As surprise results go, Bournemouth beating Luton Town at home would not usually register, but Andoni Iraola’s side became just the fifth side in Premier League history to come back from being 3-0 down at half-time to win, securing a 4-3 victory.
The match was not broadcast live in the UK, but the result will live long in the memory of those who witnessed it at the Vitality Stadium.
With that in mind, we asked our writers to pick their favourite comebacks they have seen live.
It features EFL play-offs, Champions League and World Cup games and plenty from the Premier League. You can comment below, adding your favourites and debating where Bournemouth’s comeback ranks among the best ever…
Bournemouth 4-3 Luton, Premier League, March 2024
If ever there was a game of two halves, this was it.
After Tahith Chong opened the scoring for Luton in the ninth minute, it was mostly one-way traffic in Luton’s favour. Chiedozie Ogbene added the second and Ross Barkley rounded off the scoring in first-half stoppage time. With Luton 3-0 up, it appeared Rob Edwards’ side were on their way to a crucial three points that would have taken them out of the bottom three.
9′ Cherries 0-1 Luton
31′ Cherries 0-2 Luton
45+1′ Cherries 0-3 Luton
50′ Cherries 1-3 Luton
62′ Cherries 2-3 Luton
64′ Cherries 3-3 Luton
83′ Cherries 4-3 Luton“Yeah they had us the first half, I’m not gonna lie!” 😂 pic.twitter.com/tSoZYP008D
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) March 14, 2024
Whether it was something Iraola said or something Edwards did not say, Bournemouth flew out of the blocks in the second half. Dominic Solanke put them on their way with a deft chip over goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski. Within 15 minutes, Illia Zabarnyi and Antoine Semenyo scored to put Bournemouth on level terms with 25 minutes remaining.
With seven minutes of regular time to go, Semenyo grabbed the winner with a goal similar to Barkley’s. It was the first time in more than 20 years in the Premier League that a team had come back to win after being three goals down at half-time.
Elias Burke
Liverpool 4-3 Borussia Dortmund, Europa League quarter-finals, April 2016
Somewhere near the top of Jurgen Klopp’s achievements at Liverpool is his first six months at the club, when he steered an average team to two cup finals — the Europa League was one of them.
Liverpool would lose to Sevilla in Basel but the circumstances of the victory over his former employers Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals transformed the mood at Anfield. Liverpool’s fanbase had become fatalistic and it had been Klopp’s mission statement to turn doubters into believers.
Dortmund were comfortably progressing to the semis, having led Liverpool 3-1 at Anfield (4-2 on aggregate) with 33 minutes to go. This meant Liverpool needed three goals. Yet, they summoned the spirit to recover.
Dejan Lovren’s towering stoppage-time header in front of the Kop sent Liverpool through. The moment gave Klopp, his players and supporters a reference point. I am not sure whether Liverpool would have overturned a three-goal first-leg deficit against Barcelona in the Champions League three years later without this happening.
Simon Hughes
Tottenham 3-5 Manchester United, Premier League, September 2001
Spurs 3 Manchester United 0… that was the shock half-time score at White Hart Lane. It wasn’t like it is now: four months before this game, United had been crowned Premier League champions, finishing 31 points ahead of 12th-placed Spurs.
United then signed Juan Sebastian Veron and Ruud van Nistelrooy, and it was the former who changed this game.
“I’ve never been involved in anything like it,” Veron told me when I caught up with him years later. “El Mister (Alex Ferguson) was not happy at half-time. He said we had no respect for the people. So we scored five in the second half.”
After a half-time tactical reorganisation and the hairdryer treatment for his team, United were as excellent in the second half as they had been bad in the first. Andrew Cole, Laurent Blanc, Van Nistelrooy, Veron and then-captain David Beckham scored the five. With nine shots on target to Spurs’ three throughout the match, United’s dominance was clear.
Andy Mitten
Belgium 3-2 Japan, World Cup last 16, July 2018
This was the first World Cup when Belgium couldn’t hide behind a ‘dark horses’ tag and had to be just plain horses, so when Takashi Inui put Japan 2-0 up in the second half, the air was completely sucked out of the stadium in Rostov. The collective look on Belgian faces simply said, “Oh s***.”
