Teh 50 most important goals

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These aren't the best goals ever scored. Far from it. Our list contains a good sprinkling of toe-pokes, deflections and clownish mis-kicks. One of them was scored by a third division goalkeeper.

But despite their respective artistic merits, they all command a place in the annals of the game. They might have decided World Cup finals, settled championships or saved sides from relegation. Some of the goals stand out as statistical milestones. Others have entered the game's mythology to become shared treasures, revered by fans of every club. Others set records that will never be broken.

Whether they are sitters or scorchers, the fifty selections share one quality in common: each made a big impact on the history of football.

50 Iain Dunn - HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 3 Lincoln City 2, Auto Windscreens Shield, 1994. Even the keenest Terriers fan might be hard-pushed to recall Dunn's strike, but it claims an important niche in history as the first golden goal to settle a British cup game. Dunn was handed a gold (coloured) football to mark the occasion.

49 Peter Osgood - CHELSEA 2 Leeds 1, FA Cup Final replay, 1970. Ossie makes the list for two reasons. His opening goal helped win the Cup for Chelsea in one of the nastiest sporting duels of recent times. And it made him the most recent player to score in every round.

48 Ruud van Nistelrooy - Newcastle 1 MANCHESTER UNITED 2, Premiership, 2003. The Old Trafford outcast made it into the record books by scoring in his eleventh consecutive league match.

47 Bobby Charlton - Colombia 0 ENGLAND 4, friendly international, 1970. It was the comb-over king's 49th and last goal for England, setting a mark that has yet to be equalled.

46 Oliver Bierhoff - Czech Republic 1 GERMANY 2, Euro 96 final. The man with a name like a German off-licence scored the first golden goal to settle a major international final.

45 - Joe Payne's tenth. LUTON TOWN 12 Bristol Rovers 0, third division (south), 1936. Set the record for most goals in a league match.

44 Gary Lineker - Argentina 2 ENGLAND 1, World Cup quarter-final, 1986. England still went out, but Lineker's sixth in the tournament made him the first and only Englishman to win the World Cup Golden Boot.

43 Pele - SANTOS v Vasco Da Gama, 1969. The match in the Maracana was so obscure no one knows the score, but it witnessed the 1,000th goal of Pele's career. He went on to total 1,282, but admittedly that includes strikes in dubious exhibition games, and early goals scored for the 9th Sao Paolo cubs.

42 David Simmons - COLCHESTER UNITED 3 Leeds 2, FA Cup fifth round, 1971. Scored the crucial goal that sealed one of the greatest Cup shocks of all time.

41 Peter Withe - ASTON VILLA 1 Bayern Munich 0, European Cup final, 1982. The bearded Scouser's scrappy shinner won the big one for Villa in Rotterdam.

40 Eric Bryant - YEOVIL TOWN 2 Sunderland 1, FA Cup fourth round, 1949. Yeovil were in the Southern League, Sunderland the so-called Bank of England club. But the famous Huish slope, the Magic of the CupTM, and Bryant's extra-time winner were enough to create a seismic upset.

39 Alan Sunderland - ARSENAL 3 Manchester United 2, FA Cup final, 1979. The frizzy forward notched the most dramatic winner the Cup Final has seen, after United had pulled two goals back in the last few minutes.

38 Sammy Reid - BERWICK RANGERS 1 Rangers 0, Scottish FA Cup 1967. Reid scored the winner for the second division amateurs that still triggers disbelief around Ibrox.

37 Angelo Schiavio - ITALY 2 Czechoslovakia 1, World Cup final, 1934. Italy became the first European winners of the World Cup in the regrettable presence of Il Duce, thanks to the cramp-riddled veteran Schiavio's extra-time decider.

36 David Trezeguet - FRANCE 2 Italy 1, Euro 2000 final. The Juventus striker rounded off the best international tournament of recent years with a golden goal to sink plucky Italy.

35 Paolo Rossi - Brazil 2 ITALY 3, World Cup group match, 1982. Hat-tricks are a scarce commodity, and it needed Rossi's treble to beat one of the best teams never to have won the World Cup, in one of the best games in the tournament's 76 years.

34 Marquitos - Reims 3 REAL MADRID 4, European Cup final, 1956. It's easy to imagine that Real Madrid were unchallenged in the early years of this competition, but Marquitos scored the winner in the tense inaugural final against the team from Reims to set the pattern for several years to follow.

