List of sporting comebacks

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This is a list of notable sporting contests where the eventual winner has come from seeming inevitable defeat against all the odds. It is ordered by sport.

Contents

[edit] Athletics (track and field)

[edit] Olympic 10,000m Final

The heats of this event marked Finnish policeman Virén's Olympic debut, and when he fell over around the halfway mark it seemed his chance was lost. However, he calmly got back to his feet and eventually overtook the long time leader David Bedford to not only win the gold but also set a new world record.

[edit] American Football

[edit] Wild card game

Main article: The Comeback (American football)
35-3 down in the third quarter, Buffalo, through backup quarterback Frank Reich, managed to drag the game back to level and force overtime, with Steve Christie scoring a 32 yard field goal to secure victory.

[edit] College football

Main article: Michigan State vs. Northwestern, 2006
In a game with eerie similarities to the 1993 wild card game, Northwestern also had a 35-3 lead in the third quarter, only to see Michigan State storm back and win by the same score as in the Bills-Oilers game. The main difference between the two games is that Michigan State won in regulation. This broke the previous record comeback for NCAA Division I-A of 31 points, set by two teams. Coincidentally, Frank Reich, the Bills quarterback in the 1993 wild card game, was the quarterback who engineered the first of the previous record comebacks.

[edit] Australian rules football

[edit] Australian Football League

  • Brisbane 14.20 (104) defeated Hawthorn 14.13 (97) after being 45 points down at 3/4 time in round 16 of the 1995 season.
  • Essendon 27.9 (171) defeated The Kangaroos 25.9 (159) after being 69 points down 10 minutes into the second quarter of their game in round 16 of the 2001 season. This is the largest comeback in the history of VFL/AFL.

[edit] Baseball

[edit] 1914 Boston Braves

[edit] 1964 St. Louis Cardinals

[edit] 1979 World Series

[edit] 2004 American League Championship Series

[edit] 2005 Houston Astros

  • The Houston Astros becomes the second team ever to win the National League Pennant after being 15 games under .500 at any point in the season. The Astros made the playoffs with an 89-73 record, finishing one game ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild card race. The Astros went on to defeat the Braves and the Cardinals en route to their first ever World Series.

[edit] Basketball

[edit] National Basketball Association Finals

Main article: 1977 NBA Finals
The 1977 best-of-7 championship series between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Philadelphia 76ers started very badly for Portland, who went down 2-0 to favored Philadelphia, but won the next 4 games to claim their first NBA championship only 7 years after they entered the league. Prior to the championship series, Portland had swept the favored Los Angeles Lakers 4-0 for the conference title.
Main article: 2006 NBA Finals
The 2006 best-of-7 championship series between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks started very badly for Miami, who lost the first two games against Dallas. With six minutes left in Game 3 and Dallas leading by 13 points, Miami rallied back and won the game 98-96. They then win the next 3 games to claim their first NBA championship since they entered the league in 1988.

[edit] First Round

The Detroit Pistons had a 3-1 deficit against the Orlando Magic in the first round of the 2003 NBA Playoffs. They eventually won the series.

[edit] College basketball

With 17 seconds left in regulation, the Tar Heels were down 86-78... in an era without the three-pointer.
First, after a Carolina timeout, Bobby Jones made two free throws. Walter Davis intercepted a pass and fed John Kuester for a basket. Carolina called timeout again. Duke then turned the ball over on the inbounds play. Carolina missed a shot, but Jones put back the rebound, and Carolina called another timeout with 6 seconds left. When Duke inbounded the ball, Carolina fouled Pete Kramer. A normally reliable free throw shooter, he missed the front end of a one-and-one. Carolina got the rebound and called its last timeout. On the final play, Jones was used as a decoy, and Davis banked in a 30-footer at the buzzer to send the game to overtime. Almost forgotten in the aftermath of this comeback was that Duke took a four-point lead in overtime.
With 15:34 left in the game, the Wildcats faced a seemingly impossible task—come back from a 68-37 deficit in one of the toughest arenas in the nation for visiting teams. The Wildcats proceeded to outscore the Tigers 62-27 the rest of the way, fueled by 11 three-pointers, to complete the largest second-half comeback in Division I history.
Down by 19 points at halftime and by as many as 21 in the first half, coach Gary Williams' sixth-seeded Maryland Terrapins squad, still spent after a one-point victory over Wake Forest late the previous evening, used a stingy pressure defense and a career performance from sophomore point guard John Gilchrist (30 points on nearly 85% shooting, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals), to complete the largest comeback in the history of the ACC Tournament.
Duke, having overcome the efforts of a game Maryland squad, saw their chances of clinching a record sixth-consecutive ACC Tournament title end, as the Terrapins erased a 12-point deficit with 4 minutes, 58 seconds left in regulation. The closing seconds of the game proved to be most frenetic, as a Mike Jones three-pointer pulled the Terrapins to within one and a John Gilchrist three-point-play -- which also led to the disqualification of Duke center Shelden Williams -- tied the game. J.J. Redick missed a long three-pointer which would've won the game for the Blue Devils and the game was deadlocked, 77-77, at the end of regulation. Gilchrist, the eventual tournament MVP ended up with 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, while Jamar Smith added 25 points and 12 rebounds as Maryland outscored Duke 18-10 in overtime, winning their first tournament title in 20 years.

