The European leagues are winding down and with the Champions nearly crowned in the major leagues, the attention turns to the fight to avoid relegation. It’s especially close in the Premier League and the Bundesliga.
In Germany, only four points separate 12th placed Bayer Leverkusen from 16th placed Hamburg with two games to go, while in England, Middlesbrough’s relegation was confirmed this week and now Swansea City and Hull City are separated by just one point in the relegation battle.
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Swansea can assure safety this week with a win and a loss for Hull, but it is more likely that the relegation fight will drag on to the last day of the season. Both sides can take heart from Leicester City's remarkable escape in 2015 and Sunderland's multiple nail-biting campaigns in recent years. There is even the possibility of a first ever 39th game relegation playoff in the Premier League should Hull and Swansea finish level on points, goal difference and goals scored.
While many big clubs like VfB Stuttgart, Villarreal, Deportivo La Coruna and Newcastle United have tasted the bitter pill of relegation, this article looks at those miraculous escapes from relegation in top European leagues from the 2000s.
#5 Wigan Atheltic – Premier League, 2006/07
People tend to associate the 2006-07 relegation battle solely to West Ham United’s stunning resurgence. But Wigan Athletic fans have equal right in claiming that they made the last day of the season memorable.
The final round of matches saw West Ham occupying the final relegation spot behind Sheffield United on goal difference. Paul Jewell’s struggling Wigan Atheltic were three points behind the duo with 35. It would be Sheffield United taking on Wigan at home on the final match day, with a point ensuring survival for Sheffield.
West Ham meanwhile needed a positive result at Champions Manchester United. The Hammers had collected 18 points from their last 10 matches and proceeded to add three more when a Carlos Tevez goal beat a second string United side. Sheffield United, meanwhile, had gone behind at their own home before drawing level in the 38th minute.
Former Sheffield United player David Unsworth silenced his former employers with a penalty in first-half injury time to give Wigan the lead again. The second half saw Wigan go down to ten men, but hold on to get the victory. The scoreline meant that Wigan matched Sheffield United on 38 points and had avoided relegation due to a goal difference of -22 compared to Sheffield United’s -23.
#4 Fulham – Premier League, 2007/08
It was April 26th, 2008, and the venue was the City of Manchester Stadium. Pre-Abu Dhabi Manchester City were up 2-0 against Fulham with twenty minutes to go. A City win would mean relegation for the Cottagers with two games remaining.
However, something clicked for Roy Hodgson’s men and they levelled the tie with injury time remaining. Still, Fulham had just injury time to go back to London without getting relegated. Diomansy Kamara then scored his second of the game in the 92nd minute to give Fulham an unlikely victory and save their Premier League status.
The next round of matches saw Fulham beat another relegation contender Birmingham City and when Reading lost to Tottenham, Fulham were remarkably out of the bottom three.
Fulham only needed to match Reading or Birmingham’s result to be safe on the final day of the season, but the equation got tough when both their rivals scored big victories, meaning that Fulham had to beat Portsmouth to guarantee safety.
The Cottagers did the job with a nervy 1-0 win that sent Reading down the drop on goal difference. Hodgson would continue to work wonders at the club, culminating in a magical Europa League campaign two years later where Fulham would finish runners-up.
#3 Leicester City – Premier League, 2014/15
Leicester City had something special about them during the 2014-15 season. They started off well, taking points off both Arsenal and Everton before coming back from two-goal deficits twice to beat Manchester United 5-3 at the King Power Stadium. But it all went ridiculously downhill from there.
A mere two points from a possible 39 since the United match saw the Foxes go down to the foot of the table. A brief resurgence saw them beat Hull City and Aston Villa in addition to taking a point off Liverpool at Anfield, but another run of two points from eight games saw them doomed for relegation as April came calling.
It all changed dramatically on April 4 at the King Power. West Ham United seemed to be holding out for a draw when Andy King scored an unlikely winner for the Blues with four minutes remaining. It somehow galvanised the team and with Jamie Vardy coming good with the goals, Leicester posted victories over West Brom, Swansea, Burnley, Newcastle and Southampton to climb out of the relegation zone where they had been for 19 straight weeks.
