messi. Barca had dominated their qualifying group then cruised past Lyon and Man United in the knockout stages. In the first leg at the Bernabeu it looked as if they would do the same against Liverpool. Goals from Suarez and Messi (two) gave them a 3-0 advantage to take to Anfield. Liverpool could take some heart from a solid performance – they actually had more possession, corners and shots than their hosts – but only three teams (one of them Barcelona) had ever recovered from such a first leg deficit previously.
Liverpool got off to a great start. In the seventh minute, Barcelona defender Jordi Alba, one of the best defenders in world football, misdirected a header to Sadio Mane. Mane found a charging Jordan Henderson whose shot was palmed out to a grateful Divock Origi. The Belgian, not a huge fan favourite at this point, converted. It remained 1-0 until half time with Alisson making a number of crucial saves.
The second half started with two great chances, one at either end, before Liverpool made their second breakthrough. Trent Alexander-Arnold, still just 20, pulled a great ball from the right across the box where Georginio Wijnaldum had timed his run perfectly and stroked home an accurate first time shot. Two minutes later and Liverpool were level in the tie. This time the ball came from the left, a superbly weighted cross from Xherdan Shaqiri, met by Wijnaldum, again, this time with a perfect header that the Barca keeper, Ter Stegen was powerless to keep out.
At 3-3 Liverpool were right back in it but a goal for Barca might have been decisive. Instead, it was Liverpool who struck. A corner had been won on the right. Trent made to take it, then moved away. As he did so, he noticed that the Barcelona defence was still preparing, so he quickly stepped back to the ball and whipped a low cross towards the six-yard box. Origi was paying attention, and connected sweetly to beat the fast retreating Ter Stegen. Liverpool held on to win 4-0 on the night, and achieve an incredible 4-3 aggregate win.
After this, the final was something of an anti-climax. Liverpool’s opponents were Tottenham Hotspur, who had also come back from an impossible position (if anything even more unlikely than Liverpool’s) to win their semi-final. Liverpool could not have got off to a better start, a Spurs handball in the first minute handing them a penalty that Salah converted. It was not a classic final, but Liverpool clinched their sixth title with another goal from the unlikely hero, Origi. The Belgian never entirely convinced in his time on Merseyside, but became an eternal cult hero for the part(s) he played in the 2019 Champions League.
3. The coming of the messiah – Shankly appointed in 1959
For a relatively small country, Scotland has punched well above its weight in terms of producing world-class football managers. George Graham, Walter Smith and David Moyes all had long and distinguished careers; Kenny Dalglish achieved great things at Liverpool and Blackburn; and all-time greats Matt Busby, Alex Ferguson and Jock Stein each led their teams to the European Cup alongside multiple other silverware. Earning his place alongside these greats is the legend that was Bill Shankly.
Shankly came from a small Scottish coal mining village in Ayrshire. The ninth of 10 children, William was the youngest of five brothers, all of whom played professional football. After a brief spell down the mines, he got signed by Carlisle for whom he played for one season before transferring to Preston North End where he spent the rest of his playing career. He earned five caps for his country, and would have had many more had not the war robbed him of his best playing years.
When he left the club, somewhat acrimoniously after 16 years service, it was to take his first job in management, at Carlisle United, then in the Third Division North. Shankly’s place in the Preston team was taken by Tommy Docherty, himself a future manager of some repute. Displaying the wit he was to become famous for, Shankly told Docherty that he should “just put the number four shirt on and let it run round by itself because it knows where to go”.
Shankly learnt his trade in the lower leagues moving from Carlisle to Grimsby then to Workington and on to Huddersfield. Although promotions and silverware eluded him, all of these clubs improved under him, and his reputation grew. So, in 1959, when second division Liverpool decided to dispense with manager Phil Taylor, it was Bill Shankly who they turned to.
Shankly immediately set about improving the playing and training facilities, and overhauling what he judged to be a weak squad. With a strong coaching team in place – the legendary ‘boot room’ of Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett – he started on his plan to completely revolutionalise the club.
Key signings – in particular Ron Yeats and Ian St John – were made and home-grown players were nurtured. Strength was added in all areas and after successive third-placed finishes, Liverpool managed to gain promotion to Division One in only Shankly’s third season. There was to be no looking back. It took only two years back in the top flight for Liverpool to win the league, goals from Roger Hunt, St John and the unfortunate Alf Arrowsmith (he was injured in the 1964 Charity Shield and never really recovered) propelling the team to the title. The FA Cup followed in 1965 and they were only narrowly denied a place in the European Cup final. Another title followed in 1965/66 as did a place in the Cup Winners Cup final, where they lost in extra time to Borussia Dortmund.
To be fair, there was then a bit of a lull before Shankly set about rebuilding the team again. Shopping around mainly in the lower leagues, he signed players who would form the nucleus of the great team of the 70s – Emlyn Hughes, Ray Clemence, John Toshack and Steve Heighway all came from smaller clubs to join the likes of Ian Callaghan, Tommy Smith and Chris Lawler who had come up through the youth scheme. Silverware returned to Anfield with the league title in 72/73, the 1973 UEFA Cup and the 1974 FA Cup.
It was after the FA Cup final victory that Shankly surprised the football world by announcing his retirement from management. Aged 60 the great man was tired. He soon regretted his decision and tried to stay involved, but eventually he had to accept that the new guard, under his protégé Paisley, were now in charge. He had, though, left a superb legacy, reflected in the club going from success to success in the years that followed.
Sadly, Shankly died in 1981, aged only 68. His death was mourned across the world of football and beyond. He is commemorated at Anfield in the Shankly gates, the Shankly plinth and, of course, the statue that stands proudly outside the Kop.
Six great Shankly quotes:
A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.
In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside, Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.
A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.
At a football club, there’s a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don’t come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques
Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.
… and of course … Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.
2. Back where we belong – Premier League title, 2019/20
In 2015 a charismatic German with big teeth and big glasses arrived at Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp had been a solid but not exceptional footballer for Mainz05 in the 2. Bundesliga. Describing himself as having “fourth-division feet and a first-division head”, he felt destined for management and when the opportunity, on his retirement from playing, came to manage his club, he jumped at the chance. He soon proved himself, taking his club to the Bundesliga, for the first time in their history, in only his second full season. More success followed at Borussia Dortmund, whom he led to a rare Bundesliga title in 2010/11 (for good measure he also added the DFB-Pokal Cup), then to a Champions League final the following year.
When in 2015 Liverpool decided to part company with manager Brendan Rodgers, Klopp was the man the club’s owners selected to replace him. It wasn’t just about character and record, they used statistical modelling to assess the person most likely to improve the club. They could not have got it more right.
His first season was not a resounding success in the league, but he did guide the club to two finals – the League Cup and the Europa League – although both were lost. There was even more progress in seasons two and three, with consecutive fourth positions in the Premier League and a superb run to the Champions League final (sadly also lost). The big breakthrough came in 2018/19, Klopp’s fourth season. He added arguably the critical piece in the team jigsaw with the acquisition of Virgil Van Dijk, and his team strode to a runners-up spot in the Premier League that in any other season in history would have made them champions. Oh, and they captured a stunning sixth Champions League title as well.
Could Klopp and his team go one better in 2019/20. You bet they could! The team’s performance during the season almost defies description. They simply could not stop winning. There were convincing wins, narrow wins, wins from behind, last minute wins, the odd lucky win, but above all, wins! After 27 games, the record was 26 won, one drawn, NONE lost. It was the best start and middle to any season anywhere ever. The run came to an end with a shock 3-0 defeat at Vicarage Road at the end of February, but the title was almost won by then. Even the biggest interruption of them all, a three-and-a-half month break for COVID, was not enough to throw Liverpool off-track. They finished the season with a stunning tally of 99 points, and a margin of 18 points between them and second-placed Manchester City.
Liverpool had reassumed their place at the top of the tree after a gap of exactly 30 years. Klopp had earnt himself a place among the club’s greatest managers – Shankly, Paisley and Dalglish. For man fans of younger vintage he may even surpass them.
1. The miracle of Istanbul – Champions League Final, May 2005
In May 2005 Liverpool achieved perhaps the most remarkable feat in their storied football history. With a team that was a long way from being amongst their best, after a season of general mediocrity and underachievement, they won the biggest title available to them, the Champions League. And they did so in a manner that will never be forgotten by anybody lucky enough to have witnessed it.
Liverpool were somewhat fortunate to be in the Champions League at all. They had gained England’s fourth and final place despite finishing a distant 30 points behind champions Arsenal, so had to qualify to reach the group stage. They managed this with a narrow aggregate win (2-1) against Grazer AK of Switzerland, then needed an 86th minute goal (scored by Gerrard of course) in their last group game, against Olympiacos, to squeak through their group. A more convincing win against Bayer Leverkusen took them into the quarter final against Juventus, the first time the two clubs had met since Heysel twenty years previously. Liverpool prevailed 2-1 at home, despite coming under considerable pressure, then drew 0-0 away to go through to the semis. Although the attack was not exactly firing, the defence, built upon Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher, was beginning to look rock solid.
The semi-final saw Liverpool come up against big-spending domestic rivals Chelsea. Chelsea had already clinched the Premier League title and had three wins against Liverpool to their name, but they were unable to score at Stamford Bridge. In the return at Anfield, a questionable goal from Luis Garcia was enough to see Liverpool through to an unlikely final.
The final brought together two of the most successful teams in European competition. Four-times winners Liverpool against six-times champions Milan. Aside from a scare in their semi-final against PSV, Milan had looked impregnable in the competition. Strong in all departments they were clear favourites to win the final. They were even clearer favourites after an utterly dominant first half performance. It took less than a minute for them to get off the mark, captain Paolo Maldini sweeping in a rare goal (for him) from a cross. They nearly added a second through Hernan Crespo then a goal from Andrei Shevchenko was ruled out for a narrow offside. Their dominance paid off, though, with two goals from Uruguayan Crespo, the second an exquisite flick over Jerzy Dudek. Three-nil at half time and, to be honest, Liverpool were lucky to have nil.