Jan Vertonghen pulled one back with a deeply unusual goal, a sort of headed lob from the left edge of the penalty area, and then Marouane Fellaini equalised. Then, in the fourth minute of stoppage time came perhaps the most perfect counter-attack: Thibaut Courtois caught a cross and rolled the ball to Kevin De Bruyne and, within four touches, he was deep in the Japanese half.
De Bruyne laid off to Thomas Meunier, he rolled a pass towards Romelu Lukaku who, in one of those moments of freezing-cold clarity that make you realise just how differently elite athletes are wired to the rest of us, dummied the ball allowing Nacer Chadli — of all people! — to ram in the winner. “Oh s***” remained the prevailing sentiment, but for different reasons.
Nick Miller
Newcastle United 4-4 Arsenal, Premier League, February 2011
“I’m going into town tonight for the first time since I’ve been here and I don’t know whether people are going to buy me a drink or throw them at me,” Alan Pardew said once the maelstrom passed. “It’s been a tough week to be a football manager. The toughest I’ve had. At the end of it, I’m elated.”
How do you explain Newcastle United to the blissfully initiated? This bewildering, lunatic game would be a start, the context provided by Andy Carroll’s controversial departure to Liverpool seven days earlier (with no replacement bought), and a trapdoor creaking beneath them.
And then came the blur of Arsenal’s goals, the first scored after 42 seconds, the fourth in the 26th minute. “They were like the Red Arrows,” said Steve Harper, Newcastle’s goalkeeper. By that point, Arsenal fans were singing, “You might as well go home,” and a few did. At half-time, Pardew raged at his players. “The manager was furious, shouting… there were things thrown in there,” said Cheick Tiote.
One punter approached a bookmaker in the stadium and asked, “What will you give me for 4-4?”
“A strait-jacket,” was the reply. The bet remained unplaced.
Newcastle roared back and St James’ Park roared with them, guttural, growling, rousing, deafening. Abou Diaby was dismissed for pushing Joey Barton, Arsenal wilted and the game tilted. Barton scored twice from the penalty spot, sandwiching a goal from Leon Best.
And then, in the 87th minute, the late, beloved Tiote unleashed exquisite pandemonium from long-range, running the length of the pitch in celebration, nothing in his head aside from noise. “My mind went blank,” he said. “It’s the best feeling I have had on the pitch, the greatest moment of my career.”
As players piled on top of him, Harper pulled out the People’s Elbow, a pro-wrestling move, and caught Best on his hamstring. He was substituted. “I don’t understand what happened,” said Wojciech Szczesny, the Arsenal ‘keeper, and he was not alone. Newcastle happened; then, now and forever, it made no sense at all.
George Caulkin
Chelsea 4-1 Napoli, Champions League last 16, March 2012
Few gave Chelsea a chance of overturning Napoli’s 3-1 lead from the first leg.
Chelsea were in turmoil. Andre Villas-Boas had been sacked less than two weeks earlier and his inexperienced assistant — former midfielder Roberto Di Matteo — was promoted to interim head coach.
Napoli had a fine side, including Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik, Gokhan Inler and Ezequiel Lavezzi. But this was Chelsea’s old guard at their best; Didier Drogba, John Terry and Frank Lampard were all on the scoresheet. Their efforts were only enough to take the tie into extra time though because of Inler’s superb strike in the 55th minute.
Sensing nerves in the Chelsea crowd, the club DJ played Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds before extra time got underway and a majestic Branislav Ivanovic shot with his right foot ensured everything did turn out alright for the home side.
It was a key victory to restore belief and two months later, Chelsea lifted the trophy for the first time.
Simon Johnson
Leeds United 4-3 Bournemouth, Premier League, November 2022
My uncle Neil is one of the nicest people I know — he’s the sort of person who’ll drive you to the airport two hours away so you don’t have to pay for a taxi. He was born in Leeds, married my mum’s sister and moved to her country about 3,000km away from Leeds. Neil seldom watches Leeds United, the team he obsesses over, live.
