When title races went down to the last kick of football

The margins are slim, very slim, as things stand Manchester City are just two points behind Liverpool with a game in hand in the Premier League. Should the Cityzens win that game in hand, they will be a point ahead with just seven games of the season remaining. If you think that is too close for comfort, the title race in Germany’s Bundesliga is even closer with a swing of just seven goals keeping Bayern Munich on top of the table from chasing Borussia Dortmund.

That is how it should be, titles should be hard to earn, one shouldn’t just have to turn up to get the trophy.

Here we look at some of the title races that went to the last kick of the ball of the season.

English Football League 1988/89

Arsenal pip Liverpool to the title on goals scored – After 37 games of the season, the two teams were separated by three points with Liverpool on 76 points to Arsenal’s 73. As for goal difference, the Reds were in ascendancy with a GD of +39 to Gunners’ +35. Arsenal needed a 2-0 win at Anfield at least to win the title on goals scored and a bigger win would have given the side from north London the title on goal difference.

The game was 0-0 at half time and Liverpool must have felt that they were almost there, however, the second saw the game turn on its head. Alan Smith scored just seven minutes into the second half to give Arsenal hope. Liverpool though looked to have weathered the storm and sealed the title but up popped Michael Thomas in the 91st minute to hand Arsenal the title.

Premier League 2011/12

Manchester City win title on goal difference - Manchester United had it in the bag, they really did, but they didn’t. Red Devils were a massive eight points clear with just six games remaining, however, City never gave up and were always on United’s coattails.

City kept winning their matches, while United kept dropping points including three in a massive game at Manchester City which handed the Cityzens all the initiative. Heading into the last two games of the season both teams had the same number of points, with City ahead on goal difference.

It all boiled down to the last game and the drama had just begun. Manchester United knew they had to win to sure they had a realistic chance of winning the title; they did, beating Sunderland 1-0.

Over to you City, beat relegation-threatened QPR and the title is yours.

City took the lead in the first half through Pablo Zabaleta, but QPR hit back in the second half through Djibril Cisse and Jamie Mackie, losing Joey Barton to a red card in between their goals. City had it all to do in the last half an hour of the game. City scored two goals in the stoppage time through Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero and went on to win their first title in years.

Serie A 1963/64

Bologna win Serie A beating Inter Milan in a playoff – It was in the days when only two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. After battling it out for 34 league games of the season both Bologna and Inter ended up with 54 points. In March, Bologna were deducted three points after five of their players were found to have used performance-enhancing drugs.

With just three games to go, the Nerazzurri were three points clear, however, the three points penalty was overturned. This meant both teams were now level and won their last three games to end the season level on points.

To decide the winner a one of playoff game was played in June to determine the winner. The Rossoblu won the match 2-0 and won their seventh league title.

Scottish Premier League 2004/05

Rangers pip Celtic – No match divides the city like the Glaswegian derby between Rangers and Celtic and the whole city was on tenterhooks on the final day of the season.

Celtic went into the match two points clear of their city rivals and knew that a result matching that of Rangers would give them the title.

Celtic took the lead in the first half through Chris Sutton, but failed to threaten Motherwell apart from that goal in the first half. Rangers away to Hibernian took the lead after a goalless first half through Nacho Novo.

With Rangers leading and having a superior goal difference, Celtic knew their title challenge was on a knife edge and wouldn’t they know it, Scott McDonald struck with just three minutes to go to derail the title charge. Needing a goal, Celtic push forward and opened masses of space behind for Motherwell to exploit, which they duly did. McDonald struck again to beat Celtic.

Rangers, on the other hand, held on to their 1-0 lead and went on to win the title, by just a single point.

Spanish La Liga 2013/14

Atletico hold Barcelona, win title – It was a virtual playoff, just that Atletico Madrid had one more card in their favour.

Atletico led the table going into the last game of the season from Barcelona by three points, however they played the Catalan giants in their final game of the season at the Nou Camp.

A draw or a win would have been good enough for the side from the Spanish capital, but a Barca win would have given them the title on the head-to-head rule.

Alexis Sanchez gave La Blaugrana the lead in the first half to leave Atletico rocking, but a superb Diego Godin header from a corner levelled matters four minutes into the second half. The score remained the same and that meant that Los Colchoneros had won their 10th title and the first since 1995/1996 season.

Dutch Eredivisie

PSV edge out Ajax and AZ Alkmaar - Three teams went into the final day of the season on the same number of points and all playing different opposition.

AZ were the first team to be eliminated with a 3-2 loss to Excelsior. The real drama took place between traditional powerhouses Ajax and PSV Eindhoven. Ajax beat Willem II 2-0 and that meant that PSV had to beat Vitesse Arnhem by at least four goals to win the title. PSV did exactly that, they beat Vitesse 5-1 in their last game and won the championship by a matter of a single goal.

Incidentally, AZ Alkmaar, who finished third, had the best goal difference despite losing their last game.

Bundesliga 2000/01

Stoppage time goal gives Bayern the title – Schalke were three points behind the all mighty Bayern Munich going into the last day of the season. A topsy-turvy match saw Schalke beat Unterhaching 5-3, after being 2-0 and 1-3 down at one stage.

The result meant that Bayern had to win or draw their match against Hamburg to claim the title.

It was all going to plan until Sergej Barbarej popped up to score in the 90th minute to give Hamburg the lead and Schalke the title.

However, it wasn’t to be for the Miners as a 94th-minute free kick for a back pass by Patrick Anderson levelled

scores on the day and Bayern once again went on to win the title, leaving Schalke looking for their first title since 1958.