A draw at Sunderland ensured safety – incredibly – with a game remaining. Such was the remarkable nature of Leicester's run that they would finish above Newcastle who were fifth in November when Leicester themselves were rock bottom.
Nigel Pearson’s side would eventually finish 14th that season with the final game ending in a thumping 5-1 victory over Queens Park Rangers. Leicester’s form was so extraordinary that no one expected them to replicate it the next season – we all know how that turned out!
#2 Tondela – Primeira Liga, 2015/16
You would be easily forgiven for never having heard of Club Desportivo de Tondela or Tondela in short. Founded in 1933, the Portuguese club played their first ever professional season as recently as 2012-13 and their home ground - The Estadio Joao Cardoso- has a mere 5000 seat capacity.
Tondela gained entry into the top tier of Portuguese football – The Primeira Liga – in 2015-16 by winning the second division title the previous year. They had a horrid start to the campaign, sacking two managers by December and appointing former Portuguese star Petit as the new man in charge. As the season reached its halfway stage, Tondela sat rock bottom with an embarrassing haul of eight points from 17 games.
As late as March, they were 11 points from safety and seemed doomed to be relegated. However, something changed in April and the club collected 17 out of 21 points, even scoring an away win over F.C Porto.
They were still in the bottom two going into the last round of matches where they took on already relegated Academica, trailing Uniao da Madeira by two points. Europa League-chasing Rio Ave did Tondela a huge favour by beating Uniao 2-1 away whereas Petit’s men beat Academica 2-0 to finish the season on 16th place, relegating Uniao.
A similar tale might be on the cards this year as well as Tondela are currently in the relegation zone three points behind Moreirense with two games to play.
#1 Eintracht Frankfurt – Bundesliga, 1998/99
The 1998-99 Bundesliga did seem a tad boring at the top with Bayern Munich claiming the Championship with three rounds to go, eventually finishing 15 points ahead of runners-up Bayer Leverkusen. But the battle for survival at the foot of the table went on until the last minute of the season with one relegation spot undecided and five teams fighting to avoid the drop.
Nuremberg started the final day of the season in 12th place and with 37 points – one ahead of Stuttgart and Freiburg, two ahead of Hansa Rostock and three ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt. Frankfurt had the toughest odds with them having to play Champions League chasing Kaiserslautern. Stuttgart would take on Werder Bremen and Rostock would play already relegated Bochum, with Nuremberg and Freiburg facing each other in a mouth-watering climax to the season.
With 20 minutes left to play, it was Eintracht Frankfurt who were in the drop zone, held 1-1 by Kaiserslautern. Rostock and Stuttgart held 1-0 advantages and Freiburg were 2-0 up against Nuremberg.
In a matter of seconds, Frankfurt would score a goal to take the lead against Kaiserslautern and Bochum would score the equaliser against Rostock – as things stood, it would be Rostock going down. With ten minutes left, Bochum would score again and Rostock needed two goals to save their Bundesliga status.
The drama just kept on coming as Frankfurt proceeded to open a 4-1 lead against Kaiserslautern, leapfrogging a losing Nuremberg in the table on goals scored, even though both were provisionally safe with Rostock going down. But that all changed with two quick goals from Agali and Mijak for Rostock who proceeded to open up a 3-2 lead on Bochum and push Nuremberg down to the relegation spot.
However, Marek Nikl pulled one goal back for Nuremberg and now they were off the bottom three and Frankfurt were back in on goal difference. With seconds remaining till the final whistle, Jan Aage Fjortoff scored to make the score 5-1 in favour of Frankfurt – restoring their advantage on goals scored.
Back against Freiburg, Nuremberg had a chance to grab an equaliser which would spell the end for Frankfurt – Marek Nikl’s long range effort was only parried by the Freiburg keeper and two Nuremberg players rushed in with just the fallen keeper between them and the goal. But the tame effort was directed straight at the keeper. Freiburg held on and so did Frankfurt.
At the end of a tumultuous 90 minutes, it would be the unlucky Nuremberg who would drop down four places to end their season in the relegation zone as Freiburg, Stuttgart, Rostock and spectacularly Frankfurt survived.
