(5-6 agg)
The denouement of this tie featured one of the game’s greats displaying his otherworldly gifts on British shores. Both teams went for it over the 180 minutes, but the lasting image is of Ronaldo leaving the Old Trafford pitch to a standing ovation after his second-leg hat-trick, the Brazilian having mesmerised a rearguard including the world’s most expensive defender, Rio Ferdinand. The first match had yielded a classy 3-1 victory for the Galácticos , yet it was a lot closer in England. Although United edged it 4-3 on the night, Ronaldo’s imperious treble (featuring two thunderous strikes) showed how a truly deadly striker can drag their team out of trouble. The praise was richly deserved, and that shot of him departing for the bench in Madrid’s menacing black away strip became an instant classic. “Being applauded off by the United fans was a unique and very special moment for me,” said the man himself.
(6-5 agg)
In 2021, a new word entered France’s Larousse dictionary, a word that had swept north from Spain and seared itself into a nation’s consciousness. Football had witnessed comebacks before Barcelona hosted Paris Saint-Germain in March 2017, but this was something else. This was a whole new category. This… was a Remontada . After all, few had dared to believe in Barça’s chances following their 4-0 humbling at the Parc des Princes, aside perhaps from Luis Enrique. “We can score six,” vowed the Catalan club’s defiant coach, ensuring a feverish atmosphere for the Camp Nou return. And so it proved as the hosts surged 3-0 ahead shortly after half-time, the crowd urging them on even after Edinson Cavani complicated their task. Although Barça still needed three more goals with two minutes left, up stepped Neymar to unleash mayhem… burying a free-kick, a penalty, and then feeding Sergi Roberto to complete the biggest comeback in Champions League history.
(3-2 agg)
This was the night that gave birth to the legend – or myth, depending on your allegiance – of the great Anfield European night. Only 22,000 had witnessed victory against Irish side Crusaders in the first round, but 55,000 convened for the quarter-final visit of storied Saint-Étienne, the previous season’s runners-up. According to goalkeeper Ray Clemence, those fans produced “the greatest atmosphere I ever experienced” as the Reds sought to overturn a 1-0 deficit. There would be no repeat of Liverpool’s mistake a decade earlier, when manager Bill Shankly dismissed the threat of Ajax. “I don’t underestimate Saint-Étienne,” swore successor Bob Paisley. He was as good as his word. Liverpool led 2-1 but were heading out on away goals when Paisley summoned David Fairclough, the original supersub. “He didn’t give specific instructions,” Fairclough explained. “He said he hoped I’d get a chance.” It came with six minutes remaining and the outcome was never in doubt.
(3-8 agg)
“A Beatle called Best sends Benfica packing.” That was the headline in A Bola on 10 March 1966. The night before, a 19-year-old with a mop on his head and magic in his boots grabbed this quarter-final by the scruff of the neck with two goals inside 11 minutes in Lisbon: first a header, then a solo effort. United led 3-2 from the opening leg and, against hosts with a European Cup home record of W18 D1 L0, Matt Busby ordered an early containment game. George Best, he later said, “must have had cotton wool in his ears”. Benfica great Eusébio received his 1965 Ballon d’Or before kick-off from previous winner Denis Law. By the end, it was all about Best (right), who landed back in Manchester sporting a sombrero. Two years later, he was scoring against Benfica in the final – and holding his own Ballon d’Or.
(5-2 agg)
Ajax’s youthful side wowed everybody in cruising to the semis, but would Bayern be a stretch too far? The Amsterdam outfit proved otherwise despite a goalless first leg in Munich; nothing would hold them back after Jari Litmanen’s header broke the deadlock 11 minutes into the return. Marcel Witeczek levelled, yet by half-time Ajax were disappearing into the distance thanks to Finidi George’s thunderous strike and another from Ronald de Boer. “It’s a measure of the class in this Ajax side that the team didn’t lose confidence, just kept on going,” said coach Louis van Gaal. Litmanen vanquished any lingering doubt within seconds of the restart and, though Mehmet Scholl pulled one back from the spot, Ajax had the last word through Marc Overmars. “Ajax were like a Porsche,” rued Bayern chairman Franz Beckenbauer. “We were like a Tin Snail (Citroën 2CV).”
(4-3 agg)
Real Madrid won 20 straight knockout ties during their early domination of the European Cup. When that run finally ended – in the 1960/61 first round – it was arch-rivals Barcelona who knocked them off their perch. For the Blaugrana , this was revenge for a 6-2 aggregate semi-final defeat seven months earlier. The platform was a 2-2 draw in Madrid, Luis Suárez twice equalising. Back at the Camp Nou, the hero was Brazilian Evaristo. After Martín Vergés’s first-half goal, Evaristo’s diving header in the 81st minute meant there was no coming back for Los Blancos , despite a late Canário strike. Barcelona went on to reach their first final, though by then coach Ljubiša Broćić had made way for Enrique Orizaola. Evaristo grabbed the semi-final winner against Hamburg, but it’s the image of him flying through the air against Madrid that has endured.
(6-6 agg; Monaco win on away goals)
“A lot of things happened” was master of understatement Pep Guardiola’s view of the first leg in Manchester, a night of eight goals and rambunctious attacking thrills. There were doubles for Sergio Agüero and Radamel Falcao – who also missed a penalty – but the buried story was the identity of the fresh-faced scorer of Monaco’s other goal. At 18, Kylian Mbappé had just announced his talent to the world. Leonardo Jardim’s exciting young team was full of burgeoning stars (not least future City ace Bernardo Silva), but there was something extra special about this teenage tearaway with fearlessness and energy to burn. And it was Mbappé (right) who kick-started Monaco’s comeback in the return, another topsy-turvy occasion settled by Tiémoué Bakayoko’s late header.
(6-7 agg)
Bayern were clear favourites when the champions of the two post-war German states met in the European Cup for the first time, but they were given a mighty scare at Munich’s new Olympiastadion. It took Bayern president Wilhelm Neudecker raising the victory bonus per player to 12,000 Deutschmarks during the half-time break for the hosts to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 victory, with Gerd Müller (left) scoring the winner. Before the second leg, Bayern spent the night in Hof in West Germany rather than Dresden, through fear of being spied on by the Stasi. The caution paid off. An early double from Uli Hoeness laid the foundations for Bayern’s progress in a tie that reverberated with wider significance.