Manager Rafa Benitez knew things had to change if his team were to have any chance so he switched formation for the second half and brought on Didi Hamann to add some ballast to a midfield that had been badly overrun in the first. There were chances at both ends, but the first goal of the half came Liverpool’s way in the 54th minute. A cross from John Arne Riise on the left was met by who else but Steven Gerrard, and his superbly placed header found the corner of the net. Two minutes later and Vladimir Smicer made enough space on the edge of the box to get a shot off. Milan keeper Dida should have done better, but failed to stop it, and suddenly it was 2-3. Liverpool were right back in it, and with the fans acting as a twelfth man they kept coming forward. On 60 minutes, Jamie Carragher, looking uncannily like he was Alan Hansen, made a penetrating run through the Milan midfield and found Baros on the edge of the box. A smart backheel from the Czech fell straight into the path of a charging Gerrard who was brought down by Gattuso for a penalty. Xabi Alonso’s first effort was saved, but he scored on the follow up. Unbelievably, in the space of eight minutes Liverpool had come back from a seemingly insurmountable three-goal deficit.
There was plenty more drama in normal time, with Shevchenko being denied great opportunities twice, first by Traore then by Carragher, but Liverpool held fast as the game finished 3-3. The Reds were equally dogged in extra time, none more so than keeper Dudek who made an incredible double save from Shevchenko with only three minutes remaining. There may never have been a better save made in such an important match.
So, it came to penalties. With Dudek channeling his inner Bruce Grobbelaar, both of Milan’s first two, from Serginho and Pirlo, were missed. Meanwhile, Hamann and Cisse both converted coolly for Liverpool. Riise then missed to introduce some peril, but when Andrei Shevchenko stepped up for his penalty and Milan’s fifth he knew he had to score for his team to stay in it. His shot was weak and directed straight at Dudek who saved easily. Liverpool were the 2005 Champions League winners.
There have been better Liverpool teams and better performances than this, but there has never been a better night than this.
Liverpool is a football club that has had more success than any other in English football. It’s also a club that has had more than its fair share of tragedy and sorrow. 2025 was a microcosm of that unique mix of triumph and disaster … Premier League winners but also suffering a terrible atrocity at the club’s celebrations and the tragic death of Diogo Jota. One thing that stands out through all of this is how resilient the club and its supporters are. Hopefully you’ll see this as you read the blog.
15. The white suits – FA Cup Final 1996
As you get older, you have an increasing tendency to think that everything was better in your day. Whilst much of the footballing past was definitively not better – think muddy pitches, dangerous tackling, single camera TV coverage, Scottish goalkeepers – one thing that definitively was is FA Cup final day. The full day event featured the ‘Road to Wembley’, It’s a Knockout, visits to the team hotel and even supporter Question of Sport. A particular highlight was the pre-match walkabout by the two teams. Players would stroll around the pitch, attempting to look as casual as possible, while sporting outfits specially commissioned for the big day.
The outfits would typically be pretty unremarkable, suits in dark blue or grey, sponsored by Hugo Boss if the team was in the upper reaches of the top division, or supplied by Burtons if they were of more modest status. In 1996, though, Liverpool went out on a limb and created the biggest stir in Cup Final history with their pre-match garb.
All the players had been individually fitted for their suits, and would have been excited to know that they would be dressed in Armani. What they did not know, however, was that the suits would be cream coloured and accessorised with a red and white striped tie and blue buttonhole. As they took to the pitch, the reaction from almost everyone, including their opponents Man United, dressed in sober black suits, was one of shock and ridicule. If you’re going to wear a suit like that, you had better be bloody good. Sadly, Liverpool on the day were not, going down to an Eric Cantona goal in a dreary 1-0 defeat.
Winning manager, Alex Ferguson, never one to mince his words, summed it up thus “Arrogance or overconfidence. I think it was absolutely ridiculous … that did’na represent Liverpool”. In the event, the suits were a lot more memorable than the match, but really not in a good way.
Over almost half a century, Roy Hodgson has managed 22 different clubs in eight different countries. Whilst not boasting a lot of silverware he has won league titles in Sweden and Denmark and taken two club sides to European finals. He was also, most notably, manager of his national side, England, albeit without any great success.
Whilst he may be remembered at some of his clubs with some affection, it’s fair to say that most Liverpool fans regard his short spell at the club as little short of disastrous. He arrived at the club in July 2010 following a stint at Fulham that had just seen him voted 2010 LMA Manager of the Year. Hodgson had led his team to a wholly unexpected Europa League final (which they lost to Atletico Madrid) and to a safe position in the Premier League.
Despite this, he was not greeted at Liverpool with any great enthusiasm by the fans. His lack of big club experience was cited by many, and it was widely known that he had edged out all-time great Kenny Dalglish, who had put himself forward after Rafa Benitez had been sacked. Hodgson made little effort to endear himself to the fans, and his rather downbeat persona just did not fit with what most supporters wanted.
Hodgson, a diffident and stubborn man, doubtless felt that he did not have to justify or prove himself to the fans. This might have been an acceptable strategy had his team produced on the pitch. But they didn’t. In the league, a record of W1-D3-L4 in the first eight games (including defeats to United, Everton and, worst of all, Blackpool) saw Liverpool drop to 19th in the table. Things did pick up a little, but by the end of the calendar year they sat in a miserable 12th position. They had also suffered the humiliation of being knocked out of the League Cup by League Two strugglers Northampton Town. Hodgson’s description of the Cobblers as ‘formidable’ opposition is seen as almost more embarrassing than the performance itself.
It was all too much for the club, now under new owner, John W Henry, and on 8th January they announced that Hodgson was leaving ‘by mutual consent’. The very next day his (now ex-)team were knocked out of the FA Cup by Man United. Hodgson had lasted just over five months and alienated most of the fans. The relief at his departure was palpable.
13. The reality check – Liverpool 2-5 Real Madrid, 21 Feb 2023
In 2022 Liverpool had, by any reasonable standards, an incredible season. For most of the season they were in the running to complete a rare domestic treble. Although denied in the league (by a single solitary point) they did carry off both the FA Cup and the League Cup. They also came extremely close in the Champions League, losing to Real Madrid in a final where they were arguably the better team and had the better of the chances.
The management and team would have hoped to build on all of this in 2022/23, perhaps going one better in the Premier League and/or the Champions League. They were to be disappointed. Their challenge for the league faltered from the start, two draws and a defeat in the first three games leaving them with only two points. A record 9-0 destruction of Bournemouth might have signalled the start of something big, but after 12 games, Liverpool had already lost four games – twice as many as in the whole of the previous season. The FA Cup and League Cup were to be no better, with fourth round defeats in both.
All of this left the most difficult one of the lot, the Champions League, as their only realistic chance of silverware. The already tough task was made harder when they finished second in their group to Napoli – on head-to-head goal difference. This meant they would face a group winner in the round of 16, and the team that was pulled out of the hat was Real Madrid. Liverpool, though, had come close in 2022, and would play the first leg at Anfield in front of the Kop and 60,000 home fans. A solid win would put the pressure on Real at the Bernabeu.
Liverpool certainly set off as though they meant it. Only four minutes had elapsed before Darwin Nunez ran onto a pass from Salah and scored with a flick of genius. Ten more minutes and Salah himself capitalised on a terrible error by Courtois to double the lead. A stunner from Vinicius Jr got Real back into the game, but Liverpool should have restored their two-goal advantage in a goalmouth scramble. They didn’t and bitterly regretted it when Alisson made an error as bad as that of Courtois, gifting a second goal to Vinicius Jr. Still, it was all square at half time and all to play for.
Sadly, the second half belonged to Real. First, Militao was allowed to run in unhindered and bullet a header past Alisson. Then a shot from Benzema was deflected horribly off Gomez to beat the keeper. And finally, a breakaway was finished smartly by Benzema. 2-0 had become 2-5 and Liverpool were effectively out of the tournament.
While Real were eventually beaten in the semi-final, Liverpool will have taken no comfort from this. Real’s victors were Liverpool’s main domestic rivals, Man City, who even more annoyingly went on to win the trophy.
Five other demoralising results in Europe:
Ajax 5-1 Liverpool, European Cup 1966 – inspired by 19-year-old Johan Cruyff, Ajax had the game won by half time at 4-0 up
Napoli 4-1 Liverpool, Champions League Group Stage Sept 2022 – the defeat that meant Liverpool finished below Napoli in the group and ended up facing Real in the knock-out phase
Barcelona 3-0 Liverpool, Champions League Semi-Final 1st leg 2019 – they thought it was all over, but (gloriously) it wasn’t. 4-0 in the return sent Liverpool through to the final!
Liverpool 0-3 Real Madrid, Champions League Group Stage Oct 2014 – a gulf in class although it was two poor results vs Basel (a draw and a defeat) that saw them fail to qualify from the group
Nottingham Forest 2-0 Liverpool, European Cup, Sept 1978 – the defending champions exited in the first round to their English rivals. At least Forest had the decency to go on and win the cup
12. The signing of Andy Carroll – deadline day 2011
The departure of Fernando Torres to Chelsea in January 2011 dealt a big blow to Liverpool. The Spaniard had been a prolific scorer for the Reds since his arrival from Atletico Madrid, but his head had been turned by a huge offer from Chelsea that promised to make him the most expensive transfer ever in English football.
As deadline day approached, with the departure of Torres looking more and more certain, Liverpool cast around to find a striker who might fill the gap. They alighted on a rather unexpected candidate, 22-year-old Andy Carroll of Newcastle United. Carroll was big, physically strong and very good in the air. He had made a big contribution to Newcastle’s promotion from the Championship (17 goals in 39 appearances), then a good start to their Premier League campaign with 11 goals in 19 games, but he was no goal machine. And, while he did look a decent prospect, he played in a very different way to the skilful, speedy Torres.