[edit] Cricket

[edit] One-day Internationals

  • Australia in South Africa, 5th ODI, 2006 - Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored 434 for 5 off their 50 overs. In reply, South Africa scored 438-9, winning by 1 wicket with one ball to spare. Both innings smashed the previous record of 398-5 by Sri Lanka against Kenya in 1996.

[edit] Test match

England, forced to follow on by Australia, were seven wickets down for 135 runs, needing a further 92 runs to make Australia bat again. Ian Botham's 149 not out and Bob Willis' 8 for 43 saw England win by 18 runs in one of cricket's most famous matches.
Australia, 1-0 up in a 3-Test series, looked on course for a series win after amassing 445 in their first innings and then bowling out the Indians for just 171 and enforcing the follow-on. Steve Waugh came to regret the decision as V. V. S. Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180) batted undefeated for the entire fourth day in a partnership for the fifth wicket that eventually reached 376. India later declared on 657, becoming the first following-on Test side ever to declare its second innings closed. Australia's second-innings 212 (Harbhajan Singh 6 for 73) still left them 171 runs short of India's huge total. India's victory was only the third Test match, and the last to date, to be won by a side following-on.
Having already fallen behind by 161 in the first innings, West Indies were set a stiff target of 308 runs to win the match. They made their second bad start of the match, falling to 105 for 5. Captain Brian Lara battled on, and assisted by Jimmy Adams whose 38 was the second highest score, took the West Indies to within 70 runs of the target. Then Adams fell, and Jacobs and Perry followed quickly. Score: 248 for 8, still 60 adrift, only 2 wickets left. Number 10 batsman Curtly Ambrose gave heroic support to his captain, surviving more than an hour. With victory still 6 runs away, Ambrose fell for 12. Last man Courtney Walsh then survived 14 balls for 0 not out, while Lara picked off the winning runs.
Lara ended with 153 not out, made in the most difficult circumstances, against the finest bowling attack in the world. Only three weeks before, his team had been bowled out for 51 in the first test match, and Lara had been criticized up and down the Caribbean. In a Wisden poll conducted in 2001, his 153* at Bridgetown was voted as the second greatest innings in the history of Test cricket, second only to Don Bradman's 270 against England in 1936-37.

[edit] First-class

After scoring just 15 in their first innings -- the seventh lowest score for a completed first class innings -- in reply to Warwickshire's 223, Hampshire were put back in to bat. They scored a mammoth 521 before dismissing Warwickshire for 158 to win by a comfortable 155 runs. 15 remains the lowest score for a completed innings by a team that went on to win the match.

[edit] Football (soccer)

[edit] FIFA World Cup

North Korea were surprise qualifiers for the quarter-finals having knocked out Italy in the group stage, but against hot favourites (even though first-timers) Portugal they took the lead inside the first minute with a goal from Park Seung-Zin. When Lee Dong-Woon and Yang Seung-Kook scored in the 22nd and 24th minutes respectively, North Korea incredibly led 3-0. Instead of defending their lead, the Koreans kept attacking and Portugal's brilliant star player Eusébio quickly pulled a goal back. Shortly before half-time, Eusébio scored his second from the penalty spot and Portugal were right back in the match. North Korea could not cope with Eusébio and two more goals in quick succession, including another penalty, gave Portugal a 4-3 lead with an hour gone. Eusébio had scored all four Portuguese goals. With just over ten minutes remaining he created a fifth goal for Augusto, and Portugal had come back from a seemingly impossible position to reach their first World Cup semi-final.

