Twenty-eight minutes later, the score was 3-3. What is the biggest turnaround in a game following a red card/most quantitative blame that can be thrown at a player for getting sent off?” asks Jamie Wills. At Knowledge Towers, we usually receive questions about the greatest comebacks with 10 men.
We covered that in 2021, so it’s a nice change to look at teams who went to seed after having a player sent off. Before we get to the meat of the question, a quick detour to cover some teams who were already losing and then fell apart completely after losing a player. There are examples dotted throughout the Premier League era.
At the Etihad in 2017-18, Liverpool were a goal down to Manchester City when Sadio Mané was sent off in the 37th minute for a high challenge on Ederson. Two seasons later, Southampton were 1-0 down at home to Leicester when Ryan Bertrand was sent off in the 12th minute. They were eventually humiliated 9-0.
VVV-Venlo went one worse against Ajax the following season. They were 4-0 down at home when Christian Kum was sent off in the 52nd minute. By the hour mark it was 8-0; Ajax eventually won 13-0.
In the same season, 2020-21, Southampton lost another Premier League game 9-0, this time to Manchester United at Old Trafford. The score was goalless when the Swiss midfielder Alexandre Jankewitz walked in the second minute. Opta doesn’t keep records of how much eye contact Jankewitz made with his teammates over the next few days, but we imagine it wasn’t much.
The most costly red cards, literally and figuratively, are those that precipitate a team losing a lead. Zdenek Zeman’s joyfully reckless Foggia were 4-1 up at Atalanta during the 1991-92 Serie A season when Dan Petrescu was given a second yellow card in the 72nd minute. Chaos ensued, Atalanta’s Carlo Cornacchia scored a 14-minute hat-trick and the match finished 4-4.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