33 Alcides Ghiggia - Brazil 1 URUGUAY 2, World Cup final match, 1950. The hosts were runaway favourites to win the World Cup for the first time, in front of at least 199,000 in the Maracana, but outside-right Ghiggia scored the key goal ten minutes from time and Brazil had another eight-year wait to claim their destiny.

32 Bobby Stokes - Manchester United 0 SOUTHAMPTON 1, FA Cup Final, 1976. Scored one of the goals that made the FA Cup's reputation as the most compelling sporting competition ever devised, as unfancied second division Saints put it over Tommy Doc's division one glory boys.

31 Helmut Rahn - Hungary 2 WEST GERMANY 3, World Cup final, 1954. Rahn's late strike did more than win a World Cup. It raised the pall of gloom that haunted post-War Germany, and set the nation back on the road to peace and prosperity. Not a bad result from a close-range toe-ender.

30 Stephen Pearson - DERBY COUNTY 1 West Brom 0, Championship play-offs final, 2007. Depending on which paper you read, this goal guaranteed Derby anything between either £20 million and £27 million for a ride on the Premier League gravy train. Whatever the figure, the Scot's goal is probably the most valuable scored in any match.

29 Pele - Sweden 2 BRAZIL 5, World Cup final, 1958. This was the first World Cup final watched by a large audience on TV, and Pele's show did much to entrench football as the planet's top sport. For Brazil's third, he controlled the ball on his thigh, popped it over a Swede's head, and volleyed the ball home.

28 David Platt - Belgium 0 ENGLAND 1, World Cup second round match, 1990. Italia 90 re-ignited the nation's interest in football, beginning with this fist-pumping, heart-stopping moment Gazza's late free-kick, Platt's athletic swivel and volley, and the celebrations that followed.

27 Morton Peto Betts - Wanderers 1 Royal Engineers 0, FA Cup Final, 1872. Won the first FA Cup Final with what contemporary press reports described as 'a well-directed kick under the tape'.

26 Ronald Koeman - HOLLAND 2 England 0, World Cup qualifier, 1993. But for Koeman's crucial goal, England might have gone on to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, won the final, and Sir Graham Taylor would still be England manager.

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25 Carlos Alberto - BRAZIL 4 Italy 1, World Cup final, 1970. The full-back's fulminating shot to round off a perfect flowing move gave us the alpha and the omega of what football is all about.

24 Gary Lineker's third - ENGLAND v Poland, World Cup group F, 1986. Lineker was out of sorts and under pressure for his place from Kerry Dixon and Mark Hateley before getting his skates on against the Poles. His hat-trick revived England's fortunes and set him on the way to being the best striker in England history.

23 Ray Houghton - Italy 0 IRELAND 1, World Cup group E, 1994. The Glaswegian's effort at Giants Stadium set up Ireland's finest World Cup win.

22 Gerd Muller's second - England 2 WEST GERMANY 3, World Cup quarter-final, 1970. Der Bomber's extra-time shocker put the skids under Alf Ramsey's England reign.

21 Gerry Armstrong - Spain 0 NORTHERN IRELAND 1, World Cup group 5, 1982. Armstrong's strike in Valencia set the seal on Northern Ireland's proudest night.

20 Jan Domarski - England 1 POLAND 1, World Cup qualifier, 1973. One Pole goal put England out and laid waste to a generation of talent. The nation endured 12 World Cup-less years thereafter.

19 Don Masson - Wales 0 SCOTLAND 2, World Cup qualifier, 1977. Masson's penalty kick went a long way towards sending the Scots to the finals. But was the hand-ball by Joe Jordan? Of course it was by Joe Jordan.

18 David Beckham - ENGLAND 2 Greece 2, World Cup qualifier, 2001. The draw saved England's place in the finals, and Beckham's last-minute free-kick preserved his status as the team's most important player for a few more years.

17 Pele - BRAZIL 1 Wales 0, World Cup quarter-final, 1958. The 17-year-old scored late in the second half, but if Wales had grabbed the goal they deserved history may have panned out very differently.

16 Nandor Hidegkuti - England 3 HUNGARY 6, friendly international, 1953. It took less than a minute for the Magyars to blow apart the myth of English superiority with the first goal in a performance which changed the landscape of world football.

