.png)
10 hours ago
2
“Matvey Safonov did not make a single save in the Champions League final, across normal time, extra time and penalties, and wound up winning it,” notes Philip Cornwall. “I realise records are limited, but has this happened before in a major final?”
We’ve found three more Champions League finals in which the winning goalkeeper did not have a save to make, though none of them had the chance to do so during a penalty competition. When José Mourinho’s Porto beat Monaco 3-0 in 2004, Vitor Baía made no saves that were officially recorded, though he did make one great stop when Fernando Morientes was wrongly flagged offside.
Wayne Rooney’s equaliser for Manchester United against Barcelona at Wembley in 2011 probably should have been ruled out for offside against Ryan Giggs in the buildup. The goal was given but did not derail an imperious Barcelona, who took control again in the second half and won 3-1. Their goalkeeper, Victor Valdes, did not make a save all night.
Lyon beat Wolfsburg by the same scoreline in the Women’s Champions League final of 2020. Alexandra Popp’s goal, which made it 2-1 and gave Wolfsburg false hope, was their only shot on target; Lyon keeper Sarah Bouhaddi joined football’s equivalent of cricket’s TFC club.
So did Arsenal’s Wojciech Szczęsny when his team routed Aston Villa 4-0 in the 2015 FA Cup final. The most high-profile example we can find is Nery Pumpido in the 1986 World Cup final, when Argentina beat West Germany 3-2 in a thriller at the Azteca. West Germany’s goals, both from corners, were their only attempts on target.
“Salford won the most games in their division this season (25), yet didn’t get promoted,” writes Nick Orton. “Who has won the most league games in a season without achieving promotion?”
Salford finished the regular League Two season with a record of P46 W25 D6 L15 Pts 81. Their aversion to draws meant they finished fourth, a nose behind Cambridge (W22 D16 L8 Pts 82), and missed out on automatic promotion. The other teams to go up automatically, Bromley and MK Dons, won 24 matches apiece. Salford then beat Grimsby in the playoff semi-finals before losing to Notts County.
There was a degree of ambiguity to Nick’s question, which could refer to winning the most games in the league in that particular season or the most overall. We decided to concentrate on the latter, although Michael Haughey points out that Salford are the first Football League team since Chelsea in 1979-80 to win more games than anybody else in the division without being promoted. (There have been more recent instances of teams being joint top on wins, including poor old Reading in the First Division in 1994-95.)
Thanks to Michael, Tom Reed, Andy Carswell and Michael Haughey for contributing to this (non-comprehensive) list of teams who have won more than 25 games in a season without being promoted. It’s especially common in the National League, or the Conference as it was known, where only one team goes up automatically. The same was true of the old Third Division North and South.
The number of victories refers only to the regular league season, so playoff games have not been counted.
26
Reading Third Division South 1935-36
Portsmouth First Division 1992-93
Sunderland First Division 1997-98
Torquay United Conference 2007-08
Forest Green Rovers National League 2015-16
Dagenham & Redbridge National League 2016-17
Wrexham National League 2021-22
Barnsley League One 2022-23
Barnet National League 2023-24
27
Rochdale Third Division North 1925-26
Leeds United Championship 2023-24
28
Stockport County Third Division North 1928-29 and 1929-30
Rotherham United Third Division North 1948-49
Hereford Conference 2003-04
Kidderminster Harriers Conference 2012-13
29
Rotherham United Third Division North 1946-47
Tranmere Rovers National League 2016-17
York City National League 2024-25
30
Wrexham Conference 2011-12
Kings Lynn Town, Kettering Town and Weymouth Southern League 2017-18
We’ve saved the best till last, an extraordinary Southern League season in which five teams won at least 30 of their 46 league teams. Only two were promoted.
Can anyone match Sancho’s hat-trick?
“Jadon Sancho played in the finals of all three European competitions in the last three years,” notes Glenn Coburn. “Has anyone done this, or were there other close calls such as Emerson Palmieri (2019, 2021, 2023)?”
Peter Tomlin has raced to the front of the queue to answer this. “I have only been able to find one other player who has appeared in all three finals since the European Conference League started. Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored in the Europa League final for Manchester United when they beat Ajax 2-0 in 2017. He followed this up with a 17-minute cameo in Roma’s 1-0 win v Feyenoord in the Conference League in 2022. Finally, he started the 2025 Champions League final for Inter against PSG. In the past, many players have appeared in three different finals of European competitions but not within such a short time span as Sancho.” Dirk Maas adds that Nicola Zalewski is another close contender. “Zalewski played in the 2025 Champions League final with Inter, the 2023 Europa League final and the 2022 Europa Conference league final with Roma. If you know a player who has competed in three different European finals in three years, please get in touch.
Knowledge archive
“In a previous Knowledge we suggested that two Swedish towns, Uddevalla and Sandviken, (population: 40,000 and 29,000 respectively) were the tiniest host towns in World Cup history. Surely there can’t be a smaller one out there, can there,” we asked in July 2002.
Daniel Wilson thinks so. As he points out, Lugano in Switzerland hosted a game between Italy and Belgium on June 20, 1954. The present population of the town (according to the Swiss tourist board) is just 29,000 – and it was almost certainly lower 48 years ago.
Can you help?
“Qatar’s all-time top scorer Almoez Ali came on as a second-half substitute in the recent friendly against Ireland, only to receive a red card 21 minutes later for violent conduct during an off-the-ball scuffle with Jason Molumby. If Qatar fail to get out of their group and Ali receives a three-match ban, this red card will lead to him missing Qatar’s entire World Cup campaign. Has it ever happened before that a player has missed an entire World Cup for receiving a red card in a pre-tournament friendly?” asks Eoin Jones.
“Last week, Auckland FC won the A-League Men championship, beating Sydney FC in Auckland. The next day, Auckland FC’s OFC team won the inaugural OFC Pro League title, also in Auckland. Is this the first time one club has won titles in two different confederations in the same season?” wonders Michael Wood.
“New Zealand have called up Tommy Smith to their World Cup squad. He played for Braintree Town last season, who were playing in the fifth-tier National League. Has a player from a lower division ever been called up to either a World Cup or continental championship?” asks Paul Wilson.
“On Friday 15 May, the McLeman Cup final penalty shootout was suspended midway, due to the floodlights going out at Cove Rangers’ stadium,” says Andrew Wilson. “The shootout resumed on Thursday 28 May, 13 days later. Has there been a longer penalty shootout?”
-
We’ll have the first of our World Cup specials next week. Send your questions and answers to [email protected]