Accompanying the questions around his footballing abilities, there were also doubts as to whether he was the right sort of character for Liverpool. His ‘charge sheet’ was not insignificant – fights in nightclubs, breaking curfew with England U19s, a reported altercation with a teammate that led to a broken jaw and charges (later dropped due to lack of evidence) of assaulting an ex-girlfriend.
Carroll certainly had ability and value, but he was worth nowhere near the staggering amount of money that Liverpool paid for him, £35m, the most ever paid at that time for a British player. Predictably, he failed to live up to his fee. He arrived at the club carrying an injury – for a big, strong bloke he seemed pretty fragile throughout his career – and played in only seven league games before the season ended, scoring in only one of them. He appeared more regularly in 2011/12, his first full season, but struggled for goals. Four in 35 matches was a very thin return for England’s most expensive player. By the start of the next season Liverpool had effectively given up on him, loaning him to West Ham who eventually bought him for around £15m. He did manage to play in the Premier League for almost another decade, but was never a prolific scorer or match winner.
Whilst Carroll’s spell at Liverpool was short on highlights, there was at least one that is fondly remembered by fans. The 2013 FA Cup semi-final saw Liverpool come face-to-face with Everton. With the match heading for a replay, Carroll glanced in a late header to take his team to Wembley. Teammate Jamie Carragher said the goal was “worth £35m in itself”. Probably not, but at least Carroll had something positive for the memory box.
Six other signings that failed to spark:
Mario Balotelli – a massive punt by Brendan Rodgers that did not work out – four goals in 28 matches
El Hadji Diouf – a striker who made himself unpopular due not only to a lack of goals but also because of his attitude and behaviour
Naby Keita – a £59m signing, the Guinea international never quite hit his straps and was often out injured
Christian Benteke – a prolific scorer at Villa, the £32.5m signing just did not fit in with Klopp’s style of play and was sold after only one season
Lazar Markovic – hailed as one of Europe’s brightest young stars, the £20m Serbian spent most of his five years at the club out on loan
Torben Piechnik – a cruel wag once quoted “like the chocolate bar of the same name, Piechnik looked and played like shit”. Only 17 games for the Dane at the club.
11. The giants killed – Worcester City 2-1 Liverpool, January 1959
In 1959 Liverpool were not exactly giants, but they were riding high in the Second Division and looked a decent bet for promotion back to the top league. When they were drawn to play part-timers Worcester City of the Southern League in the third round of the FA Cup they would have expected a relatively routine victory and passage to the fourth round. They were to be mistaken.
The game was due to be played on Saturday 10th January, but the freezing cold conditions meant the pitch was unplayable so the game was postponed to the Thursday. Conditions did not improve much in the intervening days, but with the game generating huge local and media interest, a decision was taken to play. The pitch had been coated with sand and salt and there was barely a blade of grass on it, but it was playable, and in truth it probably didn’t make much difference to the result.
The idea that a shock may be on was given sustenance when, with only 10 minutes on the clock, City scored. A back pass from Liverpool’s Molyneux went astray and 18-year-old City winger Tommy Skuse nipped in to put the ball in the net. The rest of the half went scoreless so the part-timers, eight of whom had gone to work earlier in the same day, went into the break one goal up.
Liverpool could not break through in the second half, and with nine minutes remaining their task became harder. Reds’ defender Dick White tried to cut out a cross, but succeeded only in comically lobbing the ball over his own keeper. Although Liverpool converted a penalty soon after, they were unable to find a second so the final whistle blew with City 2-1 winners. The record crowd of 15,000 were understandably delirious, and pretty well every one of them invaded the pitch to celebrate their win.
Liverpool manager, Phil Taylor, survived the humiliation and Liverpool’s failed attempt to finish in the promotion places, but it was not long into the following season that the club parted company with him. His replacement, a certain Bill Shankly. Perhaps Worcester City on a dismal, freezing cold evening in January had actually been the start of something great.
Five other Cup shockers:
Oldham 3-2 Liverpool, FA Cup 3rd Round 2013 – third tier Oldham prevailed against a Liverpool side including Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling and Gerrard
Liverpool 1-2 Barnsley, FA Cup 5th Round 2008 – emergency loanee Luke Steele made several great saves to keep Barnsley in it, before Brian Howard hit a dramatic injury-time winner
Liverpool 2-2 Northampton (2-4 on pens, Carling Cup 3rd round 2010 – this came after Roy Hodgson had laughingly described the League Two side as ‘formidable’
Plymouth 1-0 Liverpool, FA Cup 4th Round 2025 – any thoughts of a double were extinguished with this defeat to the Championship’s bottom side
Peterborough 1-0 Liverpool, League Cup 4th Round 1991 – lower league journeyman Garry Kimble capitalised on a 19th minute mistake from Grobbelaar and third division Posh held on to beat Graeme Souness’s side
10. The bite – Luis Suarez, Liverpool 2-2 Chelsea, April 2013
Liverpool have had some great strikers in the 21st century, but Uruguayan Luis Suarez can lay a decent claim to be the best of the lot. In his three and half seasons at the club he scored at a rate of one goal every 1.6 games, before going on to repeat the act over six seasons with Barcelona then helping Atletico Madrid to the La Liga title.
Suarez’s goals (82 in 133 matches), however, came with a condition. Accept the goals, accept the man. Suarez the footballer was a genius, Suarez the man was a one-man controversy machine. His chargesheet up to 2013 was extensive.
2003 – Aged 16, headbutted a referee after being shown a red card
2007 – Sent off on debut for his country after a second yellow card for dissent
2010 – Deliberate handball in the World Cup quarter final vs Ghana (This did end up saving his country from defeat)
2010 – Playing for Ajax, bit PSV’s Otman Bakkal on the shoulder – seven-match suspension
2011 – Accused of racially abusing Patrice Evra of Man United – eight-match suspension
2012 – Made obscene gesture to Fulham fans – one-match ban
2013 – Admitted to diving against Stoke City in 2012 match
In April 2013 he hit the headlines again, after the two-all draw with Chelsea. The talk could have been about Suarez’s dramatic equaliser in the 97th minute, but instead it was all about another biting incident, this time on Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic. The bite had gone unpunished during the game, but replays showed clearly that it had taken place. It’s perhaps one of the vagaries of football that biting and spitting are considered much less acceptable than, say, tackles intended to injure or even punches or elbows to the face, but unacceptable they are. The typical ban for violent conduct is three matches, but such was the outcry over this incident (there was even a comment condemning Suarez from Prime Minister, David Cameron) that the FA decided to ban the Uruguayan for ten games.
Suarez was a little bit penitent but nowhere near as much as the authorities and the public demanded. In his 2014 book, Crossing The Line: My Story Suarez did not dispute the crime but certainly queried the punishment. “I had questioned the double standards and how the fact that no one actually gets hurt is never taken into consideration. The damage to the player is incomparable with that suffered by a horrendous challenge” and “I know biting appals a lot of people, but it’s relatively harmless. Or at least it was in the incidents I was involved in.”
In the heat of the battle, Suarez clearly struggled to control his demons. He was caught biting again at the 2014 World Cup, on Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini, and this time was banned from all football-related activities for four months. And there would be more controversies, even as recently as 2025 playing in the MLS Leagues Cup. But he remained a prolific scorer and fan favourite. No-one could ever doubt his will to win, even if did occasionally ‘cross the line’.
9. The not-so-fond farewell – Stoke 6-1 Liverpool, 24 May 2015
The 2014/15 season will not linger long in the memories of many Liverpool fans. Losing in the semi-finals of both domestic cups, being unceremoniously dumped out of the group stage of the Champions League before losing at the first hurdle in the consolation Europa League, and finishing only sixth in the Premier League, it was a massive comedown after the promise of the previous year. It was the beginning of the end for manager Brendan Rodgers (he would be sacked early the following season) but it was the end of the end for club legend, Steven Gerrard.
34-year-old Gerrard, after 504 league games and over 700 games in total and with almost 200 goals to his name, had announced his retirement in January. If he had hoped for a triumphant finale with his home town team he was to be sadly let down. After a decent run around the turn of the year, things went south after a March defeat at home to Man United. Including this game, the team earned a measly eight points in their final nine matches. The penultimate game – a 1-3 defeat at home to mid-table Crystal Palace – looked about as bad as it could get. It wasn’t.
On 24th May Liverpool travelled to Stoke, like Palace safe in mid-table. Liverpool fielded pretty much a full-strength side missing only Raheem Sterling, dropped to the bench after turning down a new contract. The side were clearly not up for it. After 22 minutes Stoke’s Mame Biram Diouf netted after Mignolet spilled a straightforward shot from Charlie Adam into his path. Four minutes later and Diouf added a second that Mignolet might have done better with. Another four minutes and a woeful defensive header from Emre Can gifted a goal to Jonathan Walters. Then another defensive slip, this time from Lucas, gave ex-Liverpool player Charlie Adam a chance to fire in from the edge of the box. The coup de gras was delivered on the stroke of half-time when Stephen Nzonzi scored with a superb shot from outside the area. 5-0 and still 45 minutes to play.
The second half did at least see a goal for Gerrard, warmly received by both sets of fans. But there was still time for another from the home side, another former Liverpool player, substitute Peter Crouch heading in unchallenged from a Diouf cross. Gerrard’s final game was the first time in 52 years that Liverpool had let in six in the league, an utter embarrassment.
Five other dismal league defeats:
Coventry 5-1 Liverpool, Dec 1992 – The Sky Blues hadn’t won for 11 games when they surprised everyone by battering Liverpool. Mick Quinn scored two against the team he supported.
Villa 7-2 Liverpool, Oct 2020 – Villa had narrowly escaped relegation and Liverpool were reigning champions. This thumping, including a hat-trick from Ollie Watkins, was, oddly enough, Liverpool’s only defeat before the new year.