15 Hector Castro - URUGUAY 4 Argentina 2, World Cup final, 1930. The centre-forward scored in the last minute in Montevideo to confirm the hosts as the first-ever world champions.

14 Steve Chalmers - CELTIC 2 Inter Milan 1, European Cup final, 1967. Celtic's second goal in Lisbon was a victory for attacking football against the negative, anti-football of the Milanese. They became the first British team to win the trophy, and also clinched an immortal Quadruple.

13 Michael Thomas - Liverpool 0 ARSENAL 2, First Division championship decider, 1989. "It's up for grabs now!" gasped Brian Moore in the commentary box as Thomas strode through in the last minute at Anfield to score the goal that gave Arsenal the title in the most dramatic climax to a season in memory.

12 John Robertson - Hamburg 0 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1, European Cup final, 1980. The Scot's shot was good enough to win the Cup for Forest for a second year in a row. Will a club of that size ever win the Champions League? Unlikely. And retain it? Never.

11 Ian Porterfield - Leeds United 0 SUNDERLAND 1, FA Cup Final, 1973. Most neutrals' idea of the best FA Cup Final upset ever: plucky Division Two underdogs, Jim Montgomery's double save, Bob Stokoe's porkpie hat and Porterfield's iconic rocket shot into the roof of the net.

10 Xabi Alonso - AC Milan 3 LIVERPOOL 3, European Cup final, 2005. It was a scuffed rebound from a penalty, but it capped the greatest comeback European football has ever seen.

9 Ray Kennedy - Tottenham 0 ARSENAL 1, Division One, 1971. Kennedy's goal two minutes from time in their last League match of the season gave them the title and the chance to win their first Double five days later at Wembley.

8 Alan Kennedy - LIVERPOOL 1 Real Madrid 0, European Cup final, 1981. The full-back they called Barney Rubble reduced Real Madrid's defence to tiny fragments with a bravura run and crashing shot. Click here to see the goal.

7 Jimmy Glass - CARLISLE 2 Plymouth Argyle 1, Division Three, 1999. Last day of the season, and with seconds left Carlisle are drawing 1-1 and doomed to drop into the Conference. Their on-loan goalkeeper chugs up the field and blasts the winner which saves the Cumbrians. Scarborough go down instead. Click here to see the goal.

6 Tommy Smith - Borussia Moenchengladbach 1 LIVERPOOL 3, European Cup final, 1977. "What a delighted scorer! It's Tommy Smith!" burbled the TV commentator as the doughty defender's howitzer header rippled the back of the net to win Liverpool's first European Cup.

5 George Best - MANCHESTER UNITED 4 Benfica 1, European Cup final, 1968. Extra-time on a torrid night at Wembley, and no-one had an ounce of energy left to give except the thoroughbred Best. With the score tied at 1-1 he waltzed through the Portuguese defence and scored to fire Busby's men with fresh hope. Click here to see the goal.

4 Stan Mortensen's third - BLACKPOOL 4 Bolton Wanderers 3, FA Cup Final, 1953. Mortensen became the last player to score a FA Cup Final hat-trick, and also put the tin lid on what is hailed as the best match Wembley has ever seen.

3 Dixie Dean's third - EVERTON 3 Arsenal 3, Division One, 1928. Dean needed a hat-trick in the last match to set a record of 60 goals in a season. He scored two early on, and in the last few minutes Dean leapt above the Arsenal defence and headed No 60. Will his record ever be broken? No.

2 Teddy Sheringham - Bayern Munich 1 MANCHESTER UNITED 2, European Cup Final, 1999. Teddy's timely mis-kick saved United from defeat and set them on the way to the Treble the greatest feat in the history of English football. Click here to see the goal.

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No 1: Geoff Hurst (second goal) - England 4 West Germany 2, World Cup final, 1966

1 Geoff Hurst's second - ENGLAND 4 West Germany 2, World Cup final, 1966. England had beaten West Germany once in normal time only to suffer a late equaliser. Now they had to beat them again in extra-time. In the 100th minute Nobby Stiles prods a pass to the indomitable Ball on the right. He skins Karl-Heinz Schnellinger and cracks over a cross into the penalty area. Hurst finds enough energy to steal a yard on his marker, and thumps the ball against the underside of the bar. Russian Linesman Tofik Bachramov says the rebound is over the line, and England are 3-2 up! They think it's all over! It isn't now, but it will be in about ten minutes. Click here to see the goal.