Late Drama: Two Injury Time Goals Help Betfair Punter Turn £5 Into £2,000

Football with Goal Live Score Graphic

We’ve all been there: sat on an acca that needs one or two late goals in order to be a winner.

Depending on the bet type, it doesn’t matter who scores them – in Both Teams to Score or Over 2.5 Goals selections, we couldn’t give a hoot who finds the net.

But when you have a correct score treble on the line, it takes a very specific set of events to play out for a winning acca to land.

And for one Betfair customer during the international break, late goals in not one but two games helped them turn a £5 treble into a £2,025 payout!

They will forever treasure the names of Gianluca Mancini and Mikel Oyarzabal…

England Expects

England Flag Against Blue Sky

Wednesday’s slate of World Cup qualifiers on European soil were suggestive of a few one-sided wins for the more established nations.

England were the shortest priced favourite on the night ahead of their trip to Latvia, who they had thrashed 3-0 in the reverse fixture at Wembley back in March.

But our punter wasn’t interested in merely backing the Three Lions to win at odds of 1/40, nor were they intent on improving their value by taking Thomas Tuchel’s men with a minus handicap start.

Instead, they led a correct score treble with England to defeat Latvia by the exact margin of 5-0, which was available at a far juicier price of 8/1.

A win in Riga would secure England’s qualification for World Cup 2026, so there was never any danger of them taking this game lightly.

Although 5-0 offered our punter wriggle room should England score early, they would have been holding their breath when Harry Kane tapped home inside the first minute – however, the ‘goal’ was ruled out after Bukayo Saka was adjudged offside in the build up.

The Three Lions dominated the early going, but ironically it was a Latvia attack that would lead to them breaking the deadlock – Anthony Gordon found himself in space on the counter and he cut inside before curling home sweetly.

With that 5-0 scoreline in mind, perhaps an England lead of 3-0 at half time would be perfect – a brace from Kane, the second of which was a penalty after he had his shirt pulled in the Latvia area, ensured exactly that.

In the 58th minute, Djed Spence marauded down the right-hand side and whipped in a dangerous cross. The hapless Latvian defender, Maksims Tonisevs, could do little more than turn the ball into his own net.

That meant that England could only score once more in 30+ minutes of football for our punter’s bet to remain live.

Thankfully for them, the Three Lions took their foot off the gas thereafter, with substitute Eberechi Eze curling home the fifth in the 86th minute.

That would be the end of the scoring, so the action in Riga culminated in a 5-0 victory for England – great news for them, with World Cup qualification assured, and good news for our Betfair customer too.

Italian Stallions

Things were going smoothly in their other games as well.

Spain were 3-0 up against Bulgaria with more than ten minutes to play; Arsenal man Mikel Merino notching a double, to go with an Atanas Chernev own goal.

And in Udine, Italy were two to the good against Israel, with Mateo Retegui on the scoresheet twice.

But our punter still needed the Spanish and Italians to score again as their respective games entered injury time, so hopes may well have been fading that their 405/1 treble would be a success.

However, there would be a late twist in Valladolid when Mikel Oyarzabal – you may remember him scoring a late winner against England in the EURO 2024 final – did the business once again, making it 4-0 to Spain against Bulgaria in the 92nd minute.

And in Italy, as if by magic, Gianluca Mancini headed home from close range to make it 3-0 the hosts.

There was still an agonising amount of time for our punter to have to wait out their coupon – another goal in either game would have been curtains.

The full-time whistle blew in Spain, with the hosts able to see out the 4-0 victory comfortably enough.

Still the seconds ticked on in Italy… before the referee Clement Turpin finally blew his whistle to end a 3-0 triumph for the Italians.

£5 on, £2,025 out… how’s that correct score precision!