\u201cLast month, Lazio scored a late winner (in the 82nd minute) against Parma despite having two players sent off earlier in the game,\u201d writes Bogdan Kotarlic. \u201cI wonder if any team has scored a goal (or maybe more) with eight players and with three players receiving red cards before that?\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s only one place to start: Boghead Park, Dumbarton. \u201cIn August 1991, Premier Division Airdrieonians played Dumbarton in the Scottish League Cup,\u201d writes Bill Hall. \u201cWhat looked like an innocuous tie was anything but – especially for Dumbarton\u2019s Colin McNair, Stephen Gow and Jimmy Gilmour, who were shown red cards in what must have been a bad-tempered affair (I was there but it was 34 years ago, and I was in the pub beforehand, so memories are a bit vague).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I do remember is that eight-man Dumbarton valiantly held out and then went 1-0 up early in extra time before Airdrie managed to score two late goals to spare blushes, Owen Coyle sclaffing one in from a yard with the last kick of the game. Great memories, if a little vague.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an even better story from Brazil in 2005, when Gr\u00eamio<\/a> beat N\u00e1utico 1-0 in a promotion playoff match<\/a>. Future Manchester United star Anderson scored the winning goal in the 61st minute of the second half, by which point \u2013 and this helps explain why there was so much added time \u2013 Gr\u00eamio were down to seven men. N\u00e1utico also had a man sent off just before the goal, so it was seven versus 10 when Anderson scored. Oh, and there were two missed penalties, a face-off between police and players and much else besides. The match became known as the Batalha dos Aflitos (the Battle of the Afflicted) and even has a Wikipedia page<\/a> of its own.<\/p>\n This is how it feels to win a promotion playoff after being reduced to seven men, as Gr\u00eamio did against N\u00e1utico in 2005. Photograph: Youtube<\/p>\n Rodrigo Calderon has another example from South America. \u201cIn January 1978, Talleres and Independiente were playing the second leg of the final of the 1977 Argentinian National Championship. Talleres scored a goal, apparently with a hand ball, that put them temporarily up 2-1 and would have given them the championship. Independiente players protested angrily and three players were sent off.<\/p>\n \u201cThe game resumed, 11 versus eight, and eight minutes later Ricardo Bochini scored the equaliser for Independiente in a counter that caught Talleres players off guard. The match ended 2-2 and Independiente won the championship on away goals<\/a> (the first leg at Independiente had ended 1-1). The Talleres fans graciously applauded Independiente players. Not sure this would be the case nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n Last, and emphatically not least, to Uruguay for another case of eight men conquering 11. \u201cIn April 1987, there was a friendly tournament in Montevideo featuring Pe\u00f1arol, Nacional and Betis,\u201d writes Pablo M\u00edguez. \u201cThe match between the Uruguayan sides became known as the \u2018eight against 11 cl\u00e1sico<\/a>\u2019, and it\u2019s not unusual to see Pe\u00f1arol flags remembering that game. With the score 1-1, three Pe\u00f1arol players were sent off during the second half, but in the 82nd minute, Pe\u00f1arol found a winner. You can read about the game in Spanish here<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Where have Ballon d\u2019Or winners never played?<\/p>\n \u201cAl-Nassr have been drawn against Arkadag in the AFC Champions League Two, making it highly likely that Cristiano Ronaldo will play in Turkmenistan,\u201d notes Jack Hayward. \u201cThis got me thinking: what is the highest-ranked nation in the Fifa world rankings that a Ballon d\u2019Or winner has never played in?\u201d<\/p>\n Mykola Kozlenko has got us covered when it comes to the men\u2019s game. \u201cI am pretty sure the answer here is Senegal, currently No 19,\u201d he writes. \u201cI tried to find evidence of any Ballon d\u2019Or winner playing there and failed. The best candidate would have been George Weah, but he didn\u2019t play in the Senegal v Liberia match on 30 July 1995 (he did play the home leg). During his African club career he didn\u2019t face any Senegalese opposition.