Iconic pieces of commentary

Whether you’re watching on TV or listening on the radio, commentators form an integral part of the football experience if you can’t be in the ground itself.

Far more than simply telling us what’s going on, the best of them evoke every emotion of the beautiful game in expert oratory.

Including famous lines delivered in English, Spanish and more, here’s our pick of iconic pieces of commentary from throughout history.

We’re used to commentators getting excited, but there’s something extra special about their voices breaking in sheer disbelief at what they’ve just witnessed – it underscores that they are, ultimately, football fans just like us.

Darren Fletcher’s astonishment was palpable as Luca Moura completed a hat-trick deep into stoppage time to send Tottenham through to the 2019 Champions League final, their very first, at the expense of Ajax – who had been 3-0 up on aggregate barely 40 minutes earlier.

Sometimes, the person next to the commentator on the gantry – the co-commentator – goes and steals the limelight.

Gary Neville did exactly that as Fernando Torres sent Chelsea to the 2012 Champions League final with a 91st-minute goal against Barcelona, uttering a noise that really only the audio can do proper justice.

Just 20 seconds passed between Anthony Knockaert’s missed penalty for Leicester and Troy Deeney’s decisive goal for Watford in the second leg of the 2012/13 Championship play-off semi-final.

As Vicarage Road reverberated in celebration, it was a miracle that Rob Hawthorne remained composed enough to aptly describe the sheer madness unfolding.

Peter Drury has made a living out of epic commentary lines, and we’re selecting this as the most iconic of the bunch.

In 2010, the World Cup came to Africa for the first time, and hosts South Africa sent their vociferous, vuvuzela-blowing supporters wild with the opening goal of the tournament – lashed home by Siphiwe Tshabalala.

There were only seconds remaining when Clive Tyldesley said this after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s dramatic winner in the 1999 Champions League final, but he still took a risk.

“If Bayern had equalised then won, there’d have been an effigy of me hanging [in Manchester],” the revered mic-holding maestro joked to FourFourTwo in 2024.

You don’t need to speak Spanish to understand Andres Cantor’s reaction to his native Argentina winning the 2022 World Cup; the emotion in his voice says it all.

As Gonzalo Montiel dispatched the decisive penalty in the shootout against France in the final, Cantor appeared to be on the verge of tears of joy – and who could blame him?!

In another notable example of the co-commentator taking centre stage, Andy Gray made clear his appreciation of Steven Gerrard’s qualification-clinching screamer for Liverpool against Olympiacos in the 2004/05 Champions League group stage.

Had the Reds not gone on to win the competition that season, Gray’s line surely wouldn’t have remained quite so famous – but they did, and it’s stood the test of time.

Dennis Bergkamp booked the Netherlands’ place in the 1998 World Cup semi-finals with one of the finest goals in the history of the tournament.

And Dutch commentator Jack van Gelder responded with some of the simplest yet most memorable commentary in the history of the tournament. It’s fair to say no one was in any doubt as to who had got the goal.

This unforgettable line from the inimitable Brian Moore built up to one of the most incredible finales to an English top-flight campaign.

In the final game of the season at Anfield, Liverpool were moments away from retaining the First Division title – but Michael Thomas had other ideas, sealing the 2-0 win Arsenal needed to be crowned champions for the first time since 1971.

Gordon Banks’ seemingly impossible save from Pele during the 1970 World Cup group stage is widely regarded as the best of all time.

Somehow, in reacting to that moment of brilliance in Guadalajara, Mexico, legendary BBC broadcaster David Coleman managed to strike the perfect balance between disbelief and matter-of-fact description.

Probably Paul Gascoigne’s finest club goal was his piledriver of a free-kick for Tottenham in the 1990/91 FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, a North London derby against Arsenal.

It can be hard to do such magic justice, but Barry Davies more than managed it with his most famous bit of commentary.

As Sky Sports’ main Premier League commentator for more than three decades, Martin Tyler got to call some pretty special moments.

But the most special was undoubtedly this: Sergio Aguero’s last-gasp match-winning, title-clinching goal for Manchester City on the final day of the 2011/12 season. You could have forgiven him for descending into pure gibberish, such were the unprecedented levels of drama.

Diego Maradona scored two famous goals against England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, the second being arguably the greatest goal of all time.

El Pibe de Oro’s jaw-dropping solo at the iconic Azteca in Mexico City was certainly accompanied by some truly great commentary from Uruguay’s Victor Hugo Morales – who called the Argentina captain exactly what he was: a genius.

In perhaps the biggest upset in FA Cup final history, Wimbledon beat hot favourites Liverpool to lift the trophy for the first time.

The Dons came out on top in a real clash of footballing styles at Wembley, which the much-missed John Motson summed up with his most indelible one-liner.

Margaret Thatcher never seemed to care much for football, so she probably wasn’t overly bothered by England’s 2-1 1982 World Cup qualifying defeat to Norway in Oslo.

Nonetheless, Norwegian commentator Bjorge Lillelien’s taunting of the then UK prime minister (in addition to Lord Nelson and heavyweight boxer Henry Cooper, among others) is the stuff of legend.

Geoff Hurst’s second goal in the 1966 World Cup final might be the most famous (did it cross the line or didn’t it?), but his third – to complete a hat-trick and make absolutely sure of England’s greatest triumph – is equally, if not more, memorable.

That’s because of the accompanying commentary by Kenneth Wolstenholme, containing five words which become a staple of British popular culture: “They think it’s all over!”