Iconic late winning goals

Nothing in football compares to the coinciding ecstasy and (if you're on the receiving end) agony of a last-minute winner.

Whatever the occasion, such goals mean so much, and the ones we’ve picked out here were more significant – more unbelievably dramatic – than most. Every one of these (all scored in the 90th minute or later in regulation time, or the 120th minute or later in extra time) is a real ‘I was there’ moment for those blessed enough to witness them or, indeed, actually be involved.

So, without further ado, let’s start the countdown!

Wayne Rooney had made his Everton debut two months previously – and already scored his first goals in a League Cup win over Wrexham – but this was the moment that he truly arrived.

In the final minute of the Blues’ October 2002 Premier League clash with reigning champions Arsenal at Goodison Park, 16-year-old Wazza bent one past David Seaman from 25 yards to notch his first of 208 Prem goals and clinch three points for his boyhood club.

With club captain Bryan Robson injured for most of the 1992/93 season, Steve Bruce wore the armband as Manchester United were crowned the inaugural Premier League champions and won their first top-flight title in 26 years.

The defender was known for his goal threat from set-pieces, and he popped up with two crucial ones during the run-in, equalising with a header on 86 minutes – then winning the game with another deep into stoppage (aka Fergie) time.

Coming from behind to win a cup final can be thrilling enough as it is, but Hibernian lifted the 2015/16 Scottish Cup in outrageously dramatic fashion.

The game looked to be heading for extra time after Anthony Stokes’ 80th-minute leveller – but there was to be no need: in the second minute of injury time, David Gray headed in the decisive goal from a corner, sparking pandemonium among Hibs fans and clinching the Edinburgh club’s first Scottish Cup for 114 years.

Wigan were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2012/13 season, but that campaign was also the most successful in the Lancashire club’s history.

The Latics defied the odds to get their hands on the FA Cup for the very first time, defeating hot favourites Manchester City 1-0 in the final at Wembley thanks to Ben Watson’s 91st-minute glancing header from a Shaun Maloney corner.

Chelsea and Barcelona’s 2008/09 Champions League semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge gained infamy for a series of seemingly stonewall penalty shouts for the hosts waved away by referee Tom Henning Ovrebo.

But the tie was ultimately decided by Andres Iniesta, whose 93rd-minute peach from the edge of the box cancelled out Michael Essien’s early opener and sent Pep Guardiola’s Barca through to the final on away goals.

If Tottenham were going to reach the Champions League final for the first time in their history, they were going to have to do it the hard way.

Spurs left it late away to Ajax in the second leg of their semi-final, but they completed a miraculous comeback thanks to Lucas Moura – who completed a second-half hat-trick by stroking home from just inside the box in the sixth minute of added time, sending Mauricio Pochettino’s side through on away goals after they had trailed 3-0 on aggregate.

Troy Deeney’s 97th-minute clincher for Watford against Leicester in the 2012/13 Championship play-off semi-finals perfectly encapsulated just how rapidly your fortunes can change in this game

With mere moments remaining in the second leg at Vicarage Road, Anthony Knockaert won a contentious penalty for Leicester; all he had to do was scored and the Foxes would be Wembley-bound.

What happened instead was one of the most dramatic 20-second periods in football history: Manuel Almunia saved Knockaert’s spot-kick and rebound; Watford counter-attacked; and Deeney smashed in Jonathan Hogg's knockdown to score the goal that sent the Hornets to Wembley instead.

Cue a shirtless Deeney jumping into the stands and a spontaneous pitch invasion featuring flares and all.

Barcelona went into the second leg of their 2016/17 Champions League last 16 encounter with PSG 4-0 down on aggregate – but a remarkable turnaround looked on when they pulled the score back to 4-3 early in the second half at the Camp Nou.

But when Edinson Cavani pulled one back, Barca were heading out on away goals; they needed to score three more in the remaining 28 minutes plus stoppage time – too tall an order, surely?

Nope! Neymar bagged a brace, before Sergi Roberto completed La Remontada in the fifth additional minute.

As they chased Champions League qualification late in the 2020/21 season, time was running out for Liverpool to notch a vital winner against West Brom.