(aet; 3-2 agg)
French football’s dominant power at the time, St-Étienne announced themselves on the European stage in 1974/75, making the semi-finals before defeat by Bayern. Dynamo were no novices either, having won the Cup Winners’ Cup in the same campaign, and Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s innovative approach looked set to make his charges the USSR’s first European Cup semi-finalists when Anatoliy Konkov and Oleh Blokhin earned a 2-0 first-leg victory. Dynamo held out for almost three-quarters of the return, but seconds after Blokhin had spurned a golden chance, Patrick Revelli set up brother Hervé to revive home hopes. Jean-Michel Larqué forced extra time and, with players pushed to their physical limits, Dominique Rocheteau – restricted by a calf injury – slotted in with seven minutes left. “This match,” said victorious coach Robert Herbin, “was a complete spectacle of the ideal of football.”
(5-7 agg)
When FIFA president Jules Rimet dubbed Saarbrücken “the most interesting team in Europe”, he was likely not just referencing their 4-0 friendly defeat of Real Madrid in 1951. Unmoored by the political situation after the Second World War, the club played in France for a few years before representing the protectorate of Saarland in the first edition of the European Cup. Which might explain why an AC Milan side featuring Cesare Maldini and Nils Liedholm expected a comfortable evening at the San Siro. Instead, Saarbrücken fought back from 3-1 down to stun their illustrious hosts 4-3. “Maybe they underestimated us,” said winger Werner Otto, whose team were still poised for a famous upset after 77 minutes at home – only for the Rossoneri to finally prevail. “It could have been different,” added Otto. “It wouldn’t have been a big surprise for us to go through.”
(1-0 agg)
“It was a goal that came from the moon – from the Anfield stands,” quipped José Mourinho, laying the sarcasm on good and thick. Almost 20 years later, Luis García’s ’ghost goal’ still divides opinion, settling a monumental semi-final amid a raucous Anfield atmosphere and setting up the Miracle of Istanbul. Mourinho’s team had come through epic ties against Barcelona and Bayern on their way to the latest chapter in an increasingly fervent rivalry against Liverpool. The decisive moment arrived after only four minutes of the second leg, García pouncing on a loose ball and diverting it goalwards, with William Gallas adjudged to have arrived too late to prevent it crossing the line. “My reaction to the goal is straightforward,” the Spaniard said. “I wait for it to bounce and then I go to celebrate. I don’t wait around, I just run off to celebrate. My reaction means I saw the ball going in. Nothing more to say, your honour.”
(2-3 agg)
Perhaps the ultimate José Mourinho performance culminated in the Inter coach sprinting across the Camp Nou pitch, fingers pointing to the skies, his team having survived for more than an hour following Thiago Motta’s dismissal to dethrone Pep Guardiola’s side and reach their first European Cup final since 1972. Even more impressively, the Nerazzurri protected their first-leg advantage despite ending with 14% possession – although Barcelona could point to luck going against them across the tie, notably the ash cloud from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull that forced them to make the 1,000km trip to the first game in Milan via coach, plus Bojan Krkić’s late strike in the return being ruled out for a marginal handball. “This is the best loss of my life,” said a breathless Mourinho in the aftermath. “I’ve won the Champions League, but today was better. My side are a team of heroes – the players left their blood on the pitch tonight.”
(1-3 agg)
Diego Maradona’s European Cup debut was momentous, and not because of the Argentinian’s sublime skills. The great man was marked out of the first leg, Madrid prevailing courtesy of a penalty and a deflected shot. Napoli bounced back via Giovanni Francini at a raucous Stadio San Paolo, but this was not to be Maradona’s night either, Emilio Butragueño levelling to keep Los Blancos out of reach. No, what mattered most was that the Italian champions were out – and it was still only September. Napoli had been unseeded, and this first round tie against Spain’s self-anointed guardians of the European Cup left many frustrated. Figures including AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi began pushing for a major format change, and from that groundswell of grievance, the Champions League was eventually born.
(4-12 agg)
“Eintracht? Who are they?” wondered visiting boss Scot Symon upon arrival in Germany. Rangers had won 31 Scottish titles; Frankfurt were European Cup newcomers. This, quite literally, was professionals against amateurs. After two memorable matches, everyone knew who Eintracht were. In the first leg, the German side produced a performance still regarded as the greatest in club history, a hard-running team thwarting Rangers with ice-cold precision. Scoring five times after the interval, Frankfurt had sewn up the tie, but that didn’t prevent another six-goal salvo in Glasgow. A stunned Ibrox crowd could only applaud, and a young Rangers fan by the name of Alex Ferguson marvelled at the visitors’ quality: “We thought those guys were gods.” Two weeks later, Ferguson was at Hampden to see Frankfurt brought back down to earth, humbled 7-3 by Real Madrid in the final.
(0-2 agg)
Upstart English champions Nottingham Forest had hoped for a first round tie in Spain or France. What they got was a meeting with the European Cup holders from up the motorway: Bob Paisley’s Liverpool. Few fancied Forest, but wonderful performances from Garry Birtles and Tony Woodcock gave Brian Clough’s boys a 2-0 lead to take to Anfield. Colin Barrett’s second came when the Reds were chasing an equaliser, and Paisley later admitted his side should have settled for a 1-0 loss. The Liverpool fans sang, “At Anfield, the Forest will fall,” but Peter Shilton kept Kenny Dalglish and Co at bay. Perhaps Liverpool knew something was in the air when legendary ex-boss Bill Shankly arrived on Forest’s coach as a guest of Clough (right), who led his side all the way that season.
