The Champions League has always attracted the world’s finest players, and the competition’s most celebrated goals reflect the full breadth of football’s possibilities—volleys of impossible technique, dribbles of breathtaking audacity, and strikes of pure, savage power. These are the moments that have elevated the competition from a sporting event into something approaching mythology.

1. 1

   Zinedine Zidane vs Bayer Leverkusen

   2002 Final · Glasgow

   Roberto Carlos’s cross from the left was met by Zidane’s rising left-footed volley—struck on the half-turn at the far post—that arced into the top corner of Hans-Jörg Butt’s goal at Hampden Park. It is widely considered the greatest goal ever scored in a Champions League final and perhaps in any final.

2. 2

   Gareth Bale vs Liverpool

   2018 Final · Kyiv

   Coming off the substitutes’ bench, Bale met a Marcelo cross with a scissor kick—his body fully inverted—to score a sensational overhead goal that put Real Madrid ahead in the final. The technique involved in connecting with the ball at that height and angle made it one of the most remarkable goals in the competition’s history.

3. 3

   Mario Mandžukić vs Real Madrid

   2017 Final · Cardiff

   Mandžukić’s overhead kick—connecting with a cross on the left side of the penalty area and dispatching the ball into the far corner with stunning athleticism—was an equaliser for Juventus that briefly threatened to alter the course of the final. It was the finest overhead kick scored in any Champions League final.

4. 4

   Roberto Carlos vs Rosenborg

   1997 Group stage · Bernabéu

   Roberto Carlos gathered the ball wide on the left flank and drove forward before hitting a thunderous left-footed drive from distance that flew past the Rosenborg goalkeeper with extraordinary force and precision. His remarkable physical power made it seem as if the laws of the game had been briefly suspended.

5. 5

   Lionel Messi vs Arsenal

   2010 Round of 16 · Camp Nou

   Messi scored twice in the second leg, but it was his second—gathering a pass and cutting through the Arsenal defence before finishing clinically—that confirmed his status as the finest player in the world. It was the kind of goal that appeared to exist purely to eliminate a resolute English side from the most prestigious club competition on the continent.

6. 6

   Rivaldo vs Valencia

   2001 Semi-final · Camp Nou

   Rivaldo’s hat-trick to send Barcelona through against Valencia culminated in a bicycle kick struck in the final seconds of the match, with the Brazilian connecting with a dropping ball to produce one of the competition’s most celebrated individual hat-trick goals. It was a night of one man’s brilliance against the odds.

7. 7

   Peter Crouch vs Galatasaray

   2006 Group stage · Anfield

   Crouch’s bicycle kick from a John Arne Riise cross was a goal that seemed to transcend the limits of a footballer of his physical type, as the tall striker flung himself backwards to connect with the ball and dispatch it into the net. It won the UEFA Champions League goal of the season award for 2005–06.

8. 8

   Xabi Alonso vs Olympique Lyonnais

   2005 Group stage · Anfield

   Alonso chipped the Lyon goalkeeper Grégory Coupet from the halfway line, a moment of extraordinary vision and audacity that the Spaniard struck with perfect weight. It was a rare and remarkable goal that illustrated the range and ambition of Alonso’s game at its most inventive.

9. 9

   Iker Casillas (og) — Filippo Inzaghi vs Liverpool

   2005 Final · Istanbul

   Hernán Crespo’s two first-half goals in Istanbul were among the most technically accomplished goals in final history, the second in particular a deft chip taken first time from Andrea Pirlo’s clipped pass that arced over Jerzy Dudek. In the context of what followed at half-time, it remains one of football’s great ironies.

10. 10

    Alessandro Del Piero vs Borussia Dortmund

    1997 Final · Munich

    Del Piero’s dipping, curling finish from the edge of the area in the final against Borussia Dortmund—struck with the outside of his right boot and bending away from the goalkeeper into the top corner—was a masterclass in technique under the greatest possible pressure. It is among the finest individual moments in final history.

A LeaguePaper editorial ranking — opinion, offered for argument.