Run it back: 3 games you'd choose?

[Fortitude]

In all your years of watching football, which 3 games (club and/or country) would you have played over again if you could?

Club:

1. The 0-0 FA Cup final we lost on pens. Simply unacceptable after battering them all game long.

2. The Real Madrid game where Nani got sent off.

3. The CL final vs. Barcelona 2011. Perhaps it goes the same way, again, but that game fell apart after a sterling start.

Country:

1. WC SF vs West Germany 1990 -
2. WC QF vs Argentina 1998 -
3. EC QF vs Germany 1996 -

Yours?

 

[led_scholes]

Two 3-2 losses: the one against Real back in 2000 (we were so sloppy), the other vs Bayern in 2010.

The final against Barcelona in 2009.

Special mention: the Porto game in 2004.

 

[Neil_Buchanan]

That Portsmouth fa cup game is top of my list as it prevented the treble.

I believe we would have won the champions league in Fergies final season if not for that Madrid game.

Finally the Bayern game where Rafael was sent off, with Lyon in the next leg and Inter in the final we had a huge opportunity.

Special mention to the Porto game, winning that would have huge implications by preventing Jose from going to Chelsea.

 

[Gio]

Club

1. Bayern 1-0 Rangers, Champions League 1999/00. Final group game to decide who qualified, we battered Bayern all night, hit the post three times, Kahn played out of his skin before ending Michael Mols' career near the half-way line. Fairly confident that team is capable of reaching the semi-finals given how good Bayern were at the time.
2. Marseille 1-1 Rangers, Champions League 1992/93. Winner takes all for a place in the final. Marseille were an incredible side around then and worthy winners after beating Milan in the final, but they were a ball-hair away from going out. Last time a team from a diddy league like ours goes so close.

Country

1. Scotland 1-1 Iran, World Cup 1978. No space for Souness or Hansen in the side, despite each being in the top two in their position in Europe at the time. Get the selection right, get the win to knock out the Dutch, and who knows from there.
2. Scotland 0-2 Germany, Euro '92. Better team but couldn't make it count. Knocking out the Germans would have put us in a winnable semi-final with Sweden and then the same with Denmark. I suppose we may have needed to score some goals to do that though.
3. Scotland 0-2 England, Euro '96. McCallister scores his penalty and Scotland proceed to the quarters to grind out a 0-0 draw with France.

 

[Josh 76]

In all your years of watching football, which 3 games (club and/or country) would you have played over again if you could?

Club:

1. The 0-0 FA Cup final we lost on pens. Simply unacceptable after battering them all game long.

2. The Real Madrid game where Nani got sent off.

3. The CL final vs. Barcelona 2011. Perhaps it goes the same way, again, but that game fell apart after a sterling start.

Country:

1. WC SF vs West Germany 1990 -
2. WC QF vs Argentina 1998 -
3. EC QF vs Germany 1996 -

Yours?

Not sure what game you were watching, but I can't remember a sterling start in the 2011 CL final.

 

[SirAF]

1. FA Cup against Portsmouth. Should have been another treble.
2. Leverkusen 2002. Should have gone to Glasgow
3. CL Final 2009. Bigger chance of winning that than in 2011

 

[Berbasbullet]

1. FA Cup against Portsmouth. Should have been another treble.
2. Leverkusen 2002. Should have gone to Glasgow
3. CL Final 2009. Bigger chance of winning that than in 2011

The Portsmouth one I am torn on, what it we got to the final and Ronaldo got injured? It might have effected the league and the champions league. I’d personally just leave it.

For me

Madrid 2013, would have had a great chance of winning it.

Arsenal 05 fa cup final

Leverkusen 02, no business going out to them, reckon we could have had a good go at Madrid despite their insane quality.

Would have said Barça 09 but don’t think we beat them.

 

[Peyroteo]

Club

Sporting-CSKA Uefa Cup final 2005, was at the stadium for this one, we lost the final at home. Hit both posts and they make it 3-1 on the counter... the name Vagner Love still gives me nightmares.
Sporting-Benfica title game 2016, Bryan Ruiz's miss might actually be the worst miss in football history given the circumstances. Had the best team in the country but threw the title away with Jorge Jesus as manager to a Benfica team managed by a cone.
Benfica-Sporting title game 2005 (Ricardo being shit in the air part 1)

Country

Portugal-Greece Euro final 2004 (Ricardo being shit in the air part 2)
Portugal-France WC semi 2006, most likely the closest I'll ever see us getting to a World Cup final in my lifetime. Played better than them but a stupid mistake gave them a cheap penalty and that was that.
Portugal-Spain Euro semi 2012, this felt much worse because they had knocked us out of the World Cup 2 years earlier with an offside goal. I remember for a split second celebrating Fabregas missing his penalty but it went just inside the post

 

[GuyfromAustria]

The Portsmouth one I am torn on, what it we got to the final and Ronaldo got injured? It might have effected the league and the champions league. I’d personally just leave it.