(6-1 agg)
To many, the first leg was an indication of the massacre to come. Arrigo Sacchi’s dynamic Milan outplayed their regal rivals at the Bernabéu – earning applause from a home crowd grateful to have escaped with a draw. Somehow, this tie still looked open, but once midfield enforcer Carlo Ancelotti gave the Rossoneri a 17th-minute lead at the San Siro, the obliteration of Leo Beenhakker’s men began. The imposing, impeccably drilled hosts moved up and down the pitch in unison and deployed a feverish press, high line and ruthless offside trap. Los Blancos couldn’t cope. Milan plundered five goals in the first hour, from five different players, and the stunned Spanish press could only praise this most “un-Italian” side. The Rossoneri were just getting started, eventually beating Steaua Bucureşti 4-0 in the final.
(aet; 5-4 agg)
Napoli faced the unusual task of tackling two different teams in the same tie... in a manner of speaking. A dispirited, disorganised Chelsea struggled at the Stadio San Paolo, losing 3-1, a humbling defeat that was among the final straws for under-pressure boss André Villas-Boas. By the time the second leg rolled around, caretaker coach and fan favourite Roberto Di Matteo was in the dugout. The boys in blue were transformed, feeding off their guests’ nerves at a raucous Stamford Bridge, where Frank Lampard’s penalty made it all square on aggregate after 75 minutes. So imperious at home, Walter Mazzarri’s Napoli now succumbed to the suffocating pressure in extra time, Branislav Ivanović scoring the crucial goal, and Di Matteo’s reinvigorated team went on to win the competition.
(3-3 agg; Barcelona wIn 5-4 on pens)
Yes, a team of Swedish part-timers really were in a European Cup semi-final. It was some team too: twice UEFA Cup winners in the 1980s, IFK left Barcelona reeling after a 3-0 first-leg win in Gothenburg, inspired by Johnny ‘in a hurry’ Ekström. Barça’s first European Cup adventure since 1975 looked all but over. Even after Pichi Alonso’s early opener at the Camp Nou, IFK twice hit the woodwork and had a goal disallowed. “The key was the second goal,” said Alonso of his 2-0 strike on 63 minutes. Six minutes later, with a glorious diving header, he had his hat-trick. Barcelona were level. The shoot-out demanded another comeback: Göteborg led 4-2 and Roland Nilsson could have won it, only to be foiled by Urruti, who then converted his own penalty. After Víctor Muñoz’s winning kick, it all ended with a ball boy called Pep Guardiola celebrating on the pitch with Terry Venables. For the first time in 25 years, Barcelona had reached the final.
(3-1 agg)
It’s hard to know exactly how many people attended the second leg of Celtic’s semi-final with Leeds on 15 April 1970. Officially, 135,805 were packed into Hampden Park – still a competition record – but those present insist there were plenty more, all keen to witness the first tie between the champions of Scotland and England. The game had been moved from Celtic Park, such was the demand for tickets, and the locals were not left disappointed as Jock Stein’s Bhoys snared the cross-border bragging rights. Britain’s first European Cup winners in 1966/67, Celtic held a 1-0 lead from the first leg, and despite faltering when Billy Bremner struck for Leeds on 14 minutes, goals from John Hughes and Bobby Murdoch took them through to another final. “No one left the stadium on the final whistle,” Celtic midfielder David Hay recalls. “There was no running for the last bus or train. We did a lap of honour, which was a fantastic experience.”
(aet; 6-5 agg)
Manchester City led 2-0 inside 11 minutes of the first leg. They led 5-3 on aggregate entering the 90th minute of the second. Then everything changed. A 90th-minute Rodrygo goal. Sixty seconds later, another. Five minutes into extra time, with City spinning, Karim Benzema’s penalty completed this most astonishing of comebacks. Waves of belief had rolled around the Bernabéu, the collective confidence of a club with the most European Cups. The mentality of a team of seasoned winners helped. So too, Carlo Ancelotti’s wisdom in introducing fresh young substitutes. Madrid had pulled off their third thrilling escape act en route to the trophy, having already battled back from the brink against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. “The paranormal became normal,” declared newspaper AS. “Come down, God, and explain this,” said Marca. Logic had no answer to such force of will.
(2-5 agg)
In the ultimate act of impotent fury following their 4-0 trouncing in Amsterdam, goalkeeper Sepp Maier returned to Bayern’s team hotel and dumped his kit in the canal. Ajax had been at their untouchable best in that first-leg triumph – elusive, patient and cunning – even if it took 53 minutes for Arie Haan to open the scoring and usher in a rampant second half. The return game proved little more than a formality, and all-conquering Ajax went on to defeat Real Madrid home and away before downing Juventus to complete their hat-trick of European titles. It was Bayern who followed them onto the throne, however, and the German giants took hilarious, petty revenge when invited to face Ajax in Johan Cruyff’s farewell match in 1978. The club legend had briefly retired, and Ajax’s players expected a light-hearted run-out in honour of a departing hero. What they got was payback, an 8-0 hammering from a Bayern team with long memories.
(4-4 agg; Panathinaikos win on away goals)
When Panathinaikos were clobbered 4-1 in front of nearly 90,000 delirious locals in Belgrade, it was broadly considered that the Galloping Major had reached the end of his European Cup road. Ferenc Puskás might have won three continental titles as a Real Madrid player, but his chances of reaching the final as a coach seemed doomed – until Crvena zvezda visited Athens for the second instalment. There, Puskás’s side took an early lead through Antonis Antoniadis, and the same player doubled the advantage in the second half, three years after his transfer unveiling had been ruined when he was whisked to hospital with appendicitis. Defender Aristidis Kamaras ultimately buried the crucial third, adding to his first-leg goal, and although Ajax proved too strong in the Wembley decider, there was no mistaking the epic nature of Panathinaikos’ glittering run. “We were pioneers,” Antoniadis later commented. “It took us almost ten years to realise what we had achieved.”
(2-3 agg)
Legs pumping, fists punching the air and a long black coat billowing in the wind… this was José Mourinho’s box-office breakthrough moment. Old Trafford had never seen anything like it, a young coach brimful of attitude and charisma as he raced down the touchline, treating the place like his own back yard – which, years later, it would become. Mourinho had yet to anoint himself the Special One, but this was special all right, the then Porto manager celebrating Costinha’s last-minute finish with a manic dash to the corner flag. “It was a team of kids coached by a kid,” he would go on to explain, Porto having looked set to exit on away goals until Manchester United goalkeeper Tim Howard pawed at Benni McCarthy’s late free-kick, offering Costinha his chance to send the underdogs through. “Why not celebrate this way?” Mourinho later wrote. “Madness, but madness from our heart.”
