My Memorable Football matches

As I it is my 18th birthday, I thought it would be time to reminisce on the football matches that I fondly remember, either from the memory they produced or the enjoyment from watching them.

England vs Portugal, 2006 World Cup: Sadly this is one of the more boring games on the list due to it finishing 0-0 and resulting in England losing 3-1 on penalties. This game has become infamous for the Wayne Rooney sending off and the Ronaldo Wink. But what makes this game resonate with me the most was the fact that I watched this game in Portugal in a bar with my Dad where we were the only English people in the bar, this is also my first footballing memory.

MK Dons vs Leicester City, 2009 League One: This was my first experience of live football. This was one of the more interesting games with a last minute goal from Max Gradel meaning the game finished 2-2. Peter Leven scored twice for MK Dons who were then managed by Roberto Di Matteo, who went on to win the Champions League with Chelsea, and the MK Dons team contained players like Jason Puncheon and Dean Lewington who is still at the club to this day. While the Leicester City team contained Andy King who won the Premier League with Leicester in 2016 and Tom Cleverley. What makes this game stick with me is the rise of Leicester after this to then win the Premier League 7 years later.

Liverpool vs Manchester United, 2009 Premier League: The image I remember from this game is the Steven Gerrard camera kiss. What made this game even better was the fact I had watched it with a lot of Manchester United fans in the same room with me and that is also what helped this game stick with me. The game was a rout for Liverpool who won 4-1 following goals from Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Andrea Dossena.

Manchester City vs QPR, 2012 Premier League: This game will forever be remembered for the commentary by Martin Tyler when Sergio Aguero scored the winner in injury time to win Manchester City their first ever Premier League title. Mancehster City needed to win to secure the title. With QPR winning 2-1 going in to injury time it looked as if City were going to have to wait for their first Premier League title, but in the 92nd minute Edin Dzeko headed in an equaliser, then in the 94th minute Sergio Aguero recieves a pass from Mario Balotelli, his second best contribution on the pitch for City, and rifled it in to win City their first title with partically the last kick of the game.

France vs Argentina, 2018 World Cup: I remember this game due to the back and forth nature of France and Argentina constantly scoring, as well as the world class goal from Angel Di Maria and goal of the tournament from Benjamin Pavard. This game will also be remebered as the game where Kylian Mbappe established himself as a world class player, as he managed to win the penalty to help France take the lead early on, as well as his 2 goals scored in the game, and the memorable moment where he sprnited past Marcos Rojo even when Rojo had a head start, which he then topped in the Final against Croatia.

Liverpool vs Barcelona, 2019 Champions League Semi-Final: This is one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the Champions League. 3-0 down against one of the best teams in the world with the greatest player ever on the pitch and stopping them to score. Additionally, Liverpool were missing key players in Mohammed Salah and Roberto Firmino through injury. The game ended 4-0 to Liverpool due to goals from Divock Origi and Georginio Wijnaldum. But the game will be remembered for the quickly taken corner by Trent Alexander Arnold to provide the assist for Divock Origi to take the lead on aggregate. This win then helped Liverpool reach the Champions League final which they ended up winning 2-0 to secure their 6th European Cup.

Genk vs Napoli, 2020 Champions League Group Stage: This is my first ever Champions League game, and despite it being a 0-0 draw Genk pushed Napoli all the way and had several chances to score in the 2nd half.