<\/p>\n \u201cSenegal also hasn\u2019t hosted any major competitions, except the 1992 African Cup of Nations (where Liberia didn\u2019t qualify). The national team did play against Ballon d\u2019Or winners (e.g. against Luka Modri\u0107\u2019s Croatia in 2018) but never in Senegal, always away or on neutral territory. I couldn\u2019t find any evidence of even friendly matches involving any club or national team that would feature any Ballon d\u2019Or winner in Senegal.\u201d<\/p>\n Senegal\u2019s Isma\u00efla Sarr, left, celebrates after scoring against Croatia, whose team included future Ballon d\u2019Or winner Luka Modri\u0107, in a friendly in 2018. The two teams have never met in Senegal. Photograph: Darko Bandi\u0107\/AP<\/p>\n The Ballon d\u2019Or F\u00e9minin, which was introduced in 2018, has only been won by four players: Ada Hegerberg, Megan Rapinoe, Al\u00e8xia Putellas and Aitana Bonmat\u00ed. We thought the answer might be Japan, who are eighth in the world rankings, but Hegerberg played there in the Under-20 World Cup in 2012. And so we move to an answer that requires no additional detail: No 9, North Korea.<\/p>\n An own-goal scoring hat-trick hero<\/p>\n \u201cInspired by an occurrence I saw on Football Manager, have there been any notable examples of a player scoring a hat-trick and an own goal in the same match?\u201d asks Jason Jandu.<\/p>\n In September 2019, Frank Lampard\u2019s Chelsea romped to a 5-2 victory at Wolves<\/a> in the Premier League. Tammy Abraham, one of the young players given a chance by Lampard, scored his first hat-trick for the club to put them 4-0 up early in the second half. He then scored a consolation goal for Wolves<\/a>, becoming the first player in the Premier League era to score a hat-trick and an own goal in the same game.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Knowledge archive<\/p>\n \u201cScott Bain signed for Hibs on loan on the first day of the window and left for Celtic on the last day. Have any other players ever joined and left a club in the same window?\u201d tweeted Brian Milne in 2018.<\/p>\n The answer, of course, is yes. In the summer of 1980, Clive Allen joined Arsenal from QPR for a fee of \u00a31.25m. He played in three friendlies before joining Crystal Palace\u2019s team of the 1980s, in a swap deal which sent Kenny Sansom and his Norman Wisdom impressions in the opposite direction. Ostend Gudgeon reckons this became a Newman-Baddiel running gag, \u201cprobably in the Mary Whitehouse Experience\u201d.<\/p>\n Clive Allen, left, poses with Terry Neill and John Hollins after signing for Arsenal in 1980. Photograph: Bob Thomas\/Bob Thomas Sports Photography\/Getty Images<\/p>\n James Borg, meanwhile, remembers January 2004, when Liverpool had Jerzy Dudek and Chris Kirkland injured. \u201cSo the club brought in veteran Wales goalkeeper Paul Jones on a short-term loan from Southampton. Jones played two games, keeping a clean sheet in the first and conceding two in the second. He returned to Southampton at the end of January.\u201d<\/p>\n And he continues: \u201cIn 1998, Coventry bought Croatian international Robert Jarni. However, Real Madrid took a fancy to him after some good displays at that year\u2019s World Cup. They eventually persuaded Coventry to sell him on before he had made any appearances for the Sky Blues.<\/p>\n \u201cThat same summer David Unsworth asked to be transferred from West Ham to be closer to his Merseyside home. He signed for Aston Villa, but then (allegedly under pressure from his wife) decided that Birmingham was not close enough, and told Villa he wanted to return to Everton. So Unsworth rejoined the Toffees, having spent just a few weeks at Villa. He is still at Everton today.\u201d This, of course, greatly amused the Villa manager, John Gregory<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s quite clear that it\u2019s David\u2019s missus who wears the trousers in their house,\u201d he informed the press. \u201cShe refused point-blank to move to the Midlands.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, Dave Claes points to Dodi Luk\u00e9bakio, signed in January by Watford. \u201cWhen Watford declared their interest, he was on loan to Sporting Charleroi from Anderlecht. Charleroi had an option to buy Lukebakio and took it up, paying Anderlecht around \u00a31.35m. Watford then paid around \u00a34.5m for his services, netting Charleroi a tidy profit for a player who was officially theirs for a very short time.\u201d<\/p>\n