Liverpool 1-2 Blackpool, Oct 2010 – Roy Hodgson’s dismal spell in charge of the club was epitomised by this defeat at home to promoted Blackpool. Future signing Charlie Adam scored for the Seasiders,
Liverpool 0-6 Sunderland, April 1930 – still the record home defeat and Sunderland weren’t even that good.
Liverpool 0-3 Nottingham Forest, Nov 2025 – still early but Liverpool’s title defence already looks doomed. Murillo, Savona and Gibbs-White all capitalised on a shaky Liverpool defence.
8. The cynical Spaniard – Sergio Ramos, Champions League Final, 26 May 2018
Sergio Ramos is one of the most decorated footballers of all time. In over 180 appearances for Spain, a record for his country, he won the World Cup and two European Championships. In nearly 700 appearances for his club Real Madrid, he won four Champions League titles and five league titles amongst countless other trophies. He was selected eleven times for the FIFA FIFPRO World 11, a total surpassed only by Messi and Ronaldo.
There is a significant cloud, however, that hangs over Ramos. The Spaniard’s disciplinary record is atrocious. He has the most red cards (20) in La Liga history and the most yellow (171), and he holds the same ‘distinction’ in the Champions League with 40 yellow and four red (three of which were straight red). Interestingly, although he has the most yellow cards for his country (a surprisingly low 24 in his 180 appearances), he was never sent off for Spain.
It’s this last fact that may tell you something about Ramos. His misdemeanours were more calculating than reckless (although there were many incidents of the latter). He fouled, niggled and intimidated tactically to gain advantage over his opponents or at moments when his team most needed it. One of those moments came in the Champions League Final of 2018.
Liverpool had finished fourth in the Premier League, a distant 25 points behind runaway winners Manchester City. They had, however, unearthed a new star, Mohammed Salah, signed at the beginning of the season from Roma to bring goals to the club. He had done this in spades – a stunning haul of 32 in the Premier League plus a further 11 in Europe. The Egyptian had formed a lethal attacking trio with Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino and it was their goals that had propelled Liverpool to the Champions League final.
Liverpool knew that Real Madrid would be out to muzzle Salah somehow, but they perhaps underestimated how cynical they, and specifically Ramos, would be in doing so. In the 25th minute, with the match tied 0-0 and Liverpool on top, Salah tussled with the Spaniard competing for a ball. Salah reached the ball first, so Ramos did what he does – he took Salah down. The two players’ arms became entwined and as they fell, Ramos kept Salah’s arm trapped beneath his body and twisted the Egyptian into an unnatural position. It bore a startling resemblance to a judo throw and looked highly deliberate. After they hit the deck, it was clear that Salah was in pain, and a couple of minutes later he had to leave the match, the ligaments in his shoulder badly sprained.
The departure of Liverpool’s most potent goal threat changed the course of the match, Real running out 3-1 winners after two goals from substitute Gareth Bale. Would it have been different with Salah still on the pitch? Ramos ensured that we will never know. His underhand (or should we say, underarm) tactics had once again been effective.
7. The slip – Steven Gerrard, Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea, April 2014
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, there is no debate as to who was the best team in English football. In a twenty-year period starting in 71/72 Liverpool won 11 titles, were runners-up seven times and had only one season out of the top 3, in 1980/81 when they made up for it by winning the European Cup. The Premier League era, however, was to prove significantly less fruitful. After the two decades of supremacy came more than twenty years of ‘not quite good enough’. Although they never ended lower than eighth, their best was two runners-up finishes (in 2001/2 and 2008/9) so there were no titles. In 2013/14 the barren run looked set to come to an end.
Manager Brendan Rodgers had built a well-balanced team, but the real strength was in the forward line. Uruguayan Luis Suarez was in his third season, and despite causing enough controversy for a whole team, was scoring goals for fun. Alongside him, Daniel Sturridge, was enjoying a career purple patch, and there were more goals coming from midfield from Steven Gerrard and a young Raheem Sterling. With three games left in the season, Liverpool looked set not only to break the Premier League goal-scoring record (they would in fact break the old record but so would Man City with one goal more) but, more importantly, they were odds on to win the title. Unbeaten since the new year and on an 11-game winning streak, they held a five-point advantage over second-placed Chelsea and were six points in front of City.
The game that would surely seal the deal came on 27th April when Chelsea visited Anfield. Liverpool dominated possession in the first half, but opposition manager Jose Mourinho had set his team up to defend doggedly and repel all invaders. As the break loomed the game was deadlocked at 0-0. Then disaster struck. A harmless ball was played across along the halfway line by Mamadou Sakho to Steven Gerrard. Gerrard inexplicably failed to control the ball and saw Demba Ba of Chelsea sprint to collect it. To compound the error Gerrard then slipped and saw Ba sprint away unchallenged towards the Liverpool box. As Gerrard chased back fruitlessly, Ba showed admirable coolness to slip the ball past keeper Simone Mignolet into the unguarded net. 1-0 against the run of play and at that crucial moment just before half time.
Try as they might, in the second half Liverpool just could not break through the Chelsea defensive wall, and the coup de gras was applied when William scored a second in added time. The title was now outside of Liverpool’s control, and Man City took full advantage, putting together a run of five consecutive victories to pip them to the trophy.
Gerrard, one of the club’s all-time greats, would be denied the title that he so richly deserved. In his autobiography he expressed how much it meant to him. “I felt numb, like I had lost someone in my family. It was as if my whole quarter of a century at this football club poured out of me. I did not even try to stem the silent tears as the events of the afternoon played over and over again in my head.”
6. A final ruined – Champions League Final, 28 May 2022
With the biggest sporting event of them all, the Olympics, a mere two years away, one would have thought that Paris would have pulled out all the stops for the 2022 Champions League Final at the Stade de France. It was a great opportunity for the French authorities to show how they could get things right at a major sports occasion. Sadly, they didn’t and for many the much-awaited event was little short of a disaster.
The day had started well with tens of thousands of Liverpool supporters gathered together in a fan zone in the south-west of Paris. The atmosphere was reported to be “top class” before fans made their way to the Stade de France. They had been advised to get there early, so most set off several hours before the kick-off time of 9pm. Things started to go wrong when one of the train lines serving the station was cancelled, meaning most Liverpool fans arrived at a single checkpoint. Thousands were crammed into narrow underpasses, and with movement almost impossible many started to fear not only missing the game, but also far worse, such as being crushed. Police blockages made the situation worse with some fans being searched multiple times while others proceeded without having their tickets checked. Progress was incredibly slow and at one point pepper spray was fired into the crush. All the while, groups of local youths were causing trouble, trying to snatch fans’ bags, pick-pocketing and starting fights with some of those on the periphery.
There was more chaos when fans eventually reached the stadium’s entrance gates. Some were manhandled through the turnstiles without their tickets being scanned, others tried to hurdle the gates, at one point the entrances were closed altogether. Even though kick-off was delayed (twice) eventually starting over half an hour late, there were still thousands of Liverpool fans outside when the game kicked-off. Some gave up completely, disgusted with the way they were being treated by French police. And the mayhem was not yet over. When the match ended and the exit gates were opened, local youths rushed the gates, and tear gas was fired into the crowd.
All in all, it was a shambles, disappointing for most, frightening for many and even more costly for others – there were dozens of arrests and hundreds of injuries.
At first, in a disturbing echo of Hillsborough, the French police and authorities blamed the Liverpool fans. It did not take long, though, for the spotlight to be turned back onto them. A UEFA-commissioned review stated that UEFA themselves bore the “primary responsibility” for chaotic security failures at the final that put the lives of fans at risk. The police and stadium authorities were also held culpable. The report stated that “It is remarkable that no-one lost their life” in a near “mass fatality catastrophe”.
It is almost an afterthought to note that the final was lost 1-0. Liverpool were the better side and attacked relentlessly, but were unable to break through. It says a lot that the UEFA Man of the Match was Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who made nine saves compared to none by Alisson. Unfortunately, the only shot Real got on target (compared to nine from Liverpool) went in the goal. Insult had truly been added to injury.
5. The last minute agony – Liverpool 0-2 Arsenal, 26 May 1989
The 1988/9 football season for Liverpool will forever be associated with the catastrophe of Hillsborough. The real life tragedy makes talk of football ‘tragedy’ seem trivial, but Liverpool did suffer one of the most extraordinary and heartbreaking finales to any season ever.
The venue was Anfield, the occasion the final game of the season at home to Arsenal. It had been an incredibly hard-fought campaign, but Liverpool were clear favourites going into the match. Three points ahead of Arsenal and with superior goal difference, they needed only not to lose by more than one goal to capture the title.
Both sides were pretty much at full strength and the start was notable principally for Arsenal’s new formation, 5-4-1 which gave full-backs Dixon and Winterburn a little more licence to push forward and stifle Liverpool’s passing game. The visitors though made little progress in the Liverpool half and created few clear-cut chances. 0-0 at half time definitely favoured the home side.
Alarm bells, though, may have started to ring, when eight minutes into the second half, Arsenal scored. Centre forward Alan Smith rose nicely to glance in a header from a Winterburn free-kick. One more goal for Arsenal would do it, so they made a couple of substitutions and switched formation to 4-4-2 for more threat. There were good chances at either end, but as full-time approached the title still remained in Liverpool’s hands. The 90 minute mark came and went and the game entered injury time.
In the second minute Arsenal launched their final attack. John Barnes lost the ball to Kevin Richardson in the Arsenal box. He passed to keeper John Lukic who picked it up and bowled it out to Lee Dixon on the right. His long speculative ball downfield was met by Alan Smith who flicked it on to midfielder Michael Thomas making a direct run through the centre. Thomas got a little lucky, the ball rebounding from Steve Nicol and leaving him a clear run on goal. Time seemed to stop still as Thomas strode forward. Just as it looked as though he would be robbed by Nicol or Houghton, he prodded the ball past the advancing Bruce Grobbelaar and into the net. There was enough time for Liverpool to kick off and attempt an attack, but it was to no avail. Arsenal had denied Liverpool not only the title but also the double with almost the last kick of the season.
