We’ve all been there: both teams to score coupon in hand, hoping, willing and praying for a late flurry of goals to get us over the line.
Often, said prayers go unheeded. But occasionally, well, the football gods are smiling down on the lucky few.
Of course, there’s no divine intervention that wins bets… although FIFA’s intervention in instructing match officials to add on more injury time these days, a move first rolled out at the World Cup in 2022, has certainly given punters renewed hope even after the 90 minutes have been played.
One Betfair customer was able to cash in during added time to some tune from Tuesday evening’s Champions League and EFL fixtures.
They placed a £20 both teams to score acca on ten games, before watching some of those selections land with ease.
But it was far from plain sailing, and by the time the clock ticked past the 90th minute mark in three of their picks, BTTS was still outstanding.
Call it luck, call it divine intervention, call it destiny… there would be a twist in the tale that would secure the anonymous individual a £3,836 win just two weeks shy of Christmas.
Double Jeopardy
Three Champions League games were selected by the Betfair customer on their coupon, and these landed with a flourish.
Chelsea opened the scoring in the first half of their clash with Atalanta, with Joao Pedro the man to break the deadlock.
But the Italians battled back with an equaliser from Gianluca Scamacca, which secured the BTTS verdict after just 55 minutes. Atalanta went on to win the contest 2-1.
There were five goals in the game between PSV and Atletico Madrid, with BTTS landing after just 37 minutes. Former Manchester City man Julian Alvarez equalised Guss Til’s goal for the Dutchmen, but it was Atleti that would go on to prevail 3-2.
Another 3-2 epic played out in Belgium as Union St.Gilloise went down by that scoreline to Marseille, who had a brace from Mason Greenwood to thank for victory.
There was more jeopardy for our punter in the Championship clash between Preston North End and Coventry City; that was 0-0 with 70 minutes played.
But then Andrew Hughes unfortunately put through his own goal to give the Sky Blues the lead, and given that Preston had been reduced to ten men by this point, most would have expected that to be the end of the scoring.
However, the Lancashire outfit are made of stern stuff and when Pol Valentin curled in a cross in the 77th minute, there was Daniel Jebbison to fire home the equaliser.
Further sweat came in the encounter between Charlton Athletic and Middlesbrough, in which the Addicks didn’t equalise until the 81st minute, but there was comfort elsewhere as Lincoln City defeated Barnsley 3-1 and Notts County downed MK Dons 3-2 – BTTS landing in just eight minutes of that one.
But in the remaining three games of their coupon, despair turned to joy in the most dramatic of circumstances…
Better Late Than Never
After 93 minutes of play, Chesterfield find themselves 0-1 down at Cambridge in League Two.
The Spireites win a set piece and the ball eventually falls to Kyle McFadzean, the less-than-prolific centre back – in fact, he hadn’t scored since the 2023/24 season prior to this campaign.
McFadzean tried his luck from outside of the penalty area and, in true longshot fashion, the ball somehow ended up nestled in the corner of the net.
After 96 minutes of Leyton Orient’s date with Luton Town, the O’s led 1-0. There surely wouldn’t be enough time for another goal?
After a corner broke down, the ball was returned to taker Liam Walsh: his cross was sumptuous, with just the right amount of pace to allow Gideon Kodua to direct Luton’s late, late equaliser home.
Birmingham City’s game with QPR kicked off at 8pm, so was the last of the evening’s domestic action to finish. The Blues found themselves 0-1 adrift in the 93rd minute, but they have plenty of attacking firepower in their squad.
So it was fitting that two of those players combined for the all-important equaliser, with Demarai Gray assisting Patrick Roberts.
There was still even time for QPR to find the most remarkable winner: absolute scenes for their fans and absolute scenes for our Betfair punter, who had turned £20 into £3,836 just 16 days before Christmas.
We’ll raise a glass to that!