EPL 2012-13: Top 5 comebacks
For a fan, it’s really fun to watch when one’s favorite team is leading by a goal against bitter rivals, with just a couple of minutes of play left, or when the opponents are being crushed 4-0. But nothing can compare to the pure ecstasy one feels when the team having trailed for almost the whole match, comes from behind to score an injury time winner. The 2012/13 English Premier League season did have many such exhilarating moments. The best of them (in reverse order) being:
5) West Ham 2-3 Tottenham
With the team not in top form heading in this London derby, Spurs needed a special performance from Bale. And that is what the would-be player of the season delivered. His powerful strike in the 13th minute gave Spurs a lead, but West Ham replied back by a penalty earned and scored by Carroll. And then in the second half, they went on to take the lead courtesy Joe Cole in the 58th minute. But an inspired substitution by AVB changed the fortunes as Gylfi Sigurdsson came off the bench to poke in the equalizer in the 76th minute. With time ticking away, the game looked sure to be heading for a draw, before Bale (not the first or the last time) showed why he is one of the biggest talents in the world with a stunning long range strike to win the game in stoppage time.
4) Manchester United 4-3 Newcastle
Having made the best Premier League comeback ever a couple of seasons ago against Arsenal, coming from 4-0 down, this time around, Newcastle ended on the wrong side of a Premier League classic. Extraordinarily, the club from Tyneside led three times on the day only to experience disappointment due to another signature United comeback. United scored a goal after each of the Newcastle goals to level the match thrice, last with RVP’s strike in the 71st minute. With the score level at 3-3, the game seemed to be heading towards a draw and it seemed Newcastle, although disappointed in losing 2 points, had done enough to take away one point. But Sir Alex’s men are not ones to settle for a point and, after having hit the post with a header moments earlier, Hernandez timed his run to perfection to guide home Michael Carrick‘s inch-perfect cross.
3) Everton 2-1 Tottenham
Clint Dempsey‘s deflected strike in the 77th minute should have been enough to earn Tottenham 3 very important points in their push for a Champions League position. And Everton, having denied penalty claims for two separate hand-ball incidents by Dempsey and Gallas, indicated perhaps this was not their day. But Everton showed character in not giving up and piled on pressure on Tottenham. Just after the injury time started, Coleman’s cross was met by a powerful header by Pienaar to bring the game level. Spurs had not even recovered from the first goal when Apostolos Vellios tried an over head kick, the ball fell to Jelavic and before the Spurs defenders could react, Jelavic put the ball into the net, scoring the winner bringing in wild celebrations in the Everton camp, which saw Moyes coming onto the pitch to celebrate.
2) Reading 3-2 West Brom
In a season filled with disappointment, this was to be the biggest celebration Reading fans would experience during the course of the season. It ended as a comeback as sensational as it had seemed unlikely Reading would be earning all three points from a match that wasteful West Brom should have won at their leisure. West Brom’s player of the day, Lukaku, scored a brace and should have easily scored another two but for his sloppy finishing. And the Baggies, who led 2-0, till the 81st minute had to pay for the carelessness in front of the goal. The Royals launched a late surge, their best 10 minutes of the season, when Kebe headed in, and when Adam Le Fondre slotted home a late, late penalty with just three minutes left, the comeback was truly on. And when on the stroke of 90 minutes Pavel Pogrebnyak scored, the mood in the Madejski Stadium transformed from outright hostility to bemused jubilation.
1) West Brom 5-5 Manchester United
It takes something brilliant to comeback from 3 goals down; and it takes something extraordinarily brilliant to comeback from 3 goals down twice in the same game. But that’s what West Brom conjured on the final day of the season. It was Sir Alex’s send-off party, and having led 3-0 just after the half-hour mark, it was turning out to be quite a send-off party. However, when West Brom scored on either side of half time, the game was on. United, wanting to squash the Baggies hopes, scored two quick goals through RVP and Hernandez. However, the drama wasn’t over, as West Brom scored three goals in the last ten minutes. First, Lukaku scored another to make it 3-5, Mulumbu made it 4-5, and Lukaku completed a fantastic hat trick in his last game for the club to make it 5-5. It was always going to be a landmark match, but Lukaku and West Brom ensured it ended as the best of the season and an all time Premier League classic.