Sport's greatest comebacks according to our writers

Telegraph

3 days ago

It was exhausting, emotional and bewildering. Carlos Alcaraz pulled off an epic fightback to claim the French Open title in a match that will go down in sporting lore – recovering from a two-set deficit against Jannik Sinner and saving three match points to triumph in a five hours-29 minute showcase.
And today, it leaves us wondering: what are sport's greatest comebacks? So we put it to our experts. This is what they had to say...
Istanbul 2005
Liverpool's v ictory over AC Milan in the Champions League final of 2005 remains the ultimate comeback in sport. Not only because of the scoreline (Liverpool were 3-0 down at half-time) but also because of the quality of the opposition. This was a fabulous Milan team, boasting the likes of Cafu, Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf, Kaka, Andriy Shevchenko and Hernan Crespo.
Ashes 2005
Perhaps it wasn't the biggest mountain to climb, given that England were only 1-0 down in the series, but the 2005 Ashes found Michael Vaughan's team facing up to a dismal record: 17 years of defeats against Australia. To overcome that ancestral curse and pull off a nail-biting victory, despite the best efforts of the mighty Shane Warne, was the greatest sporting feat I've ever seen.
Headingley 2019
In 2019, Ben Stokes produced a second miracle of the summer to lift England from the brink of Ashes defeat to an incredible one-wicket win at Headingley to keep the series alive.
He channelled the spirit of Sir Ian Botham from 1981 and eclipsed his World Cup final match-winning knock to lead England to knock off 359.
It was an innings that extended beyond the sport. I was in a press box at Tottenham before their Premier League match against Newcastle, and the majority of journalists were not preparing for that game but huddled around laptops willing Stokes – and England – on.
Jack Leach wiped his glasses at every opportunity. There was an ill-judged review decision and a missed run-out chance as the pair put on 76 with Leach scoring an unbeaten one – it has not been forgotten despite the two Ashes series since.
2012 Ryder Cup
Perhaps the seismic nature of Europe's comeback is best highlighted by the fact that when it was labelled 'The Miracle of Medinah' nobody considered the moniker to be hyperbolic. The visiting team were 10-4 down on the Saturday afternoon and their challenge was all but dead. But Ian Poulter located a pulse in the twilight and on an unforgettable Sunday, those blue and gold believers stormed through for the 14½-13½ victory.
Hungary 2-3 West Germany, 1954 World Cup final
The grandaddy of all sporting comebacks, and still the one which carries the most cultural, political and historical significance.
Unlike subsequent great fightbacks, like Liverpool against Milan or Manchester United against Bayern or even Alcaraz against Sinner, this was a reversal of fortune that defied all expectation, assumption and, indeed, logic. Hungary were easily the best team in the world. Unbeaten in 31 matches, already Olympic champions, the first side from outside the British Isles to defeat England at Wembley, their arrival in the World Cup final in 1954 was reckoned by the entire football world to be the moment of coronation.
After all, Ferenc Puskas and his boys had already beaten West Germany 8-3 in a group stage game. And after they went 2-0 up within 10 minutes, everyone inside the Wankdorf Stadium in Berne thought that was it, the inevitable had happened, this was going to be another walkover. But, showing astonishing resolve, the West Germans pulled things round, equalising before half time.
Even so, most observers reckoned this was merely a delaying tactic, Hungary would surely finish the job in the second half. They were, after all, The Golden Team. Instead, with five minutes to go, it was the Germans who got the winner. And with the winning goal, nine years on from the end of the war, their comeback victory united a nation traumatised by shame. Albeit not one much celebrated outside the country, it was a triumph that allowed a fractured, dispirited nation to unite, to rally round the flag, to find a medium for guilt-free patriotism. In 2003, it became the subject of a delightful feature film, which insisted that, for Germans of every age, even 50 years on, this was not just a football score, it was The Miracle of Berne.
Brian Lara v Australia, 1999
'This could be the last time I'll be doing this,' Brian Lara told the opposing captain, Steve Waugh, at the toss. West Indies had been bowled out for 51 in the first Test of the series, leaving Lara's position precarious. He had not scored a first-class, let alone Test, century for two years, and had a chipped bone in his elbow.
At the end of day one, after Australia had been bowled out for 256, Lara walked out to bat at an ominous five for two. He was met by boos: the Jamaican crowd were furious that he, rather than the local Courtney Walsh, was captain. By the close, West Indies were 37 for four. More ignominy beckoned against an attack that included Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill.
Yet West Indies did not lose a wicket throughout the entire second day at Sabina Park. While Jimmy Adams was adhesive, Lara was outlandish, launching sixes over long-on against both Warne and MacGill. His 213 turned West Indies' despair into a 10-wicket win.
'The pressure that I was under, the state of mind that I was in and what that innings brought out of me showed me how strong I was as an individual,' Lara later told Telegraph Sport. Tony Cozier, the voice of Caribbean cricket, considered the innings the most important in West Indies history.
But Lara surpassed this innings in the very next Test. On the fifth day in Barbados, in front of his mirror, Lara visualised how he would chase down the target of 308 to win. Then, he hit 153 not out - quite possibly, the best Test innings of all time – in West Indies's one-wicket win. From personal and collective despair, Lara had reached rarefied heights of batsmanship.
France 43 New Zealand 31, 1999
Thirty-three unanswered points at Twickenham, to knock out the favourites for the World Cup, with those glittering All Blacks cruising. Philippe Bernat-Salles and Christophe Lamaison on world-beating form alongside those workhorses Olivier Magne and Abdel Benazzi, but the impish star was the late Christophe Dominici. France left the rugby world stunned; sadly, they had played their final, and Australia triumphed to lift the Webb Ellis Cup.