4. The death of Diogo – July 2025
They say that nice guys never win. Diogo Jota was evidence that they could. The Portuguese forward had helped take his first English club, Wolves, to the Championship title in 2017/18 before becoming an integral part of Liverpool’s Premier League winning season of 2024/25. He had FA Cup and EFL Cup winner’s medals plus two Nations League trophies from his nearly 50 appearances for his country. By all accounts he was a humble, hard-working, generous, family man– a nice guy. He was also, of course, a very good footballer.
Tragically, just after midnight on Thursday 3rd July 2025, he was killed in a car crash. His car, a Lamborghini, left the road after a tyre blew out while he was overtaking another car on the A-52 in Spain, then caught fire after crashing. Jota was killed alongside his younger brother, Andre, also a professional footballer.
The accident was especially poignant as Jota had married his long-term partner, Rute Cardoso, only 11 days previously. The two had been together since they were teenage sweethearts, and had three young children together. The photos of the wedding show a young family full of happiness and love. Agonisingly, it was Rute who had to identify the bodies of her husband and brother-in-law as police were unable to do so after the car fire.
The accident was also doubly tragic as Jota would not have been making the journey by car had he not recently had lung surgery. Specialists had advised him not to fly while he was in recovery, so he had to make his way back to England by ferry. He was driving to Santander for the crossing when his car left the road.
Jota clearly left a positive impression on all those he played with and for. The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) communicated this beautifully in their statement after the death. “THE FPF and all of Portuguese football are completely devastated. Much more than an amazing player, Diogo Jota was an extraordinary person, respected by all team-mates and opponents, someone with an infectious joy and a reference in the community itself.”
As a mark of respect, Liverpool immediately retired Jota’s number 20 shirt, and declared that he would be ‘Forever our number 20’. It was the first time in the club’s history they had done so, a fitting tribute to both the player and the man.
Monday 26th of May 2025 was a day that should have been a huge celebration for the red half of Liverpool. Crowds lined the streets to celebrate Liverpool’s Premier League victory, enjoying the company of fellow fans as the open-top bus carrying players, staff and trophy passed amongst them. Some estimates put the number present at a million. Sadly, for many, jubilation was replaced by fear, confusion and trauma due to the actions of a deranged former Royal Marine.
The man (it would dignify him by mentioning him by name) drove his car repeatedly into the crowds of people massed on Water Street. In his madness he created utter terror and destruction. More than 130 people were injured, with their ages ranging from six months to 78. Many were treated on site, but at least 50 had to be taken to hospital. Some of those hurt had to be removed from beneath the vehicle. Others had been thrown many feet into the air when the car collided with them. One can only imagine how terrifying it must have been to be caught up in the horror. Many have been left with life-changing injuries or with long-lasting psychological damage.
It’s not clear what drove the man, a father of three, to do what he did, but the city and its people showed their best side in the aftermath of the atrocity. Many opened their homes offering food and shelter to those who were stranded. Others shared their hotel rooms or handed out their own money. Many drove unselfishly into the city to offer lifts to those who could not get home.
There were statements of solidarity from King Charles, the Prime Minister and many, many more. All praised the community spirit of Liverpudlians. Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch (perhaps surprisingly) put it well, “Those who target joyful celebrations and our happiest moments, who care not for the welfare of little children are beneath contempt. A stark contrast to the people of Liverpool who responded with extraordinary compassion, offering lifts, shelter, food, and more. Liverpool stood firm, displaying kindness and decency in the face of horror.”
2. Heysel – 29 May 1985
The European Cup final of 1985 brought together the two best teams in Europe at the time, defending champions Liverpool and the Cup Winners’ Cup champions, Juventus. The final should have been a joyous festival of football. Instead, it became an occasion of death and destruction.
The final was played at the Belgium’s national stadium, the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. The venue was an awful choice. The 55-year-old stadium was in a poor state of repair with inadequate entrances and exits, and some parts of the building literally crumbling. The outer wall, for example, was made of cinder block and there were reports of Liverpool fans without tickets kicking holes in the wall to get in.
The stadium was also not well set up for crowd control. The organisers had designated one end of the stadium for Liverpool fans and the other for Juventus fans, but they made what proved to be a fatal error. The end housing the Liverpool supporters also contained a block for ‘neutrals’, i.e. those who had bought their tickets in Brussels. In the event, almost all of these were Juventus fans, so there was a big group of Italians adjacent to the Liverpool fans, with only a narrow, inadequately policed ‘no man’s land’ to separate them. It was in this area that the trouble broke out.
It began with chanting but escalated quickly into an exchange of flying objects – bottles, stones and rocks picked up from the terraces, the occasional flare. Things became more and more heated, with groups of angry fans repeatedly charging the barriers separating the two areas, before the boundary was breached by a large number of Liverpool fans. Most of the Juventus fans tried to flee, but were unable to escape onto the pitch or leave by the exit gates which remained locked. As they crowded into a smaller and smaller area, a large concrete wall they were pressing against collapsed under the pressure, burying a large number of fans underneath it. While some clambered to safety or were pulled out by others, many died or were badly injured.
When the grim final reckoning had been made, 39 people had died – 32 Italians, four Belgians, two French and one from Northern Ireland. Unbelievably, when some measure of calm had descended on the stadium, the decision was made to play the game. It was thought that it would be more dangerous to abandon it than to allow it to take place. With news of the tragedy filtering through, neither set of players looked especially motivated and the result (a 1-0 victory for Juventus) is something of a forgotten footnote in the story.
The aftermath was significant. English clubs were banned indefinitely from all European competition, a ban that was subsequently commuted to five years, although Liverpool were made to wait a little longer. More serious were the trials for manslaughter that almost 30 Liverpool ‘fans’ faced, with 14 convicted and given six-year prison sentences (three years in practice). Some blame was also laid at the feet of the football authorities and the police, with senior officials also given sentences for dereliction of duty. In an odd twist, Liverpool had to sell Ian Rush to balance the books as club revenue declined. The team he went to… Juventus.
On 15th April 1989 tens of thousands of football fans arrived at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield expecting to enjoy a great day out at the FA Cup semi-final. Tragically, 95 of these would never make it home from the game, two more would eventually die of their injuries, hundreds would be injured and many thousands would be left with indelible emotional scarring. It was the worst disaster in the history of British sport. And, as if this were not enough, the scandalous behaviour of the police and the authorities would prolong the agony for survivors, family and friends for years to come.
In this blog I feel I can add nothing on the tragedy and the subsequent scandal. I have instead chosen simply to reproduce the poem ‘The Justice Bell’ by Dave Kirby, written on the 13th anniversary of the tragedy. The call for justice rings as true today as it did 36 years ago.
A schoolboy holds a leather ball in a photograph on a bedroom wall the bed is made, the curtains drawn as silence greets the break of dawn.
The dusk gives way to morning light revealing shades of red and white which hang from posters locked in time of the Liverpool team of ’89.
Upon a pale white quilted sheet a football kit is folded neat with a yellow scarf, trimmed with red and some football boots beside the bed.
In hope, the room awakes each day to see the boy who used to play but once again it wakes alone for this young boy’s not coming home.
Outside, the springtime fills the air the smell of life is everywhere violas bloom and tulips grow while daffodils dance heel to toe.
These should have been such special times for a boy who’d now be in his prime but spring forever turned to grey in the Yorkshire sun, one April day.
The clock was locked on 3.06 as sun shone down upon the pitch lighting up faces etched in pain as death descended on Leppings Lane.
Between the bars an arm is raised amidst a human tidal wave a young hand yearning to be saved grows weak inside this deathly cage.
A boy not barely in his teens is lost amongst the dying screams a body too frail to fight for breath is drowned below a sea of death
His outstretched arm then disappears to signal thirteen years of tears as 96 souls of those who fell await the toll of the justice bell.
Ever since that disastrous day a vision often comes my way I reach and grab his outstretched arm then pull him up away from harm.
We both embrace with tear-filled eyes I then awake to realise it’s the same old dream I have each week as I quietly cry myself to sleep.
On April the 15th every year when all is calm and skies are clear beneath a glowing Yorkshire moon a lone Scot’s piper plays a tune.
The tune rings out the justice cause then blows due west across the moors it passes by the eternal flame then engulfs a young boy’s picture frame.
His room is as it was that day for thirteen years it’s stayed that way untouched and frozen forever in time since that tragic day in ’89.
And as it plays its haunting sound tears are heard from miles around they’re tears from families of those who fell awaiting the toll of the justice bell.
Every club, no matter how successful, has moments in their history that fans remember with disappointment, resignation and, occasionally, utter sadness. Man United is no exception. At one end of the spectrum we have the terrible tragedy of Munich, at the other are cup defeats, poor transfers and the very annoying success of our closest neighbours. See whether you agree with this list of the worst moments in the history of United.
14. The night of the minnow – Grimsby 2-2 United (Grimsby win 12-11 on penalties), Aug 2025
When Harry Maguire headed in an equaliser in the 89th minute, it looked as though United had averted their worst ever defeat in the Carabao Cup. Grimsby Town, a non-league team as recently as 2022, and still only mid-table in Division 2, were the hosts for the second round tie. A second-string United dominated possession but were largely toothless in attack, and mistakes at the back, particularly from hapless keeper, Andre Onana, had allowed Grimsby to take a 2-0 lead at half time.
Changes made by Amorim to strengthen his side at half-time had some impact, but it took until the 75th minute for substitute Bryan Mbeumo to halve the deficit. Maguire’s equaliser then took the game to penalties, which surely should favour United’s. It certainly looked like it when Clarke Oduor missed Grimsby’s third attempt, leaving Matheus Cunha, one of United’s more convincing new signings, to clinch it for his team with their fifth. Cunha’s effort, however, was weak and easily saved taking penalties to sudden death.
Grimsby’s players were nerveless and all, including their keeper, converted. United kept pace until Bryan Mbuemo whose penalty struck the underside of the bar and bounced away. Grimsby had won an epic shoot-out 12-11 and United had lost to a team three divisions below them.