Jurgen Klopp’s Reds triumphed at the Hawthorns thanks to the most unlikely of heroes: Alisson, whose 95th-minute header – one that any striker would have been proud of – secured a 2-1 comeback victory for the visitors and made him the sixth goalkeeper to score a Premier League goal.

It’s just a shame that, with England still in Covid’s grip, no fans were there to see it.

Aged 33, Toby Alderweireld joined hometown club Royal Antwerp – having never previously played for a side in his native Belgium.

And the former Tottenham defender capped his debut campaign in quite remarkable fashion: four minutes into stoppage time at the end of the final game of the season away to Genk, he thumped a 20-yard effort into the top corner to salvage a 2-2- draw which clinched Antwerp’s first top-flight title in 66 years – denying their opponents glory in the process.

There have been few more spectacular final-winning goals than Nayim’s outrageous lob over a scrambling David Seaman in 1995.

Spotting the Arsenal goalkeeper off his line in the last minute of extra time, the midfielder had a go from more than 40 yards out – and succeeded, securing Cup Winners’ Cup success for Real Zaragoza in extraordinary fashion.

Jimmy Glass’ winner 10 seconds from time against Plymouth on the final day of the 1998/99 season kept Carlisle in the Football League.

The most amazing part: he was a goalkeeper – so it’s no surprise that his crucial connection with a loose ball from a corner sparked one heck of a pitch invasion at Brunton Park.

Glass’ goal secured Carlisle’s survival at the expense of Scarborough – whose fans were already celebrating on the pitch, thinking their team were safe. Awkward…

You need only hear Dutch commentator Jack van Gelder’s hysterical commentary (“DENNIS BERGKAMP! DENNIS BERGKAMP! DENNIS BERGKAMP!”) to realise what a special goal this was.

The Netherlands 1998 World Cup quarter-final against Argentina was heading for extra time – but Bergkamp had other ideas, producing a trademark moment of jaw-dropping skill to send his country through to semis, bringing down Frank de Boer’s long ball with the deftest of touches; turning Roberto Ayala inside out; then finishing with the outside of his foot past a helpless Carlos Roa in goal.

All Liverpool needed to do to seal the 1988/89 First Division title was avoid losing to Arsenal by more than one goal in the final match of the season. They couldn’t quite manage that.

In a fixture delayed by more than a month due to the Hillsborough tragedy, the Reds trailed 1-0 to Alan Smith’s goal as the contest at Anfield entered stoppage time; the championship was theirs as it stood. Then came one of the most dramatic moments in English top-flight history.

With just second remaining, Gunners midfielder Michael Thomas latched onto Smith’s flick-on, evaded the challenge of Steve Nicol and slotted the ball past Bruce Grobbelaar and into the net – securing the North Londoners’ first title for 18 years.

“I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again,” exclaimed commentator Martin Tyler, as astonished as the rest of us as to what we’d just witnessed.

Two minutes into stoppage time on the final day of the 2011/12 Premier League season, Manchester City trailed 2-1 at home to QPR; as it stood, the title belonged to their arch-rivals, Manchester United. Then, Edin Dzeko headed in an equaliser; they couldn’t, could they…?

As you know by now, they could, thanks to Sergio “AGUEROOOOOOOOOO” (Tyler again), who received the ball from Mario Balotelli, shimmied around Anton Ferdinand and fizzed a shot past Paddy Kenny at the near post – sending the Etihad Stadium into unadulterated raptures and confirming City as champions of England for the first time since 1968.

Manchester United and Bayern Munich faced off in the 1998/99 Champions League final knowing that one of them would end the campaign as treble winners – and as the clock ticked past 90 at the Camp Nou, it looked like that would be Bayern Munich, ahead since Mario Basler’s sixth-minute free-kick.

Teddy Sheringham’s 91st-minute equaliser from a David Beckham corner would have dramatic enough on its own – but it didn’t send the game to extra time; there was no need.

Within 30 seconds of the restart, United won another corner; Beckham sent the ball in once more; Sheringham got involved again, nodding it down; and then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – who had forced the set-piece – poked the ball into the roof of the Bayern net on the volley. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side has sealed the treble with just about their last kick of the season.