It's an obvious answer to this threads, but I kind of started thinking like you. We crashed out in the quarter finals, so we would have had to play the semi final in early April, when there were still 6(?) league games to play and both legs vs. Barcelona in the CL-semis. 1 or 2 injuries to the wrong guys and that season could've been fecked.

 

[Chipper]

Not sure what game you were watching, but I can't remember a sterling start in the 2011 CL final.

I remember us doing ok at the start, but wouldn't call it sterling either.

We pressed quite well for 10-15 minutes and looked decent enough then seemed to stop by and large. Now it was Barcelona and they are hard to get near but there seemed to be a shift in what we were trying to do too and we began to sit off a lot more which led to them having more control. One of the few times we did press again that half or the whole match really we scored, winning the ball back quite high up the pitch following their throw in.

Now I don't know if we actively decided to press less or if that's just a false perception by me, but that always kind of bothered me too. I do think we could have done more in that regard.

Edit: Now I wouldn't put it in my top 3, nowhere near, will have a think what belongs there.

 

[Invictus]

In no particular order:

• Porto away in the Champions League in 2004: relinquished the goal advantage and also lost Keane for the reverse leg at Old Trafford with the challenge on Baía. Could make things easier/simpler for ourselves with a rematch, and would be decent bets to go all the way as Porto faced Lyon, Deportivo La Coruña and Monaco to win Big Ears.
• 4—4 versus Everton in 2012: had a comfortable 3—1 lead via goals from Rooney, Nani, Welbeck...but bottled the closing stages and conceded the momentum to City for the league title. 9 times out of 10 we keep our nerves in a rematch and secure the 20th (while denting the ascent of the noisy neighbors).
• Portsmouth in the FA Cup in 2008, of course: everything that could do wrong did go wrong in this match (most prominently the van der Sar -> Kuszczak -> Ferdinand switcheroo) and the opposition rarely threatened while we came agonizingly close to sealing the deal several times. Winning this would give us a clear shot at another treble.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

The Nani red card is still annoying, but I still don't think we'd have won the cup had we progressed from that tie. Heynckes' Bayern were just on it that year. They bitchslapped Barca 7-0 on agg on their way to the final like they were nothing. Dortmund were a great side that year too who we'd have faced in the Semis, I don't think we'd have beaten either of them, particularly towards the end of that season when we looked to be out of gas and only won 3 of our last 9 games in all competitions


I'd like to see us take a different approach in 2009 vs Barca. I think we underestimated them in some respects, gave them far too much space. Watching Evra casually stroll back just before Eto'o scored still bugs me. And then the smallest player on the pitch scores a header against the best CB pair in Europe. Awful. Mourinho's Inter shithoused them over 2 legs a year later, it's what we should have done in that final. Also if we could go back to the semi and not have Fletcher sent off vs Arsenal, he was a big miss in the final.

Also Bayern in 2010. The goal Olic scored right before half time when he ragdolled Carrick like he was a child. Soft, soft goal out of nothing. We looked like we were blowing them away but that put them right back in it.

And FA Cup final versus Arsenal. Daylight robbery.

 

[DJ Jeff]

Not sure what game you were watching, but I can't remember a sterling start in the 2011 CL final.

I would'nt call it sterling, but I recall us starting both finals well enough in the first 10-15 mins. In 09 we were actually on top until the Eto'o goal, whereas in 11 they were still on top, just we were having much more of a say than I thought we would at any point

 

[kafta]

- Fa Cup vs. Portsmouth in 2008, stopped a second treble.
- Everton at Home 11/12 4-4; that game cost us the league title
- Bayern at Old Trafford in 2010, we should have won the CL that year, and i think we would've beaten that inter side

 

[harms]

- Fa Cup vs. Portsmouth in 2008, stopped a second treble.
- Everton at Home 11/12 4-4; that game cost us the league title
- Bayern at Old Trafford in 2010, we should have won the CL that year, and i think we would've beaten that inter side

I was just going to write mine but then I saw your post, so I'll just second this. Especially that Bayern loss, so frustrating!

