What is a ‘smash and grab’ win in soccer – and which ones did our writers most enjoy?

The ‘smash and grab’ win.

It is one of soccer’s most exhilarating — and agonising — results, a point underlined by Liverpool’s improbable 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League last night.

But what precisely is a ‘smash and grab’ and which ones rank as their most memorable? Here, The Athletic‘s Adam Hurrey offers his definition, and our writers choose their favourites — please add your own in the comments below.

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[Team X] 0-1 [Team Y]

Now, this smash-and-grab affair may never have happened, but this is how it should happen.

By heavy implication, only away teams are eligible to smash and grab (at a push, we could allow it to happen at a neutral ground, but other cup-final narratives would likely take over in that situation.)

Their goal has to “live a charmed life”, thanks to the woodwork (struck at least once) and/or the relative heroics of their goalkeeper (the more saves they make, the more straightforward they are allowed to be, history won’t remember them individually). It is mandatory for media reports to observe that the smash-and-grabbers “rode their luck” (ideally “at times”, a clarification that serves very little purpose other than, if anything, to dilute the smash-and-grab credentials) and there is an option to retrospectively declare their display as some sort of “gameplan”, no matter their manager’s tactical ethos.

Smashing and grabbing, in football terms, should be as concise an act as possible, which is why 1-0 wins are the most common result (although a second goal, scored as the other team desperately try to salvage a situation they shouldn’t be in, can be accommodated quite comfortably, although does run a slight risk of the game being framed as the counter-attackers having “picked off” their opponents, which implies a far higher level of tactical shrewdness over sheer, in-the-moment opportunism.)

The goal itself should be scored on the counter-attack (set-piece goals are still eligible to be called “a sucker punch”), a scenario which accentuates the one-sidedness of the game up to that crucial moment. This provides the bonus flourish of a gathering sense of dread amongst the home fans as the attack develops.

The finish shouldn’t be too sumptuous — ideally slid home beyond a full-stretch goalkeeper, not unlike Harvey Elliott’s in Paris.

Late goals are best, but not compulsory, and should ideally leave at least three opposition players prone on the turf in shattered resignation.

Adam Hurrey

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May 2012: Bayern Munich 1 Chelsea 1 (AET, Chelsea win 4-3 on pens)

One of the greatest nights in Chelsea’s history was also one of their greatest rearguard displays, perhaps only rivalled by the two legs in the semi-final against Barcelona which preceded it.

Being outplayed by Bayern was inevitable. Chelsea were facing the Bundesliga side on their own pitch and without key players John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Ramires and Raul Meireles through suspension. Centre-back duo David Luiz and Gary Cahill had been rushed back from hamstring injuries to start their first game in weeks, while academy graduate Ryan Bertrand made his Champions League debut in the final.

Bayern dominated the shot count 23-6, with a further 11 efforts blocked by the desperate actions of Chelsea’s backline. The corner count read 20-1 and yet it was from that solitary Chelsea corner, won in the 88th minute, that Didier Drogba headed the crucial equaliser to take the tie into extra time.

Then it was all about goalkeeper Petr Cech. He saved an extra-time penalty from Arjen Robben before stopping another two in the shoot-out, ensuring Chelsea triumphed despite Juan Mata’s early miss.

No one connected to the club cared that they rode their luck to win the European Cup for the first time.

Simon Johnson

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May 2001: Arsenal 1 Liverpool 2

Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, the first FA Cup final while Wembley stadium was being redeveloped, and a dominant Arsenal threatened to run riot against Gerard Houllier’s Liverpool.

Stephane Henchoz somehow escaped conceding an early penalty, and a red card, after blocking a goal-bound Thierry Henry shot with his left arm (a happy knack of his at the time). The referee ignored the block entirely and gave a goal kick.

Unperturbed, Arsenal poured forward. Sami Hyypia was forced into a flurry of last-ditch clearances, while Sander Westerveld excelled. Yes, really. Freddie Ljungberg eventually forced Arsene Wenger’s team ahead 19 minutes from time, but Westerveld thwarted their attempts to add a second for reassurance. And how they regretted that.

Liverpool, one Emile Heskey header aside, had offered precious little. Then, eight minutes from the end, Arsenal laboured to clear a Gary McAllister free kick and watched aghast as Michael Owen converted beyond David Seaman. The England striker ensured there was no need for extra time, too, by scuttling on to a Patrik Berger pass to pilfer a winner in what little time remained.