Five other dismal Cup defeats:
United 1-2 Norwich, FA Cup 4th round, Feb 1967 – a team featuring Best, Law, Charlton and Stiles fell to Second Division Norwich
United 0-3 York City, League Cup 2nd round first leg, Sept 1995 – a strong United team won the second leg but still went out on aggregate to third tier opposition
United 0-1 Leeds, FA Cup 3rd round, Jan 2010 – a top-class finish by Jermaine Beckford won it for third tier Leeds
MK Dons 4-0 United, League Cup 2nd round, Aug 2014 – a weakened team were humiliated by League One opponents inspired by a young Dele Alli
United 0-1 Southampton, FA Cup final, May 1976 – Second division Southampton had won nothing in their history. Kept in the game by keeper Ian Turner, an 83 min goal from Bobby Stokes clinched it for the Saints
13. The invisible kit – Southampton 3-1 United, April 1996
In April 1996 United were well on their way to a second title in three years, while Southampton were struggling at the other end of the table. The visit to The Dell was expected to be a formality. It was anything but. Southampton went off like a train and utterly dominated the champions-elect. Goals from Ken Monkou, Neil Shipperley and Matt le Tissier (surprisingly his first that season from open play) took the home side into a shock 3-0 lead.
Something had to change, but no-one expected what did change. Alex Ferguson, furious at his team’s abject performance, saw something that others had not. His observation was that the United away strip was not sufficiently visible in the bright sunshine. The predominantly grey shirts meant that his players could not see each other against the crowd. Lee Sharpe recalls it thus: “The manager just stormed in and said ‘Get that kit off, you’re getting changed”.
They appeared, to the bemusement of those watching, for the second half in their second away strip, with blue and white stripes. It didn’t make much difference but United did at least stop the rot and ‘won’ the second half, finishing 1-3 down. United were fined for the change (£10,000) but Ferguson considered it money well spent. It’s unknown what happened to the grey shirts, but suffice to say that United never played in them again.
12. The career-ending tackle – Roy Keane, Alf-Inge Haaland, April 2001
By any measures Roy Keane is one of the greatest United players of all time. The British record transfer (for what now seems a meagre £3.75m) when he joined from Nottingham Forest in 1995, the Irishman established himself as a lynchpin in the side and won 12 major trophies (seven titles, four FA Cups, one Champions League) during his 12 years at the club.
The adjective that perhaps best describes Keane the player is ‘uncompromising’. He had an intense will to win and would do whatever was necessary to beat the opposition. Always aggressive in the tackle, he was not afraid to step over the line from time to time if he judged it necessary (or indeed if he had temporarily lost the plot). His 13 red cards, the equal most in English football, bear witness to this. While United fans may forgive, indeed even value, many of these indiscretions, one that was utterly unacceptable came against Manchester rivals City in April 2001.
The victim was Norwegian journeyman Alf-Inge Haaland. Haaland had come to England in 1993 and played with modest distinction for Forest and Leeds before joining City. He made what proved to be a fatal error in a match for Leeds against United in September 1997. He was tracking Keane as the two chased a ball into the Leeds penalty area. Keane went down in the box and Haaland, feeling that the United man had dived to win a penalty, stood over him angrily calling him a cheat. Keane remained prostrate on the ground while Haaland was shepherded away by his teammates. It turned out that Keane had suffered a bad cruciate ligament injury that would cause him to miss almost a whole season. Keane would not forget or forgive the behaviour of the Norwegian.
They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Come forward almost four years and Haaland, now at City, comes to visit United. The game is of little importance – United already have the title in the bag and City are destined for relegation. But Roy Keane has an agenda. With five minutes to go a loose ball is cleared by Haaland in the City half. Keane, half a second later, follows through on Haaland with studs up connecting just above the Norwegian’s shin. It’s a leg-breaker, a career-ender. It’s not only a red card, in any other sphere it would be a criminal offence.
Incredibly Haaland went on to finish the match, and it was an injury to his other knee, the left, that caused him to retire from the game. Notwithstanding that, the challenge was a sickener, and perhaps the worst aspect about it was Keane’s lack of any contrition. He admitted in his autobiography that he wanted ‘to hurt’ Haaland, and in a later interview he stated “My attitude was, f**k him. What goes around comes around. He got his just rewards. He f***ed me over and my attitude is an eye for an eye.”
Haaland, himself, has had some measure of revenge himself in the performances of his son, Erling. The phenomenal Man City forward has made six appearances against United in the Premier League, scoring eight goals and making three assists. Keane, though, probably could not care less.
11. The signing of Antony – Sept 2022
It seems a little invidious to single out a 22-year-old Brazilian who grew up in poverty and just wants to play football, but Antony symbolises two aspects of a deeper malaise at United in recent years – first, the inability to recruit good players at a sensible cost; second, the inability once we have got them to get the most out of them.
Antony grew up in the favelas of Sao Paulo and was inducted to the Sao Paulo youth academy aged 10. He was no great prodigy but made his first appearance for the senior team aged 18. The day before his 20th birthday he followed the path of many Brazilians over to Europe when he was signed by Ajax of Amsterdam. Here he came under the tutelage of Erik ten Haag and produced two solid seasons in a team that performed strongly at home and in European competition. That was apparently enough for him as, as soon as interest was shown by United, the player effectively downed tools. On 2 September 2022 he signed for United for €95m, the most ever for an Eredivisie player and the third most ever for United (after Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku).
Antony’s career at United was one of almost total frustration. He occasionally looked good with his intricate ball skills and tricks, but he was easily defended against, his ball retention was poor and his output in terms of goals and assists was dismal. The phrase ‘show pony’ might have been invented for him. The United team that he played for was weak, but five goals and three assists in 62 Premier League games was simply not enough. If he did have value, neither ten Haag nor Amorim (who never fancied him) failed to realise it. Then, perhaps most annoyingly for United fans, Antony started to look like a decent player once he’d left the club and gone to Real Betis. He’s almost doubled his United goal tally with nine goals in just 26 matches.
Antony may not be the worst United signing in terms of value for money but he must be close. Some other high ticket players who might challenge:
Jadon Sancho – €85m, 2021 – brilliant with Borussia Dortmund, awful ever since
Rasmus Hojland – €78m, 2023 – still young, and may come good, but what a price
Juan Veron – £28m, 2001 – the most expensive transfer in English football at the time, found the Premier League a little too fast-paced
Gary Birtles – £1.25m, 1980 – centre forward who failed to score in 25 league appearance in his first season
Diego Forlan – £7m, 2002 – another forward who appeared world-class only once he had left United
Morgan Schneiderlin £27m, 2015 – the hard working hub of a Southampton team, looked out of his depth at United. At least they got most of their money back when he went to Everton
Angel Di Maria – €76m, 2014 – one of the greatest Argentine players of all-time, could not settle in Manchester. Went on to win the World Cup!
Donny van de Beek – £35m, 2020 – another failure from Ajax, not trusted enough by several managers to start
10. The chancer? – Michael Knighton, 1989
My recollections of Michael Knighton and his attempt to buy Manchester United were not entirely positive. Here was an unknown property developer who seemed more interested in showing off his football skills than in actually running a club; who talked a really good game without having the wherewithal to back up his claims. He looked like just one in a long list of egotistical football chancers. It turns out I may have been wrong. Knighton may well have been simply ahead of his time, and just the spur that United needed to turn things around in the late 1980s.
Knighton was a schoolmaster turned property developer who appeared to have made a lot of money in the mid-late 1980s. He spotted an opportunity in football at a time when the domestic game was not generating anything like the incomes it does today and when most clubs were unprofitable. He saw particular potential in Manchester United with its history and huge worldwide fan base, and with a Chairman, Martin Edwards, who was taking a lot of flak from fans after years of underachievement and might be looking to cash in his chips.
So, in August 1989 Knighton made an offer, through his investment company MK Trafford Holdings, to buy Edwards’ majority stake (50.06%) in United. Extraordinarily, given the value that United commands today, the offer that Edwards accepted for his half of the club was just £10m. Knighton also committed to spend a further £10m updating Old Trafford. The deal was made public and before the start of the opening game of the 1989/90 season, at home to Arsenal, Knighton appeared on the pitch dressed in United kit doing keepie-uppies and shooting the ball into the net. If he wanted to demonstrate that he was a genuine football man and fan, he achieved this, although some observers were, to say the least, skeptical.
Unfortunately for MK Trafford, Edwards and his advisers cooled on the deal before it was finalised. Questions were asked as to whether Knighton really could get his hands on the money he had promised. Knighton maintains to this day that between himself and a handful of wealthy backers, the money was not a problem, but he eventually offered to abandon his bid in return for a seat on the United board. He sat on the board for a couple of years before leaving to try his hand again, this time with a smaller club, buying out Carlisle United.
Knighton’s vision of a United worth £150m proved to be a massive underestimate. Today the club is the most valuable in Britain and is valued at around £5Bn. Revenues from broadcasting rights, product licensing, partner sponsorships and match days are immense, and to some extent Knighton predicted them all. Had he completed his takeover he might now be one of the wealthiest people in the UK. Or perhaps not. We’ll never know. Knighton himself seems reasonably content – he now does something far removed from football, spending his time painting, sculpting and writing poetry.
The 1995/96 Premier League season saw United face one of the stiffest challenges that they came up against during their title-winning years. Newcastle United, under the ownership of local industrialist Sir John Hall and the inspirational management of Kevin Keegan, led the league all the way to March, at one point having a 12-point advantage over United. A collapse in form from mid February, including a critical win for United at St James’ Park, meant that United overhauled them, although there was still time for Keegan’s immortal “I would love it” speech (which you can enjoy in the link below).
The following season Newcastle were expected to mount an even stronger challenge after Alan Shearer was signed from Blackburn Rovers. Although they got off to a slow start (Shearer’s debut was a 0-4 defeat to United in the Community Shield) a run of six consecutive victories in the Premier League saw them top of the table when United visited them in October. United themselves had got off to a decent start, only fourth in the league, but unbeaten in nine games.
