Vikings Down Steelers

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Minnesota Vikings claimed a tense 34-27 win over Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL at Wembley Stadium.

A near sell-out crowd of 83,519 saw a thrilling finish as the Steelers came close to scoring a touchdown in the final seconds.

But Everson Griffen sacked Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to clinch Minnesota's first victory of the season.

Vikings quarterback Matt Cassel said: "What an amazing experience."

Coach Leslie Frazier added: "It feels great to get a first 'home' win of the season even if we had to come all the way to London to get it.

"I'll always have a special place in my heart for Wembley Stadium. Thank you London for helping us get that first win. With all the noise we felt at times like we were back at home."

Pittsburgh, who contested three of the last eight Super Bowls, have now lost their opening four games of the season for the first time since 1968.

The match was the first of two NFL games at Wembley in the space of a month - Jacksonville Jaguars play San Francisco 49ers on 27 October.

Minnesota started strongly, opening the scoring with Blair Walsh's 54-yard field goal before stretching their lead to 10-0 through Greg Jennings's touchdown.

There was a quick response from Pittsburgh as Le'Veon Bell took Roethlisberger's pass to score but Adrian Peterson restored the Vikings' 10-point lead with a spectacular 60-yard touchdown.

Pittsburgh's Shaun Suisham and Minnesota's Walsh kicked field goals to leave the half-time score at 20-10.

The Steelers made the perfect start to the third quarter when Bell forced his way over, but they then conceded two touchdowns in as many minutes as Peterson and Jennings both claimed their second of the game for a 34-17 lead.

Jerricho Cotchery's touchdown kept the Steelers's hopes alive early in the fourth quarter before a Suisham field goal cut Minnesota's lead to 34-27.

The Steelers were closing in on the Vikings' endzone and looked set to level the match before Griffen stripped the ball off Roethlisberger on the six-yard line with 19 seconds left.

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Chicago Beat Tampa at Wembley

The Chicago Bears withstood a late fightback by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win 24-18 in the annual NFL game at Wembley.

The Bears led 21-5 going into the fourth quarter after touchdowns by Matt Forte, Roy Williams and Marion Barber.

The momentum then switched to the Buccaneers with Kellen Winslow and Dez Briscoe both going over over in the space of five minutes.

But a field goal and an interception made it safe for the Bears.

It was a second loss in three years in London for the Buccaneers and a second defeat of the day for their owners the Glazer family, who had taken a helicopter south to London after seeing Manchester United beaten 6-1 at home by rivals Manchester City.

But it turned out that Rio Ferdinand, who had been scheduled to join them as an honorary captain for Tampa Bay, had chosen to stay at home.

The game, the fifth NFL regular-season contest to be played at Wembley in as many years, had fallen short of a sell-out for the first time due to the NFL lockout this summer, which meant tickets only went on sale in September rather than last December.

Chicago running back Forte ran for 145 yards and scored the opening touchdown from 32 yards out late in the first quarter.

Tampa Bay struggled to get any rhythm and blew an easy chance set up by Tanard Jackson's interception, as Josh Freeman threw the ball straight back to Chicago, nine yards from the end zone.

Chicago added a second touchdown in the second quarter when Jay Cutler threw 25 yards to Roy Williams in a 226-yard performance, and when Tampa Bay settled for a field goal on their only promising drive of the first half, there was a sense it was already over.

Barber burst through early in the third quarter to add a third Bears touchdown and it took a defensive play to get Tampa Bay in position for their first touchdown, as Corey Lynch's interception set up a short touchdown pass to Winslow early in the fourth quarter.

With a two-point conversion attempt missed, the gap was still at 10 and the game was in Chicago's hands.

But when Freeman found Briscoe with a 24-yard pass with seven minutes and 25 seconds still on the clock it was game on.

Chicago responded with a thrilling drive, but despite a huge penalty call against Aqib Talib, they could only manage a field goal and it was down to the defence to hold on.