 

[Bocca9978]

England vs Croatia 2018 World Cup
That final was there for the taking.

United vs Porto 2004
Get a decent linesman. Sit down Mourinho.

United vs Arsenal 2003
Come on Ruud bury that penalty!

Obviously playing these games again those incidents might not happen.

 

[OleBoiii]

The two games that killed me the most were both CL knockout games against Mourinho teams: Porto 2004 and Real Madrid 2013.

The refereeing in the Porto game was absurd. It also practically kickstarted Mourinho's career and by extension some of Chelsea's success. If I'm not mistaken, the fixtures following the Porto game were quite easy games as well. Basically: with proper refereeing, we'd almost definitely have won the CL that year and potentially stopped Chelsea from having those 2 dominant years.

The Real game haunts me for several reasons:

1. We deserved the win and only lost because of that fecking red card.
2. Real were favorites. It would have been nice to shut up the haters.
3. It was Fergie's last season. He didn't deserve such an ugly exit.

 

[harms]

Not sure what game you were watching, but I can't remember a sterling start in the 2011 CL final.

I think we've pressed them quite well for the first 3 or 4 minutes, and then we've lost it and never even came close to controlling that game.

If we're talking about the CL finals, surely it's the one from 2009, where we at least had a fighting chance (although Barca was still better).

 

[Nickelodeon]

Porto 2004: Slows down Mourinho, in effect, Chelsea
Everton 4-4 or Wigan 1-0 or City 1-0 in 2012: Gain a point more from any of those and you slow down City and probably Guardiola joining them
Arsenal at OT 2003: No Invincibles even though I consider the tag to be quite meaningless

 

[El Jefe]

In no particular order:

• Porto away in the Champions League in 2004: relinquished the goal advantage and also lost Keane for the reverse leg at Old Trafford with the challenge on Baía. Could make things easier/simpler for ourselves with a rematch, and would be decent bets to go all the way as Porto faced Lyon, Deportivo La Coruña and Monaco to win Big Ears.
• 4—4 versus Everton in 2012: had a comfortable 3—1 lead via goals from Rooney, Nani, Welbeck...but bottled the closing stages and conceded the momentum to City for the league title. 9 times out of 10 we keep our nerves in a rematch and secure the 20th (while denting the ascent of the noisy neighbors).
• Portsmouth in the FA Cup in 2008, of course: everything that could do wrong did go wrong in this match (most prominently the van der Sar -> Kuszczak -> Ferdinand switcheroo) and the opposition rarely threatened while we came agonizingly close to sealing the deal several times. Winning this would give us a clear shot at another treble.

Agree with this list with Porto being No.1 in my order. Scholes disallowed goal still annoys me to this day. As you said very high chances of winning the CL if we got through that tie.

The Everton game was extremely baffling because in the second half our football was mesmerising with Nani's goal being the pick of the bunch. Up 4-2 and the crowd was rocking, perhaps we just got a bit too over confident at that point.

Portsmouth. The less said the better, should've been another treble year. After Carrick's miss you just knew it wasn't meant to be.

 

[Fortitude]

re. Porto. I get that choice as a game in isolation, but if we win that, then Mourinho doesn't go to Chelsea and begin the chain of events that resulted in our double-winning side.

Obviously, that was no part of the OP, and it is a little bit too much of an extrapolation, but it's one of those games that always feels like it *needed* to pan out as it did, for our own dynasty.

re. my use of sterling; off to a satisfactory start would've been apt.

 

[Eendracht maakt macht]

Club:

Semi Final 2005 CL vs Milan. Ambrosini...
PSV - Feyenoord 10 - 0. Could have been 11.
Quarter Final Uefa Cup vs Feyenoord

Country:

WC Final 2010
WC Final 1974
WC Final 1978

 

[Paula]

Bayern Fan Point of view:

CL Final 99 - still hurts
CL Final 2012 - hurts even more
CL Semi Final 2016 against Atletico, we were the best team in that year.

We are having quite bad luck in this competition...

 

[KirkDuyt]

World cup final 2010
World cup Semi 1998
Euros Semi 1992

 

[Motorman]

4 - 4 with Everton.

