Martim Fernandes’ bizarre own goal in Porto’s Europa League quarter-final against Nottingham Forest takes pole position in our list of the own goals scored from furthest out.
Twelve minutes into Porto’s Europa League quarter-final against Nottingham Forest, the Portuguese side would have been feeling pretty confident.
They were already 1-0 up after William Gomes’ opener, but significantly, even though they were just 10 minutes into the tie, the goal came from their fourth shot on target. Two of those came inside 60 seconds, and the truth is that Forest had been fortunate to last as long as they had without conceding.
Forest manager Vitor Pereira had fielded a weakened side, clearly with his side’s Premier League relegation battle and Sunday’s meeting with Aston Villa in mind, and it was showing. Porto were by far the better side, and Forest’s first European campaign in a generation was looking under threat just moments into this tie.
Then, a lifeline.
As had often been the case, Porto has comfortable possession up the pitch, and were knocking the ball around in the hope of dragging a Forest player out of their compact 3-4-3 shape.
Former Southampton centre-back Jan Bednarek was on the ball, looking to play towards Porto’s left side, only to be discouraged from doing so by Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White. Bednarek then made the soon-to-prove fatal decision to pass to the opposite side of the pitch.
He found 41-year-old Thiago Silva who, under pressure from James McAtee, calmly rolled the ball out to right-back Martim Fernandes.
There was no threat. Fernandes didn’t have an opponent anywhere near him. He might have known that turning to face forward would have meant meeting Dan Ndoye, who was getting ready to press him, but there was no need to panic. There was no real need to play a first-time ball all the way back to his goalkeeper, Diogo Costa.
But that was what he decided to do, and catastrophe struck. Fernandes caught the ball sweetly, and he hadn’t bothered to check precisely where Costa was. Fairly impressively, he found the gap between the goalkeeper and his goal to score one of the most remarkable own goals you’ll ever see.
He scored it from 44.0 metres out which, after a look through the Opta archives, we can reveal is the furthest out that an own goal has been scored in any of Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League, or the Europa League in the last 10 seasons (since 2015-16). The night would soon go from bad to worse for Fernandes, who was forced off due to injury on 19 minutes.
Here are the top 10 own goals scored furthest from goal in any of the top five European leagues or Europe’s two biggest continental competitions since the start of 2015-16.
- 44.0m – Martim Fernandes, Porto vs Nottingham Forest, Europa League, 9 April 2026
- 39.1m – Jonny, Celta Vigo vs Deportivo La Coruña, La Liga, 21 November 2015
- 38.1m – Rafa Marín, Alavés vs Celta Vigo, La Liga, 28 September 2023
- 36.5m – Gabriel Paletta, Milan vs Pescara, Serie A, 2 April 2017
- 36.4m – Robert Andrich, Union Berlin vs Eintracht Frankfurt, Bundesliga, 20 March 2021
- 35.5m – Cédric Hountondji, Angers vs Rennes, Ligue 1, 30 April 2023
- 33.9m – Amir Rrahmani, Napoli vs Como, Serie A, 23 February 2023
- 30.6m – Romaine Sawyers, West Brom vs Leeds, Premier League, 29 December 2020
- 28.9m – Benedikt Gimber, Heidenheim vs Eintracht Frankfurt, Bundesliga, 2 March 2024
- 28.8m – Aïssa Mandi, Villarreal vs Atlético Madrid, La Liga, 29 August 2021
Romaine Sawyers holds an unwanted lead in the Premier League in this regard, having scored the opening goal on a night to forget as West Brom lost 5-0 to Leeds. Sawyers didn’t check where goalkeeper Sam Johnstone was before fizzing a pass back towards his own goal to score from 30.6 metres out. Fortunately for Sawyers, that was during Covid, so there was nobody there to witness it.
This isn’t a phenomenon unique to any particular league, with all five of the top five European leagues featuring in our top 10, as well as a new leader from the Europa League. For now, though, the Champions League remains relatively immune from this kind of disaster.
’Enjoy this? Add Opta Analyst as a preferred source by clicking here.
Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