“When you’ve got Michael Owen in your team,” offered McAllister, “that’s what can happen.”

Dominic Fifield

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August 2017: Billericay 0 Kingstonian 1

When Essex millionaire Glenn Tamplin bought Isthmian Premier League side Billericay Town in 2017, he did precisely what you’d expect. He sacked experienced manager Craig Edwards, appointed himself the manager, and spent big money on former Premier League stars Jermaine Pennant, Jamie O’Hara and Paul Konchesky.

This benefited my team, Kingstonian, who picked up Edwards as their manager. And, football being football, the opening fixture of the following season was inevitably Billericay against Kingstonian. The owner-manager against the manager he’d sacked. And an England international (Konchesky) and a Champions League finalist (Pennant) against, for example, a bloke who had done the roofing on my house a couple of years beforehand.

This played out exactly as you’d expect. Billericay had all the pressure, all the ball, all the shots… and absolutely nothing to show for it.

And then, after a previous Kingstonian counter-attack had got a Billericay defender sent off, Ks midfielder Lewis Taylor drove through midfield, got a lucky bounce, found himself through on goal and blasted home with the clock showing 89:58. 0-1.

If you watch the video carefully, you can see me behind the goal, running the wrong way in celebration having momentarily lost the plot.

Michael Cox

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May 2014: Derby County 0 QPR 1

“I’d be a liar if I said I could see us scoring. We were hanging on.”

To say Redknapp’s QPR team didn’t have the best of the 2014 Championship play-off final against Derby is to offer one of the great understatements. Midfielder Gary O’Neil had been sent off just after the hour mark, but even before that Derby were the better team. They ended the game with 68 per cent possession and as the clock ticked into the 90th minute, QPR hadn’t managed a shot on target. What’s more, their keeper Rob Green had dislocated his thumb. Things looked bleak.

The game looked like such a foregone conclusion that Redknapp had already decided he was going to retire, unable to muster the enthusiasm for another season in the Championship. “With 10 minutes to go I was thinking, ‘Which golf club should I join this year?’” he said later that summer. “Then, suddenly, Bobby ruined it all.”

‘Bobby’ was Bobby Zamora. In the 90th minute, QPR made a rare foray into the Derby half, winger Junior Hoilett put a cross into the box, Richard Keogh scuffed a clearance and Zamora lashed an instinctive finish into the corner of the net.

There was neither enough time, nor emotional energy after such a crushing moment, for Derby to respond.

“It was the cruellest game ever,” Derby manager Steve McClaren told the BBC afterwards. It’s tricky to disagree.

Nick Miller

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June 1988: England 0 Republic of Ireland 1

Was this game quite as one-sided as legend — or at least my memory — suggests? Probably not. But I remember watching as a 13-year-old and finding it truly unbelievable that England had so many chances but Ireland won it 1-0.

England went into Euro 88 as one of the favourites — almost justifiable for once, after a highly impressive qualifying campaign — and Ireland, having qualified for their first major tournament, were perceived as plucky underdogs who were just there to enjoy the ride.

But what transpired in Stuttgart was one of the greatest days in Irish football history as Ray Houghton’s sixth-minute goal was followed by an astonishing rearguard action from Jack Charlton’s team.

It is best remembered for the performance of Ireland goalkeeper Pat Bonner, who made a series of brilliant saves to deny Gary Lineker and his much-vaunted England team-mates. English TV commentators inevitably talked about “the luck of the Irish” but Bonner was outstanding that day.

Incidentally, I did debate whether the term “smash and grab” can apply when the only goal of the game comes early, rather than late. Adam Hurrey, of the Football Cliches podcast, says it can. And Adam’s word on such matters is final.

Oliver Kay

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February 2021: Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Crystal Palace 2

Sometimes a commentator just captures the moment.

“They couldn’t, could they?” intoned Sky Sports’ Bill Leslie, after Crystal Palace engineered the ball down their left wing and Andros Townsend slung over a hopeful ball towards the back post.

Some context. To say that Palace had been second-best in this Premier League game against Brighton, the club’s greatest rivals, would be to underplay their inadequacy to an almost criminal degree. Brighton had enjoyed 75 per cent of possession; they had fired off 25 shots to Palace’s two; and had taken 52 touches in their opponents’ area. Yet somehow the score was tied at 1-1.

