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We’re now almost three weeks removed from the Carabao Cup Final – the now-notorious game that saw Arsenal completely capitulate and lose 3-0 to Manchester City in one of the most one-sided cup finals in recent memory.
In the immediate aftermath of the game, Arsenal’s performance was widely criticised and some observers even went as far as to claim that it was the worst performance in a cup final in the history of the game. But was that the case?
Anti-Wenger Arsenal fans would probably tell you the answer is yes, but these other five awful performances in cup finals could argue otherwise:
#5 Holland against Spain - 2010 World Cup Final
The 2010 FIFA World Cup wasn’t exactly a vintage tournament for a lot of reasons, but the final match being largely terrible probably has a lot to do with the sour memories people hold of South Africa.
Sure, Holland managed to take the game almost to a penalty shoot-out before Andres Iniesta’s last-gasp goal gave Spain their first World Cup win, but that fact doesn’t take away from the truth that the Dutch were simply awful for the majority of it.
Holland had played well through the tournament – besting Brazil and Uruguay along the way – but decided to change tactic once they reached the final and evidently came to the conclusion that the way to beat Spain was to kick them a lot.
The game was bad-tempered throughout and somehow, eight of the Dutch players ended up being booked – including Nigel de Jong for a truly x-rated challenge – with Johnny Heitinga being sent off for a second yellow. In all the Dutch committed 28 fouls during the game.
A couple of chances on goal – missed by Arjen Robben – were largely all the Dutch created during the game – Spain had 20 attempts on goal to Holland’s 11 – and by the time Iniesta scored fans across the world were breathing sighs of relief.
It might not have been a capitulation, but due to their dirty tactics and general lack of creativity as compared to what they did in the tournament beforehand, this has to go down as an all-time bad final performance.
#4 Aston Villa against Arsenal - 2015 FA Cup Final
Back in 2015, Arsenal were involved in another final that saw one side capitulate, but thankfully for the Gunners' fans, it was their opponents Aston Villa who appeared to throw in the towel, losing 4-0 in one of the most one-sided FA Cup Finals in recent memory.
Villa had been struggling in the league throughout the 2014/15 season but the appointment of Tim Sherwood as manager in February seemed to galvanise the side, and they played some tremendous football to defeat West Bromwich Albion and Liverpool to reach the cup final in May.
On the day though, it simply felt like Villa choked. Creative players Jack Grealish and Charles N’Zogbia – surprisingly selected ahead of the on-form Gabriel Agbonlahor – had no impact whereas Grealish, in particular, had been fantastic in the games leading to the final. And Villa’s defence simply wilted under the speedy attacking threats of Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott.
It took until 40 minutes for Walcott to open the scoring, but the goal had been coming since very early in the game, and Arsenal added a further three goals in the second half – with Per Mertesacker’s third in particular being down to some really shoddy defending from Villa.
In the end, the stats told the story – Arsenal had 57% possession and 16 shots while Villa could only muster 2 shots all game, neither of which hit the target to test keeper Wojciech Szczesny. The game marked the end of Sherwood’s honeymoon period with the club and he was fired just 5 months later.
#3 Chelsea against Manchester United - 2007 FA Cup Final
It seems odd to label the performance of both sides in a cup final bad, particularly the winners – in this case, Chelsea, who picked up the FA Cup following a Didier Drogba goal in extra time – but this was a truly dismal cup final, made even worse by the fact that it was the first to take place at the new Wembley Stadium.
It was also the first ever FA Cup final to be contested between the top two sides in the country – United had won the Premier League that season while Chelsea finished second – but despite being preceded by a lavish and somewhat pompous opening ceremony, the game was a total damp squib.
It took 20 minutes for either side to even register a shot, with Drogba pulling the ball wide, and a further 10 minutes before the next shot. In the end, both sides only managed 4 shots each, with Ryan Giggs seeing a chance cleared off the line and Drogba managing to score the only goal as penalties loomed.
The poor quality of the game could’ve been blamed on sheer fatigue – both sides had played at least 60 games in the season as they’d both reached the semi-finals of the Champions League – but the legions of fans who were bored to tears by the terrible showing from both sides probably didn’t feel a lot of sympathy.
Despite neither side capitulating like Arsenal did a few weeks ago, you could argue that both sides put in a worse performance simply because it didn’t look like they wanted to be there for the majority of the game. It was the worst cup final overall in recent memory.
#2 Argentina against West Germany - 1990 World Cup Final
Perhaps when Holland decided to play dirty against Spain in the 2010 World Cup final, it was because they’d watched Argentina’s performance in the 1990 final 20 years beforehand for inspiration. This one was a truly shameful performance and marred Italia ’90 to the point where it’s remembered as one of the weaker World Cups today.
Argentina – the holders going into the tournament – hadn’t really been firing on all cylinders throughout and relied solely on the efforts of their key player Diego Maradona to get them to the final, but when the big game came he didn’t manage to have any influence at all.
Argentina only managed one shot on goal throughout the entire game, and their tactic seemed to be to defend and kick the Germans while stalling for a penalty shoot-out. West Germany, by contrast, had 23 shots, 16 of them on target, but struggled to break Argentina down due to their dour gameplan.
The game was eventually decided by an 85th-minute penalty from Andreas Brehme, rescuing the watching fans from the possibility of extra-time and more dire football from the Argentines, who became the first side in a World Cup final to have two players sent off.
Pedro Monzon was shown a straight red card for a horrible tackle on Jurgen Klinsmann that left his leg bloody, while Gustavo Dezotti was also sent off when he wrestled Jurgen Kohler to the ground with what looked almost like a choke-slam.
This was a truly bad final performance mostly because it didn’t look like Argentina were interested in trying to win the game at all, regardless of the performance of West Germany.
#1 Barcelona against AC Milan - 1994 Champions League Final
The top spot on this list goes surprisingly to Barcelona – namely, Johan Cruyff’s legendary ‘dream team’, as they were thoroughly embarrassed and destroyed by Fabio Capello’s AC Milan team in a match that has since been labelled as “the night the dream died”.
Barca went into the game as heavy favourites, as it was felt that Milan’s back-line – without key defenders, Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta, who were both suspended – would simply buckle under the pressure of Barca’s stellar attack – which included Romario and Hristo Stoichkov.
Cruyff himself stated this, claiming Milan were “nothing out of this world” and were a purely defensive side.
Supposedly, Cruyff’s team talk was to simply tell his side “you’re better than them and you’re going to win” but that just wasn’t the case. Milan pushed and pressed from the off, fighting fire with fire with Demetrio Albertini dominating the midfield and not allowing Pep Guardiola any room to breathe, which in turn stifled Romario and Stoichkov, who barely saw the ball.
Milan scored two in each half – the best of which was Dejan Savisevic’s lobbed goal from distance - and even had a first-half goal disallowed, such was their dominance. After the match Cruyff claimed his side hadn’t played badly – it was more that they hadn’t played at all.
The 4-0 scoreline remains the heaviest defeat for any side in a Champions League final and stands as a stark reminder of where arrogance and a little too much self-belief could take a team. It remains probably the worst cup final performance from a big team in the game’s history.