Should never have let that result. We should have seen the game out comfortably.. Cost us the league IMO

 

[Grylte]

I suck at remembering years.

The game where Chelsea won the league on offside goal against us.
Against Real Madrid where Nani got sent off.
Against Bayern München where Rafael got sent off.

Honorable mentions:
Vs Barca in CL final - we got destroyed, maybe we could get a better result.
The Agueeeeeeeeeeroooo match
Arsenal 8-2, let it happen again

 

[Invictus]

Against Real Madrid where Nani got sent off.

To be fair, Bayern Munich were out to prove a point that season — well-drilled, masters of pressing/counter-pressing, motivated and accomplished from back to front with Ribéry, Robben, Müller, Martínez, Schweinsteiger, Boateng, Lahm, Alaba, Neuer all in close to prime form. Football history is littered with upsets of course, but the odds would be very much stacked against us even if we had beaten Madrid. The semi-finals vs. Dortmund (especially the away leg at Westfalenstadion) would have been a hellacious affair too as they were starting to peak under Klopp and had a ton of greater performers of their own...most prominently Reus, Gündogan, Lewandowski, Hummels, Błaszczykowski. Might sound pessimistic but in all likelihood, we would have beaten Galatasaray in the quarter-finals...and that would have been that with regard to the season's Champions League campaign as a whole.

 

[RORY65]

I wouldn't pick games like the 2011 final or the Nani game against Real Madrid in 2013 because after 2009, certainly after 2010, we weren't anywhere being the best team in Europe and I think if you replayed them we would still get outclassed by Barcelona and probably would have been exposed at some stage in 2013. It's difficult to argue with mentions of the Everton 4-4, I'd also note the dismal way Ferguson set us up at City days later as another one it would be nice to go back and change.

The FA Cup Final in 2005 is an obvious one because it's the final we most deserved to win but didn't, we battered them and I think if you ran it back we would again because they were without Henry and with Bergkamp upfront on his own we were able to pin them in their own half. The Portsmouth game in 2008 is another one, we probably win the treble if we win that game as the teams who made it to the last four were really weak.

The third I would think of is the 2nd leg of the 2007 semi final against AC Milan. For much of that season we were the best team in Europe and although by that stage we were running on fumes trying to get over the line in the league I still think we would have beaten Liverpool in the final, we were way better than them back then. That Milan side wasn't even the team they were a couple of years before but they were fresh for the European games, if we had found a way through and had a bit of a build up for the final I think we would have got to beat Liverpool in a Champions League final which now feels like just a pipe dream.

 

[Wiltord02]

2006 Champions League Final. We played 10 vs 11 for 70 minutes.

2004 Champions League QF 2nd Leg vs Chelsea. That was our year for the Champions League. We had an incredible team but individual errors cost us on the night.

1999 league run in vs Leeds. If Nigel Winterburn doesn't get injured, Nelson Vivas doesn't come on and fail to mark properly for an 87th minute Leeds goal. A draw would have meant, we would have gone into the last day level with united and it would have become a question of who scored more goals.

 

[Stobzilla]

Birmingham or Blackburn (Away) from 09/10.

Two shit teams who we should have put away and made it 4 league titles on the spin.

Porto 2004 (Home)

Should have won, Mourinho still goes Chelsea but we should have won that game.

Leverkusen 2002 (Home)

As above, we were too good to go out. We did bottle it a few times and this was one of them.

Special shout outs go to:

Aston Villa (League Cup '95)
West Ham (Away '95)
Everton (FA Cup '95)
Monaco (Home '98)
Arsenal (FA Cup '05)
Barcelona (CL '09)
Bayern (Home '10)

 

[Infordin]

Barca vs Internazionale 2010

Barca vs Chelsea 2012

Barca vs Liverpool 2019

 

[montpelier]

4-4 Everton

1976 Cup Final - I was young and very upset. It had been a brilliant season.

Not sure about a definite 3rd, Dortmund semi was worse than Leverkusen imo.

 

[montpelier]

Liverpool at Anfield when we were 3 up and drew?