(5-4 agg)
Holders Milan had powered past Sparta Praha in the last 16 and were expected to venture far again, especially given the brilliance of new star Kaká. In the home leg of their quarter-final against Deportivo La Coruña, four goals in nine minutes promptly sealed a commanding 4-1 win. The return in Galicia would therefore prove a formality – or so everyone thought. Instead, with a performance no less ferocious than the Atlantic Ocean a stone’s throw from their stadium, Depor sank Carlo Ancelotti’s prized ship. Javier Irureta’s team played like men possessed as Walter Pandiani, Juan Carlos Valerón and Alberto Luque spread panic with first-half goals. For all their talent and experience, Paolo Maldini and Co couldn’t live with the Spanish side’s commitment, power and running, and Fran later capped a stunning comeback as the Rossoneri ’s collapse foreshadowed events in the Istanbul final a year later.
(4-4 agg; Replay: Ajax 3-0 Benfica, aet)
The sands were shifting at the end of the 1960s. Old heroes and tired assumptions were about to be swept away by the Total Football revolution, and fans got a glimpse of the future when Benfica met Dutch upstarts Ajax in 1969. The traditional order still looked solid when legendary forward Eusébio and Co defied icy conditions to win 3-1 in Amsterdam, but Ajax were about to deliver a jolt to the system. Rinus Michels’ side were quick and fluid, forward-thinking in every sense, and their languid young genius Johan Cruyff struck twice in Lisbon to help level the tie. With shoot-outs yet to be introduced, the teams then headed to Paris for a replay – where 40,000 Ajax fans saw Cruyff and two-goal Inge Danielsson pounce in extra time. “The emergence of Ajax took Benfica from number one in Europe to number two,” said Eagles winger António Simões. “This was Eusébio passing the torch to Cruyff.”
Anyone who missed this game and saw the result was probably left wondering, “What happened there?” Those who watched it wondered the same. Bayern have dealt out plenty of agony down the years, but no one expected them to dismantle Barcelona with such frightening ease. The COVID-19 pandemic meant this last-eight contest had to be staged as a one-legged affair in front of empty stands in Lisbon, and that added to the eeriness of a total mismatch. “The way we dominated was brutal,” said two-goal Thomas Müller, whose early opener was quickly cancelled out before the illusion of balance was shattered. Ivan Perišić, Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich and Robert Lewandowski all shared in the bounty, but the true salt in the wound came in the form of a late double from Philippe Coutinho – on loan from the Camp Nou. While Bayern would go on to the lift the trophy, Barça were left facing the abyss.
(3-4 agg)
Twenty minutes into this barnstorming semi-final, Forest midfielder Martin O’Neill was wishing he could “start all over again”. Everything had gone wrong for Brian Clough’s side, already 2-0 down at home to a Köln team able to surmount the elements. “The pitch conditions were unbelievable – water, puddles, mud,” recalls visiting goalkeeper Harald Schumacher. Forest fought back to lead 3-2, John Robertson nodding in just days after his brother and sister-in-law had died in a car accident, but still Köln came at them, making it 3-3 through Yasuhiko Okudera. “The English fans gave us a standing ovation,” says Schumacher. “They had never seen a team fight so hard.” According to O’Neill, even Clough was pessimistic for the return, but Ian Bowyer headed in a corner and that was that. Two years on from being in the Second Division, Forest were through to a European Cup final.
(4-3 agg)
Five years after Steaua Bucureşti had won the European Cup, another Eastern Bloc representative cut a swathe through the competition: Crvena zvezda. Having thumped Grasshoppers, Rangers and Dynamo Dresden, semi-final opponents Bayern provided another step up. The Yugoslav champions were unperturbed, coming from behind to win at Munich’s Olympiastadion thanks to superb counterattacking goals from Darko Pančev and Dejan Savićević. Siniša Mihajlović’s deflected free-kick stretched the aggregate lead to 3-1 in Belgrade before nerves kicked in and Bayern scored twice in six minutes to level the tie. “If it had gone to extra time, we would likely have lost,” admitted winger Dragiša Binić, but in the 90th minute Mihajlović’s misdirected cross was sliced in by Klaus Augenthaler. “Luck is very important in football,” said Stevan Stojanović. “And, at that moment, it shone on us.”
(5-5 agg; Monaco win on away goals)
Three times a Champions League winner with Real Madrid, Fernando Morientes enjoyed a formidable partnership with Raúl González. But the arrival of Ronaldo had squeezed him out of the first-team picture. In a classic sliding-doors moment, a proposed loan to Schalke collapsed and a serious injury to Monaco striker Shabani Nonda paved the way for a move to the principality. Morientes scored five times en route to a Champions League quarter-final meeting with his parent club. Trailing 4-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu, Morientes gave Monaco a glimmer of hope seven minutes from time before again finding the net in the decider as Didier Deschamps’ side rallied from 1-0 down to win 3-1 and progress on away goals. The Spain forward also struck in both legs of the semi-final victory against Chelsea and returned to Madrid at the end of the season having finished as the competition’s top scorer.
(3-1 agg)
“In this room, he’s the chief, the man – I can’t compete,” snapped Pep Guardiola to the media, addressing José Mourinho’s recent dig at his management style in the lead-up to this semi-final joust. A third Clásico in 11 days was approaching, the most recent having brought a Copa del Rey title for Madrid that bandaged the wounds of a 5-0 defeat earlier in the season. “On the pitch, we’ll see what happens,” warned Guardiola, though it took a half-time scuffle and three red cards before the first leg at the Santiago Bernabéu received the sprinkle of stardust it needed, with Lionel Messi truly rising to the occasion. After tapping in the opener, he wove his magic to bamboozle the hosts’ back line, scoring one of the defining solo goals of his storied career. Mourinho seethed, but Barcelona stayed calm to punch their ticket to Wembley in the second leg, while everyone still reeled from a manic first.
