Ten phenomenal last-ditch tackles, including ‘crouching tiger’ Van Dijk’s perfect timing
Virgil van Dijk, Phil Jones and James Tomkins surely have a group chat discussing the art of the last-ditch tackle. Spurs should probably try to avoid them.
One of football’s most enduring pleasures is the last-ditch tackle when a player looks certain to score but the defender has other thoughts. Those ‘oh, how did he do that?!’ moments. These prove defending is as exciting as goalscoring.
Wes Morgan
In the 2018/19 season, Leicester are playing Spurs. A player breaks the Foxes’ defensive lines and is in on goal but he hadn’t reckoned on the enormous slab of flesh that is Morgan who is at full stretch. Just as Dele has pulled his leg back to shoot, Morgan rakes the ball away with his heel. Proper defending. He’s been retired three years now, y’know.
Steve Sidwell
Remember when Sidwell was a footballer? He was once highly thought of and in a well-travelled career, he spent three seasons at Fulham. They were playing West Brom, and Romelu Lukaku broke free and clear going towards goal from the left, taking the ball from the halfway line. The best thing about this is you can clearly see Sidwell flying in from wide on the right all along as the forward approaches the goal before being intercepted just as he tries to shoot on the six-yard line. It’s perfectly timed and absolute poetry in motion – like watching a missile hit its target.
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Badou Ndiaye
The Senegalese is probably not a name many of you will remember playing for Stoke City against Manchester City; he only turned out 27 times in the Potteries and can now be found in Turkey. Anyway, City are in on goal and there are no defenders left, just the keeper. A certain goal, right? Wrong. As Raheem Sterling is taking it around Jack Butland, our man puts on his jet-heeled boots and dispossesses him, even as the goal gapes. Take that, oil boy.
Christoph Zimmermann
The German is playing for Norwich against Spurs. The last third of the pitch is clear. The Spurs player burns towards goal and seems free and clear but Zimmerman has other ideas and times his challenge perfectly, blocking the rampaging attacker just as he strikes the ball to deflect it for a corner. Perfect. It was this kind of form which got him transferred to Darmstadt 98 for an undisclosed fee soon after.
Phil Jones
Of course Phil Jones. Remember, a long time ago, he was regarded as the inheritor of a Duncan Edwards-style all-round brilliance. In a 2011/12 game against Fulham when United weren’t useless, Fulham get Bryan Ruiz into the six-yard box and a matter of seconds from scoring, but he didn’t count on the rubbery-faced defender sticking a last-minute foot out and deflecting it for a corner. These days, United would hail it as determined last-ditch defending; back then it was just ordinary. To be fair Phil wears the dazed, unnerving expression of a man who has recently been hit by a Routemaster, in the way only Phil can.
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Kolo Toure
Sixteen years ago. It’s the North London derby. A Spurs player breaks away, the goalie advances and the ball is taken around him; they just have to roll it into the net from 18 yards but this is Spurs and Toure puts himself in the way and tackles the player, deflecting the ball, even when scoring seemed an easy thing to do with the net giving come hither looks.
Virgil van Dijk
VVD is the king of the last-minute intervention and seeing him in full flight, closing down the opposition is one of the game’s finest things. Here four years ago against Spurs, Dele has reached the 18-yard box and has just slightly over-played the ball. VVD is crouched like a tiger waiting to pounce and sees his chance with a perfect intervention. He makes it look easy but when done badly you end up with a player with his foot actually inside a striker.
Jamie Carragher
Eighteen years ago, the Merseyside derby was an incendiary affair. Andy Johnson (remember him? He retired 10 years ago, is now director of football at AFC Croydon Athletic and runs a property company) is burning towards goal with no-one but the keeper in front of him and it looks like he’ll score, but Carra is prowling, accelerates and runs alongside and blocks him with his whole body.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah
Playing for Palace against Huddersfield, a striker breaks free ahead of the defence and seems to be through on goal, but the Dutchman has other ideas and sprints after him, arriving at pace to steal the ball. He’s so quick it actually looks like he’s been speeded up and everyone else has been slowed down. Fosu-Mensah is now plying his trade at title winners Bayer Leverkusen as proof that starting your career at Manchester United needn’t disadvantage you.
James Tomkins
West Ham are playing Palace and are some shade of hapless. A crossed ball bounces off the back of a group of defenders, who looked a bit dazed. The ball deflects into a Palace player’s path, three yards out. It has to be a goal. But no. Here’s Tomkins at full stretch, like a ballet dancer doing their best Swan Lake, dangling his foot in the air, deflecting it away. He’s still at Palace, but this is his last season.