[edit] UEFA European Championship

After winning the FIFA World Cup two years before, France passed through both the quarter-finals (Raúl missed a penalty at the last minute) and semi-finals (Zidane scored a golden goal penalty with three minutes left of extra time) with difficulty. France nonetheless entered the final of the 2000 European Football Championship as the favorite. However, Italy opened the score early in the second half (55'). After this goal, Italian players stayed in defense and tried to score on counter-attacks, a well-known Italian tactic during the 1990s. As time was fleeing, France got fewer opportunities to score (the last action was a shot by Thierry Henry at 67') and Italy almost scored a second goal by Alessandro Del Piero. The referee decided to give four minutes of additional time and Italian substitutes began to stand up on the bench. With 45 secounds to play, Fabien Barthez, France's goalkeeper, kicked the ball as far as possible : David Trézéguet made a head pass to Sylvain Wiltord who scored. France finally won it all in extra time when Trézéguet scored a golden goal.

[edit] UEFA Champions League

Main article: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final
Bayern scored from an early free kick by Mario Basler. Despite all efforts, United was unable to equalise, and the European Cup was brought out decorated in Bayern's ribbons. The fourth official signaled 3 minutes of added time. United won a corner, and brought everyone forward for the kick, including keeper Peter Schmeichel. David Beckham delivered the corner; after a failed clearance by Bayern and a mishit by Ryan Giggs, the ball went to Teddy Sheringham for the equaliser. A minute later, United won another corner, with Beckham finding Sheringham, who headed it on to Ole Gunnar Solskjær for a stunning winner. It should be noted that Manchester United have a history of spectacularly snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Such implausible comebacks were a feature of the Treble-winning season of 98/99.
Main article: 2005 UEFA Champions League Final
Before the match was a minute old, Milan's Paolo Maldini scored the fastest-ever goal in a Champions League final. Hernán Crespo added two more goals in the last six minutes of the first half, thrusting Milan to an awesome 3-0 lead. Liverpool looked to be dead and buried; Milan, widely regarded as the best team in Europe, had the underdogs Liverpool in a state of disarray. Some bookmakers were offering 100-1 odds on Liverpool to win at half time (although most bookmakers do not count extra time for betting purposes, therefore they were only obliged to pay out on a 3-3 draw) .
In the 54th minute, Steven Gerrard scored a goal for Liverpool, giving Reds fans hope. Within five minutes, they would complete a shocking comeback with goals from Vladimír Šmicer and Xabi Alonso. The game went on to extra time, with Liverpool keeper Jerzy Dudek making a double save off Andriy Shevchenko in the final minute of extra time to ensure that the game would go to a penalty shootout. Liverpool would go on to win the shootout, with Dudek stopping a Shevchenko penalty to cap off the victory.
Gerrard became the fourth different Liverpool captain to lift the prestigious trophy.

[edit] French First Division

For the third game of the season, Marseille, led by then world-champion Laurent Blanc was hosting Montpellier. By the half-time, Montpellier managed to scored four times and ridiculised Marseille. However, Marseille scored five times and won the game.

[edit] FA Cup

Spurs led 3-0 at half time when Man City had a player sent off leaving them with only 10 men for the second half. They defied all the disadvantages to pull back level before scoring the winner in the final seconds of the match.
After an own goal from Jamie Carragher and a goal from Dean Ashton, West Ham led 2-0. A goal from Djibril Cissé brought Liverpool back into the game before half time. Steven Gerrard scored to level the game just after half time but West Ham regained the lead through Paul Konchesky. Going into injury time Gerrard scored what is widely regarded as the greatest FA Cup goal of all time, volleying in from 30 yards to level the game and force extra time. Extra time finished, still at 3-3 and a penalty shootout followed.

