Sergio Aguero, Troy Deeney, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Three careers with different levels of success, but all are closely associated with moments in time that caused chaos and celebration.
Over the weekend at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby, the most famous horse race in the U.S. and known by some as the most exciting two minutes in sport.
Many events could make that claim, so here football takes its turn.
Our writers have come up with their most exciting two minutes in football, some big, some small. Use the comments section below to add yours.
‘DEENEEEEEEEEEY!’
Watford vs Leicester City, May 2013
If you believe in footballing karma, this goal is probably the best argument in its favour.
It was 2-2 on aggregate in the 96th minute of the second leg of the 2013 Championship play-off semi-final between Watford and Leicester when Anthony Knockaert went over in the area. Referee Michael Oliver gave the penalty to the incredulity of everyone, possibly including Knockaert.
Maybe that’s why his spot kick was so weak, maybe it was cosmic justice, maybe it was just a bad penalty: whatever the reason, it was saved by Manuel Almunia, as was the rebound, and 20 seconds later, the ball was at the other end of the pitch. Jonathan Hogg cushioned a header into Troy Deeney’s path, Deeney leathered it home, Watford were in the final and everyone completely lost their minds.
Watford lost that final to Crystal Palace, but in many ways that barely mattered.
“That goal shows the magic and beauty of football,” said Deeney later in Lionel Birnie’s book Tales From The Vicarage. “It’s why we love it, for moments like that.”
Nick Miller
‘Agueroooooooooo!’
Manchester City vs Queens Park Rangers, May 2012
Ninety-six minutes of madness, but it is the two deep into injury time that served up the greatest-ever end to a Premier League season.
Trailing 2-1 to relegation candidates QPR and needing to win to match Manchester United’s result, Eden Dzeko offered City hope in the 91st minute when he headed in an equaliser.
City poured forward in search of the winner and chaos ensued when Sergio Aguero fired past Paddy Kenny in the 94th minute.
A first title since 1968 and in the madness, QPR had stayed up, too, despite needing a draw, after results in the other matches went their way.
Both fanbases came together in a remarkable moment of shared joy and attempted to grasp what they had just witnessed. Pure, unfiltered carnage.
Andrew Pigott
Rodrygo’s double breaks City
Manchester City vs Real Madrid, May 2022
The two minutes — or one minute and 30 seconds — that best sum up Real Madrid’s modern relationship with the Champions League.
Carlo Ancelotti’s team had produced fine comebacks against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea to reach this stage, but this topped them all.
Manchester City had beaten Madrid 4-3 in an epic first leg at the Etihad and looked all but certain to progress when Riyad Mahrez put them ahead at the Santiago Bernabeu in the 73rd minute. Jack Grealish could have sealed the tie twice in the last four minutes of normal time, but Ferland Mendy cleared a cross from the Englishman off the line before he squirmed a shot wide of the post.
Until 89:20, Madrid were going out — but that was when substitute Rodrygo poked home a ball from Karim Benzema to give Los Blancos hope. The Brazilian repeated the trick on 90:50, heading home a Dani Carvajal cross after a touch from Marco Asensio to draw the sides level on aggregate. Cue delirium in the stands, Madrid’s coaching staff and substitutes sprinting onto the pitch, and some fans who had left rushing back into the stadium.
Benzema would score from the penalty spot in extra time to send Madrid through to the final in Paris, where they beat Liverpool to lift a record-extending 14th European Cup. But this win cemented their status as Europe’s comeback kings.
Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero
Collapse of the Super League
April 2021
The morning of April 21, 2021, saw odd whisperings in the footballing world.
Journalists from The New York Times had heard reports of a new competition calling itself “The Super League” and, over the next 48 hours, a collection of some of the most monied individuals in the sport attempted to rewrite the very essence of football and create a newer, duller, footballing world.
Despite the protestations of Florentino Perez and Gianni Agnelli, the Super League was, and remains, a bad idea, pretending to be a holistic solution to a problem created by greed.
For a brief while, it looked like football as we knew it may be irrevocably rocked, but for two days, football fans banded together to stop the proposals. A two-minute period after multiple English clubs had finally pulled out of the competition felt joyous.
(Rob Pinney/Getty Images)
A new threat may arise in future, but the collapse of the Super League was a reminder that the sport that had been designed by the few, could be redesigned by the efforts of the many.