Hence Leslie’s incredulity when, in fifth minute of injury time, Townsend’s pass looped towards Christian Benteke at the back post. But this is where things got silly: Benteke, keeping his eye fixed on the cross, peeled off Dan Burn and swung his right boot at the dropping ball. The connection was clean and his shot found the far corner of Robert Sanchez’s net.

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Look away now Brighton fans…! 🙈#OnThisDay last year, Christian Benteke struck this superb volley in the dying minutes to win the M23 derby! 💥 pic.twitter.com/JIUNoU8YL8

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 22, 2022

It was the second time that Palace had touched the ball in the Brighton box — the first had been Jean-Philippe Mateta’s ridiculous back-heeled opening goal, at a time when Mateta was very much not the Mohamed Salah-esque attacker of 2025 — and completed the single most outrageous piece of footballing larceny I have ever witnessed. It was also probably the funniest.

Its status in Palace folklore even prompted the club’s website to ask Leslie about his commentary three months later. “It was impossible that they didn’t lose that game,” he reflected.

And yet they won it.

Andrew Fifield

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March 1996: Newcastle United 0 Manchester United 1

It’s hard to remember, so many years and disappointments later, what optimism felt like. Kevin Keegan had been stoking it on Tyneside for a while by then, giving a city that had lost its way something it hadn’t felt for years: belief.

Newcastle were top of the league, four points ahead of Manchester United with a game in hand. The title, incredibly, was a possibility, if they could just keep Alex Ferguson’s team at bay, if they could just keep notching up points, if they could just win this next match… against Manchester United.

It was at St James’ Park and Keegan’s ‘entertainers’ – Ginola, Beardsley, Asprilla, Ferdinand – were at their peak. For 45 minutes Newcastle battered their guests, a word Ferguson later used himself. Except for one thing. Newcastle were unable to do what they were known for: score.

At half-time it was still 0-0, Peter Schmeichel having kept his team in it with some astonishing saves. Ferguson got the hairdryer out and Keegan told his players they were fantastic, but they weren’t fantastic enough. In the 51st minute, Eric Cantona scored a volley to make it 1-0. Dreams crushed.

That season scarred a generation of Newcastle fans. We really started to think we could be somebody, but reality returned with that 1-0 loss and the 4-3 defeat to Liverpool shortly afterward.

Sadly, that season calcified in many of us, such that young fans who, for example, think we could win at Wembley in 11 days’ time, seem almost alien in their hope.

Andrew Hankinson

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April 2021: Manchester City 1 Leeds United 2

Manchester City, en route to being crowned Premier League champions, had won 27 of their 28 previous fixtures, in all competitions, when Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United arrived in town. Pep Guardiola’s side had lost only three of their previous 48 games, running back to the start of that season.

Leeds started well, opening the scoring through Stuart Dallas before half-time, but that was swiftly undone by his best friend, Liam Cooper, getting sent off moments later.

Everyone justifiably expected a second-half rout: Leeds had barely created a chance with 11 players, let alone 10, but they somehow held on until the 76th minute when Ferran Torres broke through to equalise.

Dallas played his part in what became a rearguard action, but then arguably his crowning moment as a Leeds footballer arrived. Exhausted by the mental toil of keeping this elite team out at the other end, Dallas, as he always did, found it within himself to dig out one last raid.

He would outrun both John Stones and Fernandinho, hold off the former and then stick the ball through Ederson’s legs in injury time to seal one of the unlikeliest results of that, or any other, season.

Beren Cross

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December 2019: Wolves 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2

It was the first month of Jose Mourinho’s time at Tottenham Hotspur. He had taken over an experienced squad, but one that had run out of physical and mental energy and needed a lift. They needed to find a new way to win. Especially away from home.

On a rainy Sunday in December they went to Molineux to face a Wolverhampton Wanderers side unbeaten in 11 in the league. Lucas Moura put Spurs ahead but Wolves dominated the whole game. Every time Adama Traore ran at Tottenham he had them panicking. He scored the equaliser and Wolves looked like the only team who could win. Even Spurs’ tactical fouling struggled to stop him.

But in added time Christian Eriksen curled a corner kick towards the penalty spot and Jan Vertonghen was unmarked to head past Rui Patricio. Vertonghen, like the whole Spurs team, had had a very difficult afternoon. But he ended up a winner in the end.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

(Top photo: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images)