Liverpool won the toss and went first:

Liverpool West Ham
Goal Hamann SCORED 1 Miss Zamora MISSED 0
Miss Hyypiä MISSED 0 Goal Sheringham SCORED 1
Goal Gerrard SCORED 1 Miss Konchesky MISSED 0
Goal Riise SCORED 1 Miss Ferdinand MISSED 0
Total 3 Total 1

Liverpool win 3 - 1 on penalties.

[edit] English Premiership

In a crucial match between two teams struggling at the foot of the table, Leicester surged into a 3-0 half-time lead thanks to two goals from Les Ferdinand and another from Riccardo Scimeca. Two goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half from Colin Cameron, one from the penalty spot, gave Wolves hope of a fightback, and when Alex Rae equalised with 22 minutes left they sensed victory. Four minutes from the end Henri Camara scored his first goal for the club to complete an amazing 4-3 win, just Wolves' second of the season.

• Almost another win from no where this time when Leicester City came back from 2-0 down at half time against Tottenham to lead 3-2 inside 4 minutes of the second half but in the end it ended up 4-4.

[edit] Football League Championship

Three 1st half goal from Marian Pahars and two from Nigel Quashie gave Southampton what should have been an unassailable lead and nothing looked like changing as the match wore on until the 71st minute when Leeds captain Paul Butler nodded in a corner to give Leeds hope. Hope became belief 6 minutes later as Robbie Blake gave Leeds a 2nd goal, and in the 84th minute when David Healy converted a penalty they weren't going to stop there, 4 minutes from time loanee Liam Miller slammed home a loose ball to give Leeds a staggering 4-3 win

[edit] English Third Division

Needing a victory to escape relegation from professional football, Carlisle entered the final seconds drawn 1-1 with Plymouth. Having won a corner, Carlisle pushed everyone forward, including on-loan goalkeeper Jimmy Glass, who scored the winner.

[edit] Ice hockey

[edit] Miracle on Manchester

April 10, 1982. The Los Angeles Kings rally from a 5 to 0 deficit against the mighty Edmonton Oilers to win the game, and later the playoff series.

[edit] 1942 Stanley Cup Finals

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Detroit Red Wings

The Leafs' comeback from a 3-0 series deficit to win the Stanley Cup was the first time such a rally had been achieved in North American professional sports, and has only been equalled twice since, by the New York Islanders in the 1975 NHL quarter-finals and by Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS

[edit] Snooker

[edit] World Championship Final

Main article: 1985 World Snooker Championship final
At one point 8-0 down in the best of 35 final, and at no point in the match ahead, Taylor managed to win the final frame by just four points to win the match.
  • An on form Ronnie O’sullivan lead 4-1 against John Higgins in a battle first to win 10 frames in the Masters 2006, and in the last frame at 9-9 Ronnie lead 60-0 and John potted a red with its last roll to drop and the rest is history as Higgins came back from the dead to snatch a win, at a time in that match John Higgins was priced 33/1 to win in a 2 horse race.

[edit] Masters final

In the best-of-17 frames final (ie first to reach nine), Hendry trailed Hallett 0-7 and 2-8. Hallett missed a pink which would have given him an 8-0 lead and another which would have seen him win 9-2. As Hallett's confidence evaporated, Hendry won each of the remaining frames to seal victory in the decider.

[edit] Tennis

  • During the third round of the 1995 French Open, Czech Republic player Jana Novotna was one point away from advancing to the quarterfinals. But her opponent, American Chanda Rubin would fight against Novotna's 6-7 (8-10) 6-4 5-0 (serving 40-0) lead to win the match 8-6, saving six match points.
  • At 5-4 with the match at 40-30, American Lindsay Davenport served for the championship point against American Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2005. But Williams survived it - and another championship point attempt - to win the match at 4-6, 7-6 (6-4), 9-7, making her the first woman in 70 years to win at the All England Club after facing a championship point, as well as the lowest-ranking women's Wimbledon champion (#14).

[edit] Rugby League

[edit] Super League

Leeds Rhinos 30-20 St Helens - Headingley Stadium, Leeds, 12 September 2003

  • with 58 minutes gone Leeds Rhinos found themselves 0-20 down in front of their own fans but a barmy last 16 minutes saw Leeds run riot, tries from Rob Burrow, Mark Calderwood, Gary Connelly, Richard Mathers and Willie Poching saw a superb turnaround leavign players and fans alike in total shock and delerium
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