Carl Anka
When Spain and Germany were heading out…
December 2022
Strictly speaking, I didn’t find these two minutes exciting. They were the most stressful of my professional career.
Working on the news desk and live blogging during a supposed “quiet evening” of the World Cup, I was expecting an evening of a Spanish win, German progress, and a Tesco meal deal.
Germany entered needing to beat Costa Rica to go through, Spain only had to avoid defeat to Japan. At half-time, both Spain and Germany were 1-0 in front. I had eaten half of my sandwich. It would not be touched again.
Japan equalised after 48 minutes and I was already minorly perturbed by working out which of Japan and Germany would progress given their identical goal differences. Oh, you sweet summer child.
Spain went behind to a goal which looked to have been out of play. I wrote a quick explainer — conclusion: the ball is round, the line is flat, parallax exists and it wasn’t out of play.
Costa Rica equalised against Germany and Europe’s most successful team, who had only once gone out of a World Cup in the group stage, were bottom of the group. But things would get worse.
I still wake up in a chill sweat at the memory of Millonarios defender Juan Pablo Vargas. Costa Rica were 2-1 ahead, up to six points — and with Germany and Spain both losing, Costa Rica and Japan were heading through.
(Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
For two minutes, time stopped. Tabs flew open like confetti, doctors observed the first medical case of a repetitive strain injury in my index finger as I deleted pre-prepped paragraphs, my brain exploded.
Then Havertz equalised for Germany and calm descended like rain on a parched field. His team would still go out, but that was manageable. Spain were through.
Psychologists speak of the idea of dissociative amnesia, forgetting things about yourself to protect the brain from trauma. To help with writing this, my editor sent over a handy article explaining how the night played out.
Jacob Whitehead
‘That night in Barcelona’
Manchester United vs Bayern Munich, May 1999
Imagine, if you will, if Manchester United’s iconic triumph over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final had occurred in the modern era.
Oh, how the group chats would have buzzed as United toiled at the Camp Nou, their hopes of becoming the first English team to complete a treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League trophies in the same season hanging by a microscopic thread.
Think how the engagement-farming footy banter social media accounts would have been primed to unleash a cascade of laughing emojis (a hearty mixture of the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji and its zany cousin the ‘Rolling on the Floor Laughing’ emoji) — because, to quote the oft-parodied refrain, this is Manchester United we’re talking about.
(Ben Radford/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)
But then came two of the most memorable minutes in any major cup final in modern memory. You know the story, but let’s recap it anyway.
In the first minute of injury time, Thorsten Fink failed to clear a corner kick, Ryan Giggs thumped the ball back into the area and Teddy Sheringham poked it home.
Then, with 90+3 on the clock, from another United corner, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer won it.
We’ll never know how Sir Alex Ferguson’s team would have been trolled had they only won a measly double — and, of course, the concept of online mickey-taking was a few decades away.
But regardless of the epoch, ‘that night in Barcelona’ remains the gold standard for a showstopping finish 24 years on.
Dan Barnes
And another miss!
Cardiff City v Wolverhampton Wanderers, April 2018
It’s second vs first in the Championship title race.
This is Neil Warnock’s functional, overachieving Cardiff and Nuno Espirito Santo’s ludicrously gifted Wolves, who lead 1-0 heading into stoppage time after Ruben Neves painted a free kick into the top corner like one of his French girls.
It’s the 94th minute, Cardiff lobbing the kitchen sink, and captain Conor Coady pushes Anthony Pilkington to the floor. Penalty (says Mike Dean). Nuno throws his coat on the floor and kicks a chair.
Up steps Gary Madine… and John Ruddy saves! Tipped around the post. Magnificent save.
But this isn’t over yet, Cardiff are keeping the pressure on… 96th minute now… pandemonium in the box… Aron Gunnarsson goes down… another penalty! Dean bends his knees and turns his head to the penalty spot as he points like an annoying train conductor. Chaos.
It’ll be Junior Hoilett this time. There are 30,000 people on their feet… surely this time… no, he’s hit the bar!
And Dean blows the full-time whistle! Wolves are all but promoted, everyone runs to Ruddy, Nuno’s sprinting onto the pitch, so are the coaching staff, the subs, it’s glorious.
Nuno has composed himself and is trying to shake Warnock’s hand, but he’s having none of it and walks away saying, “F*** off”, not once, not twice, but seven times. This is everything.
Tim Spiers
(Top photo: Paul Ellis/AFP/GettyImages)
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