(2-1 agg)
Bayern had once against quashed St-Étienne’s hopes in the 1976 final to make it three titles in a row, and looked well placed to make it four as they cruised into the last eight for the fifth year running. The Munich club eked out a narrow first-leg lead thanks to Rainer Künkel’s goal shortly before half-time but were under pressure from the first whistle in the return at NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv and would have been pegged back on aggregate had Sepp Maier not turned Oleh Blokhin’s first-half penalty on to a post. Dynamo kept coming but Bayern held them at bay until seven minutes from the end when Anatoliy Konkov’s run from deep won a second penalty and this time Leonid Buryak smacked in the spot kick. Tails up, Dynamo struck again two minutes from time as Petro Slobodyan beat Maier to a free-kick, his header finally ending Bayern’s era of dominance.
(5-6 agg)
The denouement of this tie featured one of the game’s greats displaying his otherworldly gifts on British shores. Both teams went for it over the 180 minutes, but the lasting image is of Ronaldo leaving the Old Trafford pitch to a standing ovation after his second-leg hat-trick, the Brazilian having mesmerised a rearguard including the world’s most expensive defender, Rio Ferdinand. The first match had yielded a classy 3-1 victory for the Galácticos , yet it was a lot closer in England. Although United edged it 4-3 on the night, Ronaldo’s imperious treble (featuring two thunderous strikes) showed how a truly deadly striker can drag their team out of trouble. The praise was richly deserved, and that shot of him departing for the bench in Madrid’s menacing black away strip became an instant classic. “Being applauded off by the United fans was a unique and very special moment for me,” said the man himself.
(6-5 agg)
In 2021, a new word entered France’s Larousse dictionary, a word that had swept north from Spain and seared itself into a nation’s consciousness. Football had witnessed comebacks before Barcelona hosted Paris Saint-Germain in March 2017, but this was something else. This was a whole new category. This… was a Remontada . After all, few had dared to believe in Barça’s chances following their 4-0 humbling at the Parc des Princes, aside perhaps from Luis Enrique. “We can score six,” vowed the Catalan club’s defiant coach, ensuring a feverish atmosphere for the Camp Nou return. And so it proved as the hosts surged 3-0 ahead shortly after half-time, the crowd urging them on even after Edinson Cavani complicated their task. Although Barça still needed three more goals with two minutes left, up stepped Neymar to unleash mayhem… burying a free-kick, a penalty, and then feeding Sergi Roberto to complete the biggest comeback in Champions League history.
(3-2 agg)
This was the night that gave birth to the legend – or myth, depending on your allegiance – of the great Anfield European night. Only 22,000 had witnessed victory against Irish side Crusaders in the first round, but 55,000 convened for the quarter-final visit of storied Saint-Étienne, the previous season’s runners-up. According to goalkeeper Ray Clemence, those fans produced “the greatest atmosphere I ever experienced” as the Reds sought to overturn a 1-0 deficit. There would be no repeat of Liverpool’s mistake a decade earlier, when manager Bill Shankly dismissed the threat of Ajax. “I don’t underestimate Saint-Étienne,” swore successor Bob Paisley. He was as good as his word. Liverpool led 2-1 but were heading out on away goals when Paisley summoned David Fairclough, the original supersub. “He didn’t give specific instructions,” Fairclough explained. “He said he hoped I’d get a chance.” It came with six minutes remaining and the outcome was never in doubt.
(3-8 agg)
“A Beatle called Best sends Benfica packing.” That was the headline in A Bola on 10 March 1966. The night before, a 19-year-old with a mop on his head and magic in his boots grabbed this quarter-final by the scruff of the neck with two goals inside 11 minutes in Lisbon: first a header, then a solo effort. United led 3-2 from the opening leg and, against hosts with a European Cup home record of W18 D1 L0, Matt Busby ordered an early containment game. George Best, he later said, “must have had cotton wool in his ears”. Benfica great Eusébio received his 1965 Ballon d’Or before kick-off from previous winner Denis Law. By the end, it was all about Best (right), who landed back in Manchester sporting a sombrero. Two years later, he was scoring against Benfica in the final – and holding his own Ballon d’Or.
(5-2 agg)
Ajax’s youthful side wowed everybody in cruising to the semis, but would Bayern be a stretch too far? The Amsterdam outfit proved otherwise despite a goalless first leg in Munich; nothing would hold them back after Jari Litmanen’s header broke the deadlock 11 minutes into the return. Marcel Witeczek levelled, yet by half-time Ajax were disappearing into the distance thanks to Finidi George’s thunderous strike and another from Ronald de Boer. “It’s a measure of the class in this Ajax side that the team didn’t lose confidence, just kept on going,” said coach Louis van Gaal. Litmanen vanquished any lingering doubt within seconds of the restart and, though Mehmet Scholl pulled one back from the spot, Ajax had the last word through Marc Overmars. “Ajax were like a Porsche,” rued Bayern chairman Franz Beckenbauer. “We were like a Tin Snail (Citroën 2CV).”
(4-3 agg)
Real Madrid won 20 straight knockout ties during their early domination of the European Cup. When that run finally ended – in the 1960/61 first round – it was arch-rivals Barcelona who knocked them off their perch. For the Blaugrana , this was revenge for a 6-2 aggregate semi-final defeat seven months earlier. The platform was a 2-2 draw in Madrid, Luis Suárez twice equalising. Back at the Camp Nou, the hero was Brazilian Evaristo. After Martín Vergés’s first-half goal, Evaristo’s diving header in the 81st minute meant there was no coming back for Los Blancos , despite a late Canário strike. Barcelona went on to reach their first final, though by then coach Ljubiša Broćić had made way for Enrique Orizaola. Evaristo grabbed the semi-final winner against Hamburg, but it’s the image of him flying through the air against Madrid that has endured.
