Everton will bid farewell to Goodison Park this weekend, when they face Southampton in the club’s final fixture at their historic old stadium, before making the move to their brand-new venue on Bramley-Moore Dock for the start of the 2025-26 season.
The club have called Goodison Park home for 133 years, and the history that has been witnessed between the four walls here will live on forever in Everton folklore, being the location where the club has lifted the English league title on eight occasions (with the first of their nine coming at Anfield).
It is not just matches involving Everton that have gone down in history here though, because the stadium was one of the main hosts during the 1966 World Cup, as well as staging an FA Cup final in 1894, and being the venue where England suffered their first-ever defeat to foreign opposition – against Ireland in 1949.
Here, Sports Mole goes back through the archives and picks out the 10 greatest games to have taken place at Goodison Park ahead of Everton’s departure from the Grand Old Lady.
10 – Everton 3-2 Wimbledon (1994) / Everton 3-2 Crystal Palace (2022) / Everton 1-0 Bournemouth (2023)
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These three fixtures are included at the start of the list not because they are to be celebrated, but purely because of the importance all three victories have had in the survival of Everton as a football club, while also undoubtedly being memorable given what was on the line.
It was not beyond the realm of possibility that Everton would have been in fatal financial trouble had they suffered relegation from the Premier League in 2022 or 2023, but in the face of adversity, they avoided the drop in their last home match of both seasons, just as they did in 1994, when they came from 2-0 down to beat Wimbledon to survive on the final day.
9 – Everton 2-0 Fiorentina AET (Fiorentina win 4-2 on penalties) (UEFA Cup, 2008)
Nothing sums up the modern-day heartache of an Everton fan quite as much as this UEFA Cup knockout defeat in 2008, when trailing 2-0 from the first leg in Florence, Everton roared back with goals from Andy Johnson and Mikel Arteta, the latter of which spawned the memorable quote from commentator Jon Champion, who bellowed “Goodison Park, shaken to its 100-year foundations!”.
Goalkeeper Sebastian Frey had the game of his life in the net for La Viola though, keeping out repeated Everton opportunities throughout 120 minutes, before denying Phil Jagielka in the shootout in a huge ‘what if?’ moment, as Zenit St Petersburg went on to win the competition that year – a team Everton beat during the group stage.
In terms of global meaning, apart from the final itself, few matches carry as much significance as a World Cup semi-final, and Goodison Park had the privilege of hosting one between two of the greatest national sides in world football during the mid-20th century.
West Germany, thanks to the influence of Der Kaiser, Franz Beckenbauer, came out on top, with the legendary sweeper netting the second goal in a 2-1 win over the Soviet Union, who boasted Ballon d’Or-winning goalkeeper Lev Yashin in their ranks, but Helmut Schon‘s men could not replicate that performance in the final, losing 4-2 to England at Wembley.
7 – Everton 1-0 Manchester United (Premier League, 2005)
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This was Goodison Park, and in particular the Gwladys Street, at its very best, as Everton took one huge step to breaking up the top-four monopoly in the Premier League by beating Manchester United 1-0 at Goodison Park in 2005, thanks to Duncan Ferguson‘s superb second-half header.
The atmosphere at Goodison got to United, who had Gary Neville and Paul Scholes sent off, and contributed to them missing out on the title that season to Chelsea, with Sir Alex Ferguson later remarking: “It is always a nightmare going there and it wouldn’t matter whether Dixie Dean was playing for us. The atmosphere is fantastic.”
6 – Everton 2-2 Liverpool (Premier League, 2025)
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Could the Goodison derby have been signed off any more dramatically than it was when Everton faced Liverpool back in February? Unlikely, as James Tarkowski stepped up and plundered a devastating volley into the back of Alisson‘s net in the eighth minute of added time to salvage a point for the Toffees in the last ever meeting between the two at the stadium.
The match itself had everything that makes the Merseyside derby special: a full-blooded Everton approach, two teams going hell for leather for all three points, some controversial decisions and moments, and a fracas post-match that resulted in two red cards and a dismissal for Liverpool manager Arne Slot.
5 – Everton 1-0 Liverpool (FA Cup, 2009)
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Next on the list is another Merseyside derby that saw a dramatic climax back in 2009, when an FA Cup fourth round tie between Everton and Liverpool went to a replay at Goodison, and nothing could separate the two after 118 minutes of that encounter either, until Dan Gosling stepped up.
Just a few days after turning 19, Gosling showed sublime composure and technique to bring down Andy van der Meyde‘s cross, before curling beyond Pepe Reina, sending Everton into Round Five, in a season where they would reach the final, but fell short, losing 2-1 to Chelsea at Wembley.
Everton fans of a certain vintage may list this fixture and this season as their greatest ever, as the team led by Harry Catterick which contained the Holy Trinity of Alan Ball, Colin Harvey and future title-winning manager Howard Kendall cantered to the English league title, taking them level on seven with Arsenal, Liverpool and Man United at the time.
The title was clinched at home to West Brom, thanks to a 2-0 victory courtesy of goals from Harvey and Alan Whittle, and the legacy left from that squad lives on, most notably the Holy Trinity, who have their own statue just outside St Luke’s Church at Goodison Park.
3 – Everton 4-4 Liverpool (FA Cup, 1991)
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From a neutral perspective, it is tough to think of a better game that has ever taken place at Goodison Park than the remarkable 4-4 draw in a fifth round replay in the FA Cup in 1991, which led to Kenny Dalglish‘s resignation as manager a couple of days later.
Everton came from behind on four separate occasions to force another replay, with Graeme Sharp netting the first equalisers, before late substitute Tony Cottee scored to send the game to extra time in the final minute of the 90, and it was he who forced the second replay, cancelling out John Barnes‘s goal on 113 minutes in one of the most extraordinary FA Cup ties of all time, which the Toffees would go on to win in that second replay.
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A game that could arguably rival the final as being the greatest game of the 1966 World Cup took place at Goodison Park, when legendary striker Eusebio stole the show to send Portugal through to the semi-final at the expense of a brave and courageous North Korea outfit.
Having already knocked Italy out of the competition, North Korea raced into a shock 3-0 lead inside just 25 minutes at Goodison Park, but Eusebio would then go on to net all four goals that turned the tie completely on its head, before a late fifth from Jose Augusto ensured passage to the semi-finals where they were beaten by England, but that did not put a dampener on the experience for the Black Panther, who named Goodison the “greatest stadium of my life”, scoring six of the nine goals that won him the World Cup Golden Boot on Merseyside.
1 – Everton 3-1 Bayern Munich (Cup Winners’ Cup, 1985)
The most famous night at Goodison Park and in Everton’s history undoubtedly came in 1985, when Howard Kendall’s side beat German giants Bayern Munich 3-1 in the second leg of their Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final, which served as a proxy final, setting up a showpiece event with Rapid Vienna in Rotterdam.
Despite coming up against a team that includes the likes of Lothar Matthaus and Dieter Hoeness, the man who scored the opener, Everton rallied in the second half, thanks in part to a famous quote from Kendall, who said “get the ball into their box, and the Gwladys Street will suck the ball into the net.”
Those words rang true, as Graeme Sharp, Andy Gray and Trevor Steven all scored in front of Gwladys Street to send them through, and they comfortably beat Rapid Vienna in the final, but it was to be the last time that squad played in Europe together, after the Heysel disaster led to a blanket ban on all English clubs from competing, denying Everton the chance to play in the European Cup after winning the title in 1985 and 1987.