So for his 60th, his family organised a surprise trip: he would visit Leeds, see his family, watch Bob Dylan (his favourite artist) and go to Elland Road for the first time in 20 years.
Anyway, at 3-1 down, courtesy of Dominic Solanke’s flicked goal, it felt a bit like we had ruined Neil’s birthday. After Crysencio Summerville slotted the ball into the net in the 84th minute to make it 4-3, the smile on his face suggested it had been made.
I’ve seen more important comebacks (Leicester a few weeks ago, for example) but this one was the best because a) we looked terrible and it came out of nowhere and b) because of what it meant to Neil.
It’s just a shame this result saved Jesse Marsch’s job, and probably relegated Leeds.
Amitai Winehouse
Sheffield Wednesday 5-1 (5-5 agg; 5-3 win on pens) Peterborough United, League One play-off semi-final, May 2023
There is a reason nobody gave Sheffield Wednesday a chance in the second leg of their League One play-off semi-final last season.
A 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Peterborough United in the first leg of the tie was crushing. No team in play-off history had recovered from that — no team should be able to come back from there. But Darren Moore had no interest in what history said was impossible that night at Hillsborough.
First-half goals from Michael Smith and Lee Gregory gave Wednesday hope before full-backs Reece James and Liam Palmer scored deep into the second half to take it to extra time. Hope turned to a crashing wave of momentum that could not be stopped even when Peterborough scored via a Gregory own goal to go 5-4 up on aggregate.
Callum Paterson’s leveller at 5-5 was a scratch-your-eyes moment before the inevitable: a Wednesday win on penalties. Pure drama.
Nancy Froston
Queens Park Rangers 3-2 Liverpool, Premier League, March 2012
Without a win in their previous six games, the forecast looked bleak for QPR when Liverpool visited west London.
Sebastian Coates spectacularly volleyed Liverpool into the lead, and when Dirk Kuyt added a second 13 minutes from time, an instant QPR return to the Championship seemed a formality.
A Shaun Derry header offered hope before Djibril Cisse looked to have rescued an unlikely late point. In the 91st minute, a header from Luke Young played in Jamie Mackie, who kept his composure and coolly slotted a late winner past Pepe Reina.
Raucous scenes ensued at a packed Loftus Road. A pulsating match under the floodlights in W12, and the start of a run of five back-to-back home wins that ultimately kept QPR in the division with a game, and Sergio Agueroooooo, to spare.
Andrew Pigott
Crystal Palace 3-3 Liverpool, Premier League, May 2014
This was one of the all-time great Selhurst Park games and atmospheres.
Palace had nothing to play for after securing Premier League safety under Tony Pulis, but they still effectively ended any slim hopes Liverpool had of winning the title after coming back from 3-0 down with just 11 minutes to play.
Damien Delaney’s deflected shot clawed one back in the 79th minute, but it was only when Yannick Bolasie raced down the left wing and cut back for Dwight Gayle to score a second that Selhurst truly began to believe.
With the volume cranking up and Liverpool wobbling badly, Gayle ran onto a smart chested pass from Glenn Murray to shoot past Simon Mignolet. Selhurst erupted, while Liverpool’s players and fans looked on in utter disbelief. Luis Suarez even broke down in tears after the final whistle and left the field with his shirt covering his face.
Suarez is comforted by Gerrard (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
The night became known as “Crystanbul” — a send-up of Liverpool’s three-goal comeback against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final in Turkey — and while the consequences for Liverpool were more profound, it also epitomised Palace’s defiance in their first season back in the Premier League.
Matt Woosnam
Everton 3-2 Wimbledon, Premier League, May 1994
There’s a patch of my mate’s garden in Walton that will be forever Goodison. That’s because he, like several other hundreds, swarmed onto the Old Lady’s turf after this ultimate Great Escape and scooped up a handful of turf in a bid to somehow capture the frenetic, terrifying, life-affirming survival act he’d just witnessed.
Everton and relegation fights may seem passe these days, but back in the 1990s, it was all new and, yes, occasionally invigorating.
