After seeing some crunching tackles in the World Cup final between Spain and Holland, particularly from the Dutch, and to more specific from captain Mark van Bommel and Nigel De Jong. It got me thinking about some of the worst tackles that we’ve seen over the years so here are a compilation of the top 5 worst tackles ever:
1. Harald Schumacher on Patrick Battiston
In the semi-final of the 1982 World Cup between West Germany and France, Michel Platini fed a through ball is substitute Battiston, rather than attempt to catch the ball or block the shot, German ‘keeper Schumacher decided he would clothesline the player. As a result of the challenge Battiston was knocked unconscious, lost his two front teeth and had damaged his vertebra. Platini said that he thought he had died, because “he had no pulse and looked pale”. To top it all France weren’t even awarded a penalty and ended up losing the game on penalties
[youtube tGq7VcaHoqo]
2. Roy Keane on Alf-Inge Haland
After Roy Keane injured his cruciate ligament attempting to tackle Haland, the Norweigian lay over Keane and accused him of feigning injury to escape a punishment. Keane clearly wasn’ happy with these comments and four years later, after Haland had transferred to Man City he exacted his revenge with an awful tackle in the Manchester Derby.
[youtube p_st29mlQwU]
3. Paul Gascoigne on Gary Charles
In the 1991 FA Cup final between Tottenham and Nottingham Forest, Gascoigne went in for a horrific tackle on Charles which ended up having severe repercussions on himself. The challenge ended up rupturing the cruciate ligaments in Gazza's right knee. Many people believe that had he not suffered that injury, then he would have gone on to become a much better player than he already was. To make matters worse Stuart Pearce scored from the resulting free kick that he had given away, although Tottenham did eventually win the game after extra time.
[youtube AyX_af6Rm3k]
4. Benjamin Massing on Claudio Caniggia
How do you stop a dazzling Argentinian forward getting past your defence? Why you just take him out with a a late tackle. At least that was Cameroon defender Benjamin Massing’s idea when he took out Claudio Caniggia at the 1990 World Cup. Still despite his dismissal Massing’s team were able to hold on to a 1-0 lead and record one of the greatest World Cup shocks of all time.
[youtube KeRlJJbtdHc]
5. Francesco Totti on Mario Balotelli
Roma icon Francesco Totti decides to take a similar leaf out of Benjamin Massing’s book here to Mario Balotelli from waltzing past his defence. Except Totti’s ‘challenge’ was a lot more blatant and as the team’s captain he should know a lot better than to do that.
[youtube a0Zsd38GssA]
Are there any tackles that you think should be on the list?