(6-6 agg; Monaco win on away goals)
“A lot of things happened” was master of understatement Pep Guardiola’s view of the first leg in Manchester, a night of eight goals and rambunctious attacking thrills. There were doubles for Sergio Agüero and Radamel Falcao – who also missed a penalty – but the buried story was the identity of the fresh-faced scorer of Monaco’s other goal. At 18, Kylian Mbappé had just announced his talent to the world. Leonardo Jardim’s exciting young team was full of burgeoning stars (not least future City ace Bernardo Silva), but there was something extra special about this teenage tearaway with fearlessness and energy to burn. And it was Mbappé (right) who kick-started Monaco’s comeback in the return, another topsy-turvy occasion settled by Tiémoué Bakayoko’s late header.
(6-7 agg)
Bayern were clear favourites when the champions of the two post-war German states met in the European Cup for the first time, but they were given a mighty scare at Munich’s new Olympiastadion. It took Bayern president Wilhelm Neudecker raising the victory bonus per player to 12,000 Deutschmarks during the half-time break for the hosts to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 victory, with Gerd Müller (left) scoring the winner. Before the second leg, Bayern spent the night in Hof in West Germany rather than Dresden, through fear of being spied on by the Stasi. The caution paid off. An early double from Uli Hoeness laid the foundations for Bayern’s progress in a tie that reverberated with wider significance.
(aet; 3-2 agg)
French football’s dominant power at the time, St-Étienne announced themselves on the European stage in 1974/75, making the semi-finals before defeat by Bayern. Dynamo were no novices either, having won the Cup Winners’ Cup in the same campaign, and Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s innovative approach looked set to make his charges the USSR’s first European Cup semi-finalists when Anatoliy Konkov and Oleh Blokhin earned a 2-0 first-leg victory. Dynamo held out for almost three-quarters of the return, but seconds after Blokhin had spurned a golden chance, Patrick Revelli set up brother Hervé to revive home hopes. Jean-Michel Larqué forced extra time and, with players pushed to their physical limits, Dominique Rocheteau – restricted by a calf injury – slotted in with seven minutes left. “This match,” said victorious coach Robert Herbin, “was a complete spectacle of the ideal of football.”
(5-7 agg)
When FIFA president Jules Rimet dubbed Saarbrücken “the most interesting team in Europe”, he was likely not just referencing their 4-0 friendly defeat of Real Madrid in 1951. Unmoored by the political situation after the Second World War, the club played in France for a few years before representing the protectorate of Saarland in the first edition of the European Cup. Which might explain why an AC Milan side featuring Cesare Maldini and Nils Liedholm expected a comfortable evening at the San Siro. Instead, Saarbrücken fought back from 3-1 down to stun their illustrious hosts 4-3. “Maybe they underestimated us,” said winger Werner Otto, whose team were still poised for a famous upset after 77 minutes at home – only for the Rossoneri to finally prevail. “It could have been different,” added Otto. “It wouldn’t have been a big surprise for us to go through.”
(1-0 agg)
“It was a goal that came from the moon – from the Anfield stands,” quipped José Mourinho, laying the sarcasm on good and thick. Almost 20 years later, Luis García’s ’ghost goal’ still divides opinion, settling a monumental semi-final amid a raucous Anfield atmosphere and setting up the Miracle of Istanbul. Mourinho’s team had come through epic ties against Barcelona and Bayern on their way to the latest chapter in an increasingly fervent rivalry against Liverpool. The decisive moment arrived after only four minutes of the second leg, García pouncing on a loose ball and diverting it goalwards, with William Gallas adjudged to have arrived too late to prevent it crossing the line. “My reaction to the goal is straightforward,” the Spaniard said. “I wait for it to bounce and then I go to celebrate. I don’t wait around, I just run off to celebrate. My reaction means I saw the ball going in. Nothing more to say, your honour.”
(2-3 agg)
Perhaps the ultimate José Mourinho performance culminated in the Inter coach sprinting across the Camp Nou pitch, fingers pointing to the skies, his team having survived for more than an hour following Thiago Motta’s dismissal to dethrone Pep Guardiola’s side and reach their first European Cup final since 1972. Even more impressively, the Nerazzurri protected their first-leg advantage despite ending with 14% possession – although Barcelona could point to luck going against them across the tie, notably the ash cloud from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull that forced them to make the 1,000km trip to the first game in Milan via coach, plus Bojan Krkić’s late strike in the return being ruled out for a marginal handball. “This is the best loss of my life,” said a breathless Mourinho in the aftermath. “I’ve won the Champions League, but today was better. My side are a team of heroes – the players left their blood on the pitch tonight.”
(1-3 agg)
Diego Maradona’s European Cup debut was momentous, and not because of the Argentinian’s sublime skills. The great man was marked out of the first leg, Madrid prevailing courtesy of a penalty and a deflected shot. Napoli bounced back via Giovanni Francini at a raucous Stadio San Paolo, but this was not to be Maradona’s night either, Emilio Butragueño levelling to keep Los Blancos out of reach. No, what mattered most was that the Italian champions were out – and it was still only September. Napoli had been unseeded, and this first round tie against Spain’s self-anointed guardians of the European Cup left many frustrated. Figures including AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi began pushing for a major format change, and from that groundswell of grievance, the Champions League was eventually born.
(4-12 agg)
“Eintracht? Who are they?” wondered visiting boss Scot Symon upon arrival in Germany. Rangers had won 31 Scottish titles; Frankfurt were European Cup newcomers. This, quite literally, was professionals against amateurs. After two memorable matches, everyone knew who Eintracht were. In the first leg, the German side produced a performance still regarded as the greatest in club history, a hard-running team thwarting Rangers with ice-cold precision. Scoring five times after the interval, Frankfurt had sewn up the tie, but that didn’t prevent another six-goal salvo in Glasgow. A stunned Ibrox crowd could only applaud, and a young Rangers fan by the name of Alex Ferguson marvelled at the visitors’ quality: “We thought those guys were gods.” Two weeks later, Ferguson was at Hampden to see Frankfurt brought back down to earth, humbled 7-3 by Real Madrid in the final.