The match showed the Magpies at their absolute best. The first goal was the unremarkable. Defender Darren Peacock nodded a ball past Schmeichel and Dennis Irwin failed to stop it crossing the line. The second was a worldie from David Ginola, a curling right foot shot from outside the box. In the second half Shearer skinned Irwin on the wing and delivered a pinpoint cross for Les Ferdinand to head powerfully in. Then Shearer got himself on the scoresheet, putting in the rebound after a good shot from Beardsley. Finally, Belgian Philippe Albert produced one of the goals of any season, chipping audaciously over Schmeichel from well outside the box. When the final whistle sounded the score read Newcastle 5 United 0.
It was bad day at the office and things got worse with a shocking 6-3 loss at Southampton then a third defeat in a row, to Chelsea. But Ferguson and United were undaunted, and the team embarked on a long unbeaten run that lasted until the start of March. When the season came to an end, United had comfortably retained their title and although Newcastle were second, it was a distant second. Keegan, perhaps shell shocked after his tussles with Ferguson, had gone and Newcastle were never quite the same again.
Five other desperate defeats in the league:
Crystal Palace 4-0 United, May 6 2024 – ten Haag’s makeshift team got beaten up by a side in the bottom half of the table. They did recover though to win the FA Cup final
United 0-5 Liverpool, Oct 24, 2021 – one in a run of results that led to the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Naby Keita, Diogo Jota and a hat-trick for Salah, all in the first 50 minutes
United 1-6 Tottenham, Oct 4, 2020 – a short-lived lead cancelled out by goals from Ndombele, Son (2), Kane (2) and Aurier
Liverpool 7-0 United, Mar 5, 2023 – a massive bringing down to earth one week after winning the Carabao cup. Amazingly, it was still scoreless after 40 minutes
United 1-6 City, Oct 23, 2011 – a doubly dismal result in the year that City dramatically won on the final day. Without this result their goal difference would have been worse than United’s
8. The not-so golden boy – Alex Ferguson / David Beckham, Feb 2003
One of the greatest strengths of Alex Ferguson as a manager was his ability to maintain discipline and control in a dressing room full of some of the biggest egos in the sport. In an era when player power was becoming increasingly prevalent there was never any question as to who was the boss at United, it was Fergie. A tough man in every sense of the word, he could be both physically and verbally intimidating whenever he felt that standards were slipping.
His players were also aware of another important characteristic of the manager, namely that he was utterly unafraid to get rid of them, whoever they were and whatever they had done, if he felt they were no longer on side. Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Paul Ince and Roy Keane were the sort of players who would be untouchable at other clubs … Ferguson engineered the exit of all of them when they let him down. There was one player, though, who some thought might be immune, David Beckham, a protégé of Ferguson who had grown up with the club since he was 16 years old.
Beckham, of course, was not immune. There had been signs that the manager was concerned about Beckham’s huge media profile and interests, but while Beckham the player was delivering on the pitch it was not a problem. As soon as Beckham’s form showed signs of falling off – as it did after injury in 2002 – Ferguson was on his case.
Things came to a head (literally) in February 2003. United were sitting second in the league behind Arsenal when the two teams were drawn against each other in the fifth round of the FA Cup. In front of 67,000 home fans United lost 0-2. Ferguson felt that Beckham had not tracked back hard enough for one of Arsenal’s goals and was giving him the full ‘hairdryer’ treatment in the dressing room. Beckham made the fatal error of answering back. A furious Fergie lashed out and kicked a boot on the floor (one of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s) straight at Beckham. It struck him on the face, giving him a cut just above the eye. Beckham had to be physically restrained from retaliating, but the damage had already been done to the relationship.
United went on to overtake Arsenal and retain the title, with Beckham playing an important role with goals and assists. Nevertheless, Ferguson, once again, was prepared to lose one of his star players, and Beckham was resigned to leaving. By the start of the 20023/04 season United’s galactico was no longer wearing his treasured red shirt, he was instead in the white of Real Madrid.
7. The sending off – Kevin Moran, FA Cup Final 1985
Irishman Kevin Moran was a pretty exceptional sportsman. In his native country he first excelled at Gaelic football, helping his county Dublin win the top trophy in the sport, the All-Ireland Championship in both 1976 and 1977. He then switched to association football where he established himself as one of the best centre backs in the game. He became a fixture at United where he played over 200 games and one of the first names on the team sheet for his national side, the Republic of Ireland.
He is, however, one of those people whose name will be forever associated with a single unfortunate incident. He became in 1985 the first player ever to be sent off in an FA Cup Final. With about 15 minutes left of normal time, Moran upended Everton’s Peter Reid who had seized on a loose United pass and was charging towards the United goal. As the last defender, Moran was sent off for preventing a goal-scoring opportunity, although the challenge itself would have warranted a red card in today’s game.
At the time, Moran felt he had been grossly wronged; “there was no intent on my behalf. Absolutely none. My foot was on the ground, I was going for the ball. I thought I’d got it.” Once the referee had signalled his decision, Moran’s on-field reaction was furious. The Irishman did though later admit “it was only afterwards, looking at it, I said; ‘Oh, that doesn’t look great.”
Despite losing Moran, United went on to win the final, with a superb individual goal in extra time from Norman Whiteside sealing the victory. Moran’s joy had the edge taken off it somewhat when he was told he was not allowed to collect his winner’s medal. He nevertheless went up the Wembley steps but to no avail. When he did eventually get his medal, United thought it would be nice for him to be presented with it on the Old Trafford pitch, but the FA blocked this as well. All this for what was the only sending off in his football career.
6. Grim and grimmer – The entire 2024/25 season
In February 2024 the Glazer family seemed to signal a desire (long-awaited by many fans) to become less involved in the management of United by selling a 27.7% stake to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire British businessman. Ratcliffe’s Ineos had interests across a range of top-class sport and might be able to bring some of their expertise to football. United had shown a glimmer of promise in the previous season by surprising many to win the FA Cup. Could they build on this in 2024/25?
The short answer is no. The season, if not an unmitigated disaster, was disappointing in almost every regard. It began with a loss to their nearest and dearest, City, in the Community Shield, but at least they made it to penalties. The league campaign started falteringly with goals particularly hard to come by from an inexperienced and misfiring attack. A run of five losses in six games in December (the only win was a come-from-behind classic vs City) meant that United ended the year in 14th! The second half of the season was, if anything, even worse (from 1 April to 16 May they won only two points from eight games!) so United finished the season in 15th, their worst league position for over thirty years.
United fared little better in the domestic cup competitions – knocked out in the fifth round of the FA Cup and quarter-final of the EFL Cup – but they did at least enjoy some success in the Europa League. They qualified well from the league phase, then despatched Real Sociedad, Lyon (after a memorable comeback) and Athletic Bilbao to reach the final. Here, though, there was to be more heartache. In the final they faced Spurs, undergoing an even worse domestic season than United (Spurs finished 17th), and the two teams played out possibly the least entertaining, lowest quality European final in history. United fans would have forgiven this had their team come out on top, but the match was to prove the cherry on a very unappetizing cake – United lost 1-0 to end a truly dismal and depressing campaign. There surely cannot be another season as bad as this … can there?
5. The row over the racehorse – Rock of Gibraltar
In 1901 a dog played an important part in the saving of Newton Heath FC and subsequent creation of Manchester United. Around a century later, another animal, a racehorse, played arguably a more significant role in the history of the club. The horse was Rock of Gibraltar, European Horse of the Year in 2002 and the first horse to claim seven consecutive Group 1 wins in the northern hemisphere.
The horse was co-owned by United manager, Alex Ferguson, and Susan Magnier, wife of Irish business magnate, John Magnier, founder of the hugely successful stud farm, Coolmore. Ferguson and Magnier shared the spoils as the horse won over £1m in prize money, but a dispute arose when the horse was retired and put out to stud in 2002. A horse with the quality and record of Rock of Gibraltar would be expected to command huge stud fees, and these could last for much longer than the horse’s relatively brief racing career.
Ferguson believed that he should be entitled to a proportion of the horse’s stud fees, but Magnier and his business partner, J.P.McManus, claimed that the breeding rights belonged entirely to them. So, Ferguson launched legal proceedings against them. This might have been restricted to a private matter, but for the fact that Magnier and McManus were significant shareholders in Ferguson’s employer Manchester United. They responded to Ferguson’s action by submitting a list of 99 financial questions to the club, and even threatened to take legal action themselves. They also built their stake in the club, through their investment vehicle Cubic Expressions, to just under 30%, possibly to put pressure on United to sack the manager. Ferguson, though, refused to back down and the club backed him.
As the bad blood lingered, an American investor, Malcolm Glazer, saw an opportunity. He had started with a small stake in the club (2.9%) but had steadily built this up to around 30%. With the Ferguson-Coolmore case still rumbling on unresolved, he made an offer to Magnier and McManus to buy their shares. Their relationship with Ferguson soured, the pair accepted and, in one move, Glazer and his family had taken control of the club. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has suggested that “if that relationship had remained amicable, then Manchester United might not have been sold”.
United fans have been divided over the impact of the Glazers on the club. To some it’s been a disaster, to the others, a catastrophe. Countless protests have been made, season tickets ripped up, even a wholly new team, United FC, created, but the Glazers retain majority control of Manchester United. It seems a little harsh to blame a racehorse for this, but without Rock of Gibraltar it’s eminently possible that the recent history of the club would have been very different.
4. Everybody was kung-fu fighting – Eric Cantona, Selhurst Park, January 1995
Many United fans, indeed many football fans around the world, might have this incident in their list of best United moments, but I’ve included it in this list because it may have cost United the title that season.
