Ranking Tottenham Hotspur's Top 5 Greatest Cup Finals
Tottenham Hotspur may have fallen short in their pursuit of Capital One Cup and Europa League glory this season, but they remain a club synonymous with cup finals.
Sunday's 2-0 defeat by Chelsea in the League Cup's showpiece game at Wembley marked Spurs' 21st cup final appearance—but which ranks as the club's greatest ever?
To help narrow down the field, this countdown will focus solely on those in which Spurs have emerged victorious.
Historical significance, the spectacle of the matches themselves and the quality of the opposition have also been taken into consideration.
Featuring a ground-breaking European glory night, a 1980s FA Cup thriller and the one time Spurs left Roman Abramovich feeling blue, this is a rundown Tottenham's five greatest cup finals.
Honourable Mentions
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As Tottenham have found out on no less than eight occasions, in cup finals, there must always be a loser.
It's the same when it comes to listing the Lilywhites' five best ever finals, with some falling just short.
Spurs' 2-1 victory over Chelsea in the 1967 FA Cup final dubbed the “Cockney Cup Final” was a strong contender but narrowly missed out.
There was also no room for the club's 1972 UEFA Cup victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers, in what was the inaugural final of the competition.
The 1984 penalty shootout victory over Anderlecht in the same competition is also excluded.
Of Spurs' losing final appearances, Coventry's shock 3-2 victory in the FA Cup final of 1987 stands as the most memorable and worthy of reference, though not inclusion.
5. 1960/61 FA Cup Final: Tottenham 2-0 Leicester City
2 of 6A cup final of huge historical significance for Tottenham, Spurs became the first team in the 20th century to rack up a league and FA Cup double in 1961 with this victory.
Football was different in those days, and a tight encounter was turned on its head after Leicester City defender Len Chalmers suffered a broken leg after just 20 minutes.
With no substitutes to call on, Chalmers simply carried on, though Tottenham still took 66 minutes to score, despite their man advantage.
Bobby Smith broke the deadlock with a neat finish inside the box, before Terry Dyson added a second with a fine header nine minutes later to seal victory.
Though the BBC match report noted Spurs manager Bill Nicholson was "frustrated not to have seen his side play out their final hour-and-a-half with their usual style" they were nevertheless worthy winners.
4. 1990/91 FA Cup Final: Nottingham Forest 1-2 Tottenham
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Tottenham put a turbulent season behind them in 1991—with the club coming close to going out of business—by lifting FA Cup in dramatic fashion.
Stuart Pearce had put Forest into an early lead with a free-kick won after a rash tackle from Paul Gascoigne on Gary Charles.
Gascoigne would play no further part in the game or subsequent season after tearing cruciate ligaments.
On the half-hour, Forest goalkeeper Mark Crossley brought down Gary Lineker for a penalty, but his spot-kick was saved. Crossley was only the second man to save an FA Cup final penalty.
It was only a temporary reprieve, though, with Paul Stewart levelling the scores 10 minutes into the second period before the game headed into extra time.
There, a smart corner from Nayim—brought on for Gascoigne—was flicked on by Stewart and put into his own net by Des Walker, thus ending Tottenham's nine-year trophy drought.
3. 2007/08 League Cup Final: Chelsea 1-2 Tottenham
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Taking on a Chelsea team targeting the quadruple under Avram Grant, Tottenham put in arguably one of their best ever performances against the Roman Abramovich-backed Blues.
Spurs had started brightly but fell behind to a Didier Drogba free-kick, with goalkeeper Paul Robinson caught out of position for the goal.
Tottenham fought on, though, and got their reward on 70 minutes when a hand ball from Wayne Bridge allowed Dimitar Berbatov to level the scores from the spot.
The game went to extra time, where another goalkeeping error, after just four minutes, proved decisive.
Rushing out to clear his area, Petr Cech inadvertently punched a Jermaine Jenas free-kick onto the head of Jonathan Woodgate, with the ball ending up in the Blues’ goal.
The likes of Ledley King, Didier Zokora and Woodgate then defended doggedly, with Tottenham holding on for the win.
Speaking to World Soccer magazine, Spurs manager Juande Ramos said:
""It’s always a tremendous satisfaction to win a trophy, especially for the club itself. This one perhaps has a special flavour to it because it was against a team that was supposedly superior to us. It’s similar to [his former club] Sevilla playing against the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid and beating them."
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Ramos would claim no more silverware, however, after being sacked early into the following campaign, with Tottenham struggling at the wrong end of the table.
2. 1980/81 FA Cup Final: Tottenham 3-2 Manchester City
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The 100th edition of the FA Cup final was also one of the best remembered, though a replay was required after the first game ended 1-1.
It would be a different story in the repeat fixture, with Tottenham taking an early lead through Ricky Villa on eight minutes.
They were pegged back almost immediately, though, with Steve MacKenzie levelling the scores for City just three minutes later.
Kevin Reeves then put the Sky Blues in front from the spot on 50 minutes before Garth Crooks equalised with less than a quarter of the game remaining.
The stage was then set for one of the greatest goals in FA Cup history, as Villa embarked on a mazy 30-yard run that saw him beat four City players before finishing past Joe Corrigan.
In an interview with the BBC years later, Spurs captain Steve Perryman recalls the thoughts running through his head as Villa moved forward with the ball:
"Shoot, shoot! Why are you not shooting?! And then he did."
The effort was later named Wembley Goal of the Century.
1. 1962/63 European Cup Winners’ Cup Final: Tottenham 5-1 Atletico Madrid
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As historic a European victory as they come, Tottenham’s 1963 European Cup Winners’ Cup victory was both the pinnacle of manager Bill Nicholson’s early success at the club and marked the first British triumph in a major European trophy.
It was just reward for a superb Tottenham team, who had reached the semi-finals of the European Cup the season before, only to be denied by a Eusebio-inspired Benfica.
Held at the Stadion Feijenoord in Rotterdam, Spurs faced holders Atletico Madrid and took them apart in a sensational display.
First-half goals from Jimmy Greaves and Scotland international John White put Tottenham 2-0 up by half-time. Atleti rallied briefly, with Enrique Collar scoring a penalty just after the break.
However, Terry Dyson restored Spurs’ two-goal cushion on 67 minutes before both he and Greaves added a fourth and fifth to seal a sensational victory.
That wonderful Tottenham team of the early 1960s would be taken apart in the years that followed, with only Greaves remaining by the time of their 1967 FA Cup final appearance.
White, meanwhile, would pass away at the age of just 27 after being struck by lightning on a golf course just a year later.
The final remains among the club’s finest hours, though.
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