(0-2 agg)
Upstart English champions Nottingham Forest had hoped for a first round tie in Spain or France. What they got was a meeting with the European Cup holders from up the motorway: Bob Paisley’s Liverpool. Few fancied Forest, but wonderful performances from Garry Birtles and Tony Woodcock gave Brian Clough’s boys a 2-0 lead to take to Anfield. Colin Barrett’s second came when the Reds were chasing an equaliser, and Paisley later admitted his side should have settled for a 1-0 loss. The Liverpool fans sang, “At Anfield, the Forest will fall,” but Peter Shilton kept Kenny Dalglish and Co at bay. Perhaps Liverpool knew something was in the air when legendary ex-boss Bill Shankly arrived on Forest’s coach as a guest of Clough (right), who led his side all the way that season.
(6-1 agg)
To many, the first leg was an indication of the massacre to come. Arrigo Sacchi’s dynamic Milan outplayed their regal rivals at the Bernabéu – earning applause from a home crowd grateful to have escaped with a draw. Somehow, this tie still looked open, but once midfield enforcer Carlo Ancelotti gave the Rossoneri a 17th-minute lead at the San Siro, the obliteration of Leo Beenhakker’s men began. The imposing, impeccably drilled hosts moved up and down the pitch in unison and deployed a feverish press, high line and ruthless offside trap. Los Blancos couldn’t cope. Milan plundered five goals in the first hour, from five different players, and the stunned Spanish press could only praise this most “un-Italian” side. The Rossoneri were just getting started, eventually beating Steaua Bucureşti 4-0 in the final.
(aet; 5-4 agg)
Napoli faced the unusual task of tackling two different teams in the same tie... in a manner of speaking. A dispirited, disorganised Chelsea struggled at the Stadio San Paolo, losing 3-1, a humbling defeat that was among the final straws for under-pressure boss André Villas-Boas. By the time the second leg rolled around, caretaker coach and fan favourite Roberto Di Matteo was in the dugout. The boys in blue were transformed, feeding off their guests’ nerves at a raucous Stamford Bridge, where Frank Lampard’s penalty made it all square on aggregate after 75 minutes. So imperious at home, Walter Mazzarri’s Napoli now succumbed to the suffocating pressure in extra time, Branislav Ivanović scoring the crucial goal, and Di Matteo’s reinvigorated team went on to win the competition.
(3-3 agg; Barcelona wIn 5-4 on pens)
Yes, a team of Swedish part-timers really were in a European Cup semi-final. It was some team too: twice UEFA Cup winners in the 1980s, IFK left Barcelona reeling after a 3-0 first-leg win in Gothenburg, inspired by Johnny ‘in a hurry’ Ekström. Barça’s first European Cup adventure since 1975 looked all but over. Even after Pichi Alonso’s early opener at the Camp Nou, IFK twice hit the woodwork and had a goal disallowed. “The key was the second goal,” said Alonso of his 2-0 strike on 63 minutes. Six minutes later, with a glorious diving header, he had his hat-trick. Barcelona were level. The shoot-out demanded another comeback: Göteborg led 4-2 and Roland Nilsson could have won it, only to be foiled by Urruti, who then converted his own penalty. After Víctor Muñoz’s winning kick, it all ended with a ball boy called Pep Guardiola celebrating on the pitch with Terry Venables. For the first time in 25 years, Barcelona had reached the final.
(3-1 agg)
It’s hard to know exactly how many people attended the second leg of Celtic’s semi-final with Leeds on 15 April 1970. Officially, 135,805 were packed into Hampden Park – still a competition record – but those present insist there were plenty more, all keen to witness the first tie between the champions of Scotland and England. The game had been moved from Celtic Park, such was the demand for tickets, and the locals were not left disappointed as Jock Stein’s Bhoys snared the cross-border bragging rights. Britain’s first European Cup winners in 1966/67, Celtic held a 1-0 lead from the first leg, and despite faltering when Billy Bremner struck for Leeds on 14 minutes, goals from John Hughes and Bobby Murdoch took them through to another final. “No one left the stadium on the final whistle,” Celtic midfielder David Hay recalls. “There was no running for the last bus or train. We did a lap of honour, which was a fantastic experience.”
(aet; 6-5 agg)
Manchester City led 2-0 inside 11 minutes of the first leg. They led 5-3 on aggregate entering the 90th minute of the second. Then everything changed. A 90th-minute Rodrygo goal. Sixty seconds later, another. Five minutes into extra time, with City spinning, Karim Benzema’s penalty completed this most astonishing of comebacks. Waves of belief had rolled around the Bernabéu, the collective confidence of a club with the most European Cups. The mentality of a team of seasoned winners helped. So too, Carlo Ancelotti’s wisdom in introducing fresh young substitutes. Madrid had pulled off their third thrilling escape act en route to the trophy, having already battled back from the brink against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. “The paranormal became normal,” declared newspaper AS. “Come down, God, and explain this,” said Marca. Logic had no answer to such force of will.
(2-5 agg)
In the ultimate act of impotent fury following their 4-0 trouncing in Amsterdam, goalkeeper Sepp Maier returned to Bayern’s team hotel and dumped his kit in the canal. Ajax had been at their untouchable best in that first-leg triumph – elusive, patient and cunning – even if it took 53 minutes for Arie Haan to open the scoring and usher in a rampant second half. The return game proved little more than a formality, and all-conquering Ajax went on to defeat Real Madrid home and away before downing Juventus to complete their hat-trick of European titles. It was Bayern who followed them onto the throne, however, and the German giants took hilarious, petty revenge when invited to face Ajax in Johan Cruyff’s farewell match in 1978. The club legend had briefly retired, and Ajax’s players expected a light-hearted run-out in honour of a departing hero. What they got was payback, an 8-0 hammering from a Bayern team with long memories.
(4-4 agg; Panathinaikos win on away goals)
When Panathinaikos were clobbered 4-1 in front of nearly 90,000 delirious locals in Belgrade, it was broadly considered that the Galloping Major had reached the end of his European Cup road. Ferenc Puskás might have won three continental titles as a Real Madrid player, but his chances of reaching the final as a coach seemed doomed – until Crvena zvezda visited Athens for the second instalment. There, Puskás’s side took an early lead through Antonis Antoniadis, and the same player doubled the advantage in the second half, three years after his transfer unveiling had been ruined when he was whisked to hospital with appendicitis. Defender Aristidis Kamaras ultimately buried the crucial third, adding to his first-leg goal, and although Ajax proved too strong in the Wembley decider, there was no mistaking the epic nature of Panathinaikos’ glittering run. “We were pioneers,” Antoniadis later commented. “It took us almost ten years to realise what we had achieved.”