The venue was Selhurst Park for a match against Crystal Palace. United, gunning for a historic third title in a row, sat in second place in the Premier League behind the unexpected leaders, Blackburn Rovers. Palace were one of a number of teams in the league who, secure in the knowledge they could not beat United by skill, attempted to rough-house their way to a result. The first half saw a string of heavy, poor tackles, particularly on Eric Cantona, that went unpunished, and led to Alex Ferguson angrily berating referee Alan Wilkie at half time with “Why don’t you do you f***ing job!”.
Wilkie did produce a card early in the second half, but it was for Cantona, finally cracking and kicking out at Palace defender Richard Shaw. It was red and as both sides crowded the referee, Clive Tyldesley on TV commented “Temperatures rising and there’s the red card. That’s the morning headline. Eric Cantona.” Little did he realise that the red card would be but a footnote in the next morning’s headlines.
As the Frenchman left the pitch, he was confronted from the front of the stands by Palace ‘fan’ Matthew Simmons. At his subsequent trial, Simmons claimed, not at all convincingly, that he had shouted “Off! Off! It’s an early bath for you, Mr Cantona” but no-one believed him, least of all the magistrate. His offensive abuse caused Cantona to completely lose his cool and launch a kung-fu kick at Simmons over the advertising hoardings. Not entirely satisfied this had had the desired effect he followed it up with a very tasty right hook.
Cantona was suspended for the rest of the season and also given a two-week prison sentence, later converted into community service. Hios absence from the United side may have cost them the title so he probably regretted the consequences of his action. One suspects, he never regretted the action itself.
3. The return of the King – United 0-1 City, April 1974
The 1970s was not a golden age for United. Expected to kick on after the European Cup triumph of 1968, the club instead started to go backwards. Several of the key squad members were aging and, after a quarter of a century at the helm, the great Matt Busby retired. The team almost got themselves relegated in 1972/73, and the following season looked as though it could be even worse.
After winning two of their first three games, they went on a dismal run which included only three wins in the next 26 games! Although the defence was reasonably solid, they simply could not score – Alex Stepney was joint leading scorer at Christmas with two penalties – and they entered the final run-in entrenched in the relegation zone. A run of 10 points in six games (there were two points for a win in 73/74) in April gave them some hope, but they still needed wins in their last two games to have the best chance of survival. The first of these saw them pitted against their closest rivals, City, at Old Trafford.
The game was no classic and, although there were chances at both ends, the game entered its final 10 minutes scoreless. United badly needed a goal, but an attack down the left was stopped and the ball moved to City’s Colin Bell. He strode upfield then found Francis Lee on the edge of the box. Lee jagged right then threaded a ball back across the United six-yard box. By a cruel twist of fate, the City forward that it found was Denis Law, all-time United legend, but now playing for the sky blues. Law was unable to stop himself instinctively back-heeling the ball past United keeper Stepney to open the scoring.
Law’s celebration was muted to say the least. He understood the significance of the goal for United. The reaction of the United fans was less muted and they mounted a pitch invasion, perhaps trying to get the match abandoned. After repeated incursions, they succeeded, with the referee taking the players off the pitch and stopping the match, but it was to no avail. The result stood and United had been relegated. They would play in the second tier for the first time since before the war. It was a black day for United and perhaps an even blacker day for ‘The King’, Denis Law, whose goal had condemned his former team to their fate.
2. The worst result imaginable – Man City 3-2 QPR, May 2012
For over three decades from the late 1970s there really was only one team in Manchester. Over a 33-season spell, United finished ahead of their city rivals in all but one of them (1990/91 when City finished fifth to United’s sixth). For some of those seasons, City competed a full division below United and for one memorable season they toiled in the third tier. While United were dominating English football, City were at best slightly better than mediocre.
The turning point came on September 1st 2008 when the Abu Dhabi United Group bought a controlling stake in City. A club that was close to bankrupt under the highly dubious ownership of Thaksin Shinawatra (and that had lost their final league game of the 2007/08 season 8-1 to Middlesbrough) was suddenly the richest club in world football. The essence of their strategy quickly became clear … spend, spend, spend. Robinho, Gareth Barry and Bacary Sagna were amongst the marquee signings in year one; Emmanuel Adebayor, Joleon Lescott and, most egregiously, Carlos Tevez from United, in year two; David Silva, Yaya Toure and the hilarious Mario Balotelli in year three. Some worked and many failed, but they struck gold in 2011/12 with the signing of Argentinian Sergio Aguero.
City’s performances improved year on year. 10th in 08/09, then 5th then 3rd. Still behind United (champions, runners-up then champions) but getting closer. The 2011/12 season saw them close in further still. An incredible start to the season – 12 wins, including a 6-1 thrashing of United at Old Trafford, and two draws saw City top the league at Christmas. But United went on a tear after the new year with 34 points out of a possible 36 to regain their rightful place at the summit. A surprise defeat, though, at Wigan and draw at Everton, meant that the April derby assumed massive importance. City won 1-0, deservedly to be fair, and all of a sudden the title was in their control.
In the event, it all came down to the final day. United had perhaps the easier match of the two, away at Sunderland who were already safe from relegation. City were at home against QPR who needed to win to make sure of staying up. Almost all United fans, even those at Sunderland, were glued to the City game. It was a real roller-coaster.
City went 1-0 up through Zabaleta, but conceded a surprise equaliser from Djibril Cisse just after half-time. City were gifted a one-man advantage when ex-player (and all-round nutcase) Joey Barton got himself sent off for violent conduct, but somehow conceded again, to Jamie Mackie in the 66th minute. City attacked and attacked but could not break through. As normal time ended, they still trailed and United looked set for the title. But City had not given it up. In the second minute of added time, they equalised when Edin Dzeko powered in a header from their 18th corner in the match. Then two minutes later a desperate City mounted a final attack. Aguero passed to Balotelli in the box who, although on the floor, managed to return the ball to his teammate. The Argentinian sidestepped an attempted tackle before firing in a near post shot past QPR keeper Paddy Kenny.
The City of Manchester Stadium understandably went wild. The red side of Manchester went deathly quiet. City had captured the title with almost the last kick of the last match.
United still had it in them to capture another title – a parting gift for Alex Ferguson in the following season – but thereafter City would go on to create the sort of records that had previously belonged to United. With their vast wealth, City would no doubt have risen to the top at some point, but it would still have been so much better had Aguero’s shot gone the other side of the post.
1. Munich
The 6th February 1958 marks the darkest day in the history of Manchester United, and arguably of the whole of English football. The lives of 23 people – including eight members of the amazing ‘Busby Babes’ – were lost from injuries suffered in the Munich Air Disaster. It would be tragic in any circumstances, but even more so because the accident could so easily have been avoided.
United had risen, under the leadership of Matt Busby, to be the best team in England. Busby, ably supported by chief scout Joe Armstrong and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy, had built the side very much from the bottom up. The trio identified, recruited and developed young players, then trusted them to perform in the first team. They were rewarded with the First Division title in 1955/56, a title that they retained in 1956/57. The average age of the team was just 22.
United became the first English team to compete in the European Cup. At their first attempt, they made it through to the semis before losing to eventual champions Real Madrid. At their second, in 1957/58 they reached the quarters where they were drawn against Red Star Belgrade, then of Yugoslavia. After beating their opponents 2-1 at home they travelled to Belgrade for the away leg. Three early goals for United were answered by Red Star in the second half but a 3-all draw was enough to see United through to the semis.
After an overnight stay in Belgrade the team set off for home. The club had chartered an Airspeed Ambassador to carry the team, support staff and journalists home, and this aircraft required a mid-journey refuelling stop at Munich. The weather in Munich was particularly poor, with snow falling in sub-zero temperatures, but the pilot and co-pilot felt confident they could continue the flight. At around 2pm they attempted to take off, but encountered a problem (boost surging) that caused them to abort. They tried a second time, but encountered the same issue, so aborted take-off a second time. All passengers disembarked and made their way to the airport terminal, with most expecting the flight to be cancelled until the next day.
A decision, however, was taken by the pilots to make a third attempt. It proved to be a massive and fatal error of judgement. With all the passengers back on board, the plane accelerated along the runway. It never made it off the ground, careering off the runway and smashing at high speed into a nearby house. The wing and part of the tail were torn off, while the fuselage smashed into a fuel-loaded truck that exploded.
Several of the passengers died instantly, others died later from their wounds. Agonisingly, the great Duncan Edwards after a 15-day fight for his life died after his kidneys failed. Matt Busby’s life was also in the balance (he was twice read the last rites while in hospital) but he recovered after over two months in hospital.
Some injured players recovered well enough to resume their careers; others, such as Jackie Blanchflower and Johnny Perry, survived the crash but never played again; miraculously, some, notably Bill Foulkes and Harry Gregg, got out of the plane almost unscathed, physically at least, and both acted heroically trying to rescue colleagues from the wreckage. Many of the survivors carried psychological scars throughout their lives.
Perhaps the most incredible survivor of the crash was Manchester United itself. Somehow the club managed to rebuild itself from the depths of sadness and despair. With Busby back at the helm, the side was reconstructed, and within a year they were competitive again. Within a decade they had risen to become the best team in England, twice winning the Division One title and, most poignantly, capturing the European Cup. Munich was an appalling tragedy for all involved and their families, but it may have made Manchester United stronger in the long run.
Below is a roll-call of the 23 people who lost their lives as a result of the crash:
Players:
Geoffrey Bent, 25, a reserve player who need not have made the trip
Roger Byrne, 28, club captain and England international
Eddie Colman, 21
Duncan Edwards, 21
Mark Jones, 24
David Pegg, 22
Tommy Taylor, 26
Liam Whelan, 22, another reserve
United staff:
Walter Crickmer, club secretary and former manager
Tom Curry, trainer
Bert Whalley, coach and former United player
Journalists:
Alf Clarke, Manchester Evening Chronicle
Don Davies, Manchester Guardian
George Follows, Daily Herald
Tom Jackson, Manchester Evening News
Archie Ledbrooke, Daily Mirror
Henry Rose, Daily Express
Frank Swift, News of the World & former City goalkeeper and England captain