The 10 greatest chokes in the history of football

# 4 – Manchester United 2011/12 season

On 8th April 2012, Manchester United were well poised for their 20th league title, having won 2-0 against QPR. Title chasers Manchester City had lost 1 – 0 to Arsenal on the same day.

They travelled to Wigan Athletic. Wigan had not won a game against Manchester United ever since they were promoted to the first division in 2005. Manchester United had a chance, a very bright one to extend their lead to 11 points. But, the lost the match 0 – 1. The lead was cut down to five points. Business resumed as they defeated Aston Villa 4 – 0. Now, they had to fend off Everton at Old Trafford.

Man United players after hearing City’s score against QPR

Despite leading 3 – 1 and 4 – 2 at one stage, United managed only to draw the game at 4 -4. The lead was cut down to three points. Then came Manchester City in a potential title decider. United lost the game 1 – 0 and the lead was now gone.

On the final day of the season, Manchester United’s game against Sunderland finished 1 – 0 and City were trailing 1 -2 against QPR with just a few minutes to go. Manchester City managed to score two goals in four minutes to win the title and crash United’s dream.

# 3 – Brazil and the 1950 World Cup Finals

The 1950 World Cup format was quite different. There were four groups and the winners of each would play a round-robin format to decide the final champion.

Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden and Spain qualified from their groups. Brazil destroyed Sweden 7 – 1 and Spain 6 – 1 in the first two games. Uruguay had drawn against Spain and won against Sweden, meaning that they needed a win against Brazil, arguably the greatest team on the planet in their very own backyard to lift the cup.

Brazil took the lead in the final game against Uruguay but the South American team came back strongly to win the game 2 -1. Brazil have won the World Cup five times after that but that defeat at home will always sting.