 

[Charlie Foley]

Club

Sporting-CSKA Uefa Cup final 2005, was at the stadium for this one, we lost the final at home. Hit both posts and they make it 3-1 on the counter... the name Vagner Love still gives me nightmares.
Sporting-Benfica title game 2016, Bryan Ruiz's miss might actually be the worst miss in football history given the circumstances. Had the best team in the country but threw the title away with Jorge Jesus as manager to a Benfica team managed by a cone.
Benfica-Sporting title game 2005 (Ricardo being shit in the air part 1)

Country

Portugal-Greece Euro final 2004 (Ricardo being shit in the air part 2)
Portugal-France WC semi 2006, most likely the closest I'll ever see us getting to a World Cup final in my lifetime. Played better than them but a stupid mistake gave them a cheap penalty and that was that.
Portugal-Spain Euro semi 2012, this felt much worse because they had knocked us out of the World Cup 2 years earlier with an offside goal. I remember for a split second celebrating Fabregas missing his penalty but it went just inside the post

that 2012 semi final was disappointing: I thought Portugal were excellent in that game

 

[Champagne Football]

The Rafael red card against Bayern in 2010 in the CL quarter final. Rafael was still a kid at the time and nowhere near ready to face Ribery and Robben. I always felt we should have played O'Shea instead. When I saw Rafael's name on the team sheet that night, I just knew he'd cost us. 3-0 at home to Bayern and cruising until a moment of madness and game ends 3-2 and we go out 4-4 on aggregate. Bayern were nothing special that year under Van Gaal and were there for the taking. Still kills me that game more than any other. Inter were nothing special that year to win the CL. That could have been our year!

The Nani red card game of course in 2013 too. Should Cleverley really have been on the pitch instead of Rooney? Rooney wasn't fit but you'd still want him in a game of that magnitude. But yes Bayern that year we're simply invincible and would have spanked up in the next round.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

• CLUB
• 1979 Cup Final v Arsenal. Tw@t Alan Sunderland ruined my birthday with his last minute winner
• 1995 West Ham 1-1 last day of the season which cost us the title
• 1984 v Juve, ECWC semi. No Robson in 2nd leg and went out 2-1 on agg v a team with Platini , Boniek , and most of the Italian national team
• .
• COUNTRY - only bothered about one, though other would've been fun
• 1993. Wales v Romania. Win and go to WC 94 in America, me and two mates had saved up for month trip. Get a penalty and Bodin decides to leather it and hits the bar (nob). Romania/Hagi go on and win
• Wales v Brazil WC Q/F 58 (no, I WASN'T about but Dad goes on about it). Shouldn't have qualified for the WC, lucky to get out the group, lost John Charles to injury after getting kicked to pieces in last group game, BUT (deservedly apparently) only lost 1-0 to a goal from some kid called Pele. But if Charles had played, maybe... just maybe we'd have scraped something (he was that good), history could have been hugely different

 

[Finn MacCool]

Man Utd 2-1 Liverpool - 1977 FA Cup Final - had we won this we would have had a shot at the treble (I'll never get over this one!)

Benfica 1-0 Liverpool - 1985 2nd leg EC 2nd Round - wish we had lost this 2-0 and went out on away goals (won 1st leg 3-1).

Liverpool 4-0 Brentford - 1989 Quarter final FA cup - wish there had been a giant killing and we had gone out.

 

[MAME DIOUF 32]

I think you could run the 2011 Champions League final 100 times with all manner of different team selections and tactics and we'd lose 95 of them. Sir Alex did the right thing to my mind of trying to play our own game and it did work to an extent for a little while before Barca's superiority told. The other two are good shouts.

 

[JinnerJamie]

2005 FA Cup Final - The game that haunts me to this day, we should've buried them.

2007 - CL Semi Final 2nd Leg - Had we made the final we would've dicked the scousers and made 3 finals in a row winning 2.

Last one is hard it would either be the 2010 home defeat to Chelsea or 2012 away defeat to City. Had we not lost to Chelsea we'd have done 4 in a row, had we not lost to city we'd have done another 3 in a row. It's amazing to think we were 3 points away from 7 titles in a row.

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

Portsmouth 2008. Still to do this day, I just cannot believe how we never scored!! Had we won that game, we we would have won the treble that year 9 years after 99. Would have also been so fitting as well with it being 50 years since Munich.

Everton 4-4 game in 2012. Just stunned how we threw that game away when we were absolutely cruising. The title was virtually in our hands but we then threw it away in a matter of minutes.

Porto 2004. Tim f****** Howard!!! Heartbreaking when they scored that goal and Jose ran down the touchline. Had we won that tie, I think we would have gone on and won the CL. Plus Jose wouldn’t have ended up at Chelsea and turn them into an absolute machine in 2005 & 2006.