Is Fernandes' own goal the worst of all time?

Porto’s Europa League quarter-final first leg against Nottingham Forest was supposed to be a showcase of rising talent for the Portuguese giants, but 20-year-old defender Martim Fernandes instead provided a masterclass in self-inflicted heartbreak. In the 40th-minute, with the scoreline reading 1-0 to the hosts, Fernandes collected possession near the halfway line and, under little pressure, attempted a back-pass to his goalkeeper, Diogo Costa. The ball sailed 45 yards, over Costa’s outst,retched arm and into the net, levelling the tie at 1-1 and handing Forest a precious away goal.

The agony was compounded within minutes when Fernandes pulled up with an apparent muscle injury, forcing an early exit and leaving his teammates to negotiate the remainder of the match a man down. Porto held firm for the draw, but the focus after the final whistle remained on the teenager’s moment of madness.

BBC Sport has now placed Fernandes’ effort alongside some of the most memorably calamitous own goals in the modern game. Arsenal’s 1991 stalwart Lee Dixon set the bar high when he lofted a 25-yard back-pass over David Se­a­man and into the Highbury net during a league encounter with Coventry. A decade later, Manchester City’s Jamie Pollock produced a piece of individual skill at the wrong end, delicately flicking a QPR cross over his own keeper to doom his side to a 2-2 draw that ultimately contributed to their releg from the second tier.

French left-back Franck Queudrue entered the rogue gallery in 2001, smashing a volleyed clearance from 30 yards out that looped over his Lens custodian and into the top corner. Bury’s Chris­ Brass earned a place in folklore in 2006 when a clearance attempt ricocheted off his own face and past Kasper Schmeichel, while Sport Recife’s Alisson Cassiano managed to score against his own side without opponents Novor­iz­ontino even touching the ball, finishing off an 18-pass move by rolling the ball into an unguarded net.

Whether Fernandes’ 45-yard miscue will outrank these blunders is a question for the ages, but the young defender has already secured an unwanted place among the competition’s most replayed errors. The return leg at the City Ground now carries the extra tension of a Porto side needing to overcome their own, self-imposed deficit.