But at 2-0 down against Wimbledon, things looked grim. Really grim. Even a win against Wimbledon wouldn’t have guaranteed Mike Walker’s team safety, but a defeat was curtains. Goodison Park was a 40,000-strong anxiety pit. Roll on the comeback.
(Clive Brunskill/ALLSPORT via Getty Images)
Graham Stuart converted a penalty, Barry Horne smashed in a wonderful strike, and then Stuart scored one of the most wildly celebrated winners in the club’s modern history.
Sheffield United still had to lose — which they duly did — to keep the Toffees in the top flight. After which, every weary, jubilant observer said the same thing: “Thank God — but please, never again.” Ahem.
Greg O’Keeffe
Reading 5-7 Arsenal, League Cup fourth round, October 2012
Five days before this classic, Arsene Wenger had admitted the League Cup was fifth on Arsenal’s list of priorities, behind the Premier League, the Champions League, the FA Cup and finishing in the top four.
It felt like that message had filtered through to his team’s dressing room when Noel Hunt guided a header in off the foot of the post to put Reading 4-0 up after just 37 minutes.
Defensively, the visitors were in shambles and their goalkeeper — future World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez — looked out of his depth.
But then Theo Walcott happened. Two goals and two assists pulled Arsenal back to level, and the whistle to mark the end of 90 minutes sparked a surreal scene: Marouane Chamakh and Francis Coquelin throwing their shirts to the away supporters thinking they had earned a replay, then having to retrieve them.
Extra time brought more delights: two atypical Chamakh strikes (a long-range shot and a breakaway lob) and a Walcott hat-trick goal after desperate goalline defending, either side of a dramatic Reading equaliser.
At the end, Wenger could only stretch his arms apologetically towards Brian McDermott, Reading’s dejected manager.
Liam Twomey
Leicester City 5-3 Manchester United, Premier League, September 2014
A Robin van Persie header and stunning Angel Di Maria chip had put Manchester United 2-0 up inside 16 minutes against a Leicester side who had returned to the Premier League after a decade, but the King Power Stadium was rocking when Leonardo Ulloa headed one back.
When Ander Herrera flicked a third United goal from close range just before the hour mark, there seemed no way back. Then something extraordinary happened.
Jamie Vardy teased a poor challenge out of Rafael for David Nugent to pull one back from the penalty spot. Esteban Cambiasso then equalised with a great finish before Ritchie De Laet teed up Vardy on a classic counter-attack to put City ahead.
They weren’t finished either as Vardy earned a second penalty, with Tyler Blackett sent off for his challenge. Ulloa fired home his side’s fifth to seal the win.
But this game didn’t inspire Leicester to go on a run: they picked up just two points from their next 13 games. Vardy would also go on a 23-game goalless run — later joking that he had disappeared that season — but he returned just in time to help Leicester survive the drop.
Rob Tanner
Middlesbrough 4-2 (agg 4-3) Steaua Bucharest, UEFA Cup semi-final, April 2006
Middlesbrough are trailing 1-0 from the first leg of their UEFA Cup semi-final against Steaua Bucharest. The Riverside Stadium was sold out for the return — not always the case for this team under Steve McClaren.
The anticipation was audible, but by the 24th minute, Steaua had scored twice. Boro were 3-0 down on aggregate. It looked hopeless.
McClaren took off his captain Gareth Southgate and put on striker Massimo Maccarone, who scored with a sure shot seven minutes later to restore some belief. It began to surge when, 20 minutes into the second half, Mark Viduka added a second. It was 2-3 and the Riverside was rocking.
Chris Riggott then pounced on a goalkeeping spill to make it 3-3. But Middlesbrough were still out on away goals.
They attacked relentlessly and as the 90th minute approached, Stewart Downing delivered yet another cross. Maccarone leapt to power in a header that sealed an incredible comeback, a place in the UEFA Cup final and in Boro folklore.
“Everybody round my house for a parmo!” declared local radio presenter Ali Brownlee, words today written on a wall at the Riverside.
Michael Walker
(Top photos: Ben Radford/Allsport; Graham Stuart/AFP; Adrian Dennis/AFP; all via Getty Images)
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