(2-3 agg)
Legs pumping, fists punching the air and a long black coat billowing in the wind… this was José Mourinho’s box-office breakthrough moment. Old Trafford had never seen anything like it, a young coach brimful of attitude and charisma as he raced down the touchline, treating the place like his own back yard – which, years later, it would become. Mourinho had yet to anoint himself the Special One, but this was special all right, the then Porto manager celebrating Costinha’s last-minute finish with a manic dash to the corner flag. “It was a team of kids coached by a kid,” he would go on to explain, Porto having looked set to exit on away goals until Manchester United goalkeeper Tim Howard pawed at Benni McCarthy’s late free-kick, offering Costinha his chance to send the underdogs through. “Why not celebrate this way?” Mourinho later wrote. “Madness, but madness from our heart.”
(5-4 agg)
Holders Milan had powered past Sparta Praha in the last 16 and were expected to venture far again, especially given the brilliance of new star Kaká. In the home leg of their quarter-final against Deportivo La Coruña, four goals in nine minutes promptly sealed a commanding 4-1 win. The return in Galicia would therefore prove a formality – or so everyone thought. Instead, with a performance no less ferocious than the Atlantic Ocean a stone’s throw from their stadium, Depor sank Carlo Ancelotti’s prized ship. Javier Irureta’s team played like men possessed as Walter Pandiani, Juan Carlos Valerón and Alberto Luque spread panic with first-half goals. For all their talent and experience, Paolo Maldini and Co couldn’t live with the Spanish side’s commitment, power and running, and Fran later capped a stunning comeback as the Rossoneri ’s collapse foreshadowed events in the Istanbul final a year later.
(4-4 agg; Replay: Ajax 3-0 Benfica, aet)
The sands were shifting at the end of the 1960s. Old heroes and tired assumptions were about to be swept away by the Total Football revolution, and fans got a glimpse of the future when Benfica met Dutch upstarts Ajax in 1969. The traditional order still looked solid when legendary forward Eusébio and Co defied icy conditions to win 3-1 in Amsterdam, but Ajax were about to deliver a jolt to the system. Rinus Michels’ side were quick and fluid, forward-thinking in every sense, and their languid young genius Johan Cruyff struck twice in Lisbon to help level the tie. With shoot-outs yet to be introduced, the teams then headed to Paris for a replay – where 40,000 Ajax fans saw Cruyff and two-goal Inge Danielsson pounce in extra time. “The emergence of Ajax took Benfica from number one in Europe to number two,” said Eagles winger António Simões. “This was Eusébio passing the torch to Cruyff.”
Anyone who missed this game and saw the result was probably left wondering, “What happened there?” Those who watched it wondered the same. Bayern have dealt out plenty of agony down the years, but no one expected them to dismantle Barcelona with such frightening ease. The COVID-19 pandemic meant this last-eight contest had to be staged as a one-legged affair in front of empty stands in Lisbon, and that added to the eeriness of a total mismatch. “The way we dominated was brutal,” said two-goal Thomas Müller, whose early opener was quickly cancelled out before the illusion of balance was shattered. Ivan Perišić, Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich and Robert Lewandowski all shared in the bounty, but the true salt in the wound came in the form of a late double from Philippe Coutinho – on loan from the Camp Nou. While Bayern would go on to the lift the trophy, Barça were left facing the abyss.
(3-4 agg)
Twenty minutes into this barnstorming semi-final, Forest midfielder Martin O’Neill was wishing he could “start all over again”. Everything had gone wrong for Brian Clough’s side, already 2-0 down at home to a Köln team able to surmount the elements. “The pitch conditions were unbelievable – water, puddles, mud,” recalls visiting goalkeeper Harald Schumacher. Forest fought back to lead 3-2, John Robertson nodding in just days after his brother and sister-in-law had died in a car accident, but still Köln came at them, making it 3-3 through Yasuhiko Okudera. “The English fans gave us a standing ovation,” says Schumacher. “They had never seen a team fight so hard.” According to O’Neill, even Clough was pessimistic for the return, but Ian Bowyer headed in a corner and that was that. Two years on from being in the Second Division, Forest were through to a European Cup final.
(4-3 agg)
Five years after Steaua Bucureşti had won the European Cup, another Eastern Bloc representative cut a swathe through the competition: Crvena zvezda. Having thumped Grasshoppers, Rangers and Dynamo Dresden, semi-final opponents Bayern provided another step up. The Yugoslav champions were unperturbed, coming from behind to win at Munich’s Olympiastadion thanks to superb counterattacking goals from Darko Pančev and Dejan Savićević. Siniša Mihajlović’s deflected free-kick stretched the aggregate lead to 3-1 in Belgrade before nerves kicked in and Bayern scored twice in six minutes to level the tie. “If it had gone to extra time, we would likely have lost,” admitted winger Dragiša Binić, but in the 90th minute Mihajlović’s misdirected cross was sliced in by Klaus Augenthaler. “Luck is very important in football,” said Stevan Stojanović. “And, at that moment, it shone on us.”
(5-5 agg; Monaco win on away goals)
Three times a Champions League winner with Real Madrid, Fernando Morientes enjoyed a formidable partnership with Raúl González. But the arrival of Ronaldo had squeezed him out of the first-team picture. In a classic sliding-doors moment, a proposed loan to Schalke collapsed and a serious injury to Monaco striker Shabani Nonda paved the way for a move to the principality. Morientes scored five times en route to a Champions League quarter-final meeting with his parent club. Trailing 4-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu, Morientes gave Monaco a glimmer of hope seven minutes from time before again finding the net in the decider as Didier Deschamps’ side rallied from 1-0 down to win 3-1 and progress on away goals. The Spain forward also struck in both legs of the semi-final victory against Chelsea and returned to Madrid at the end of the season having finished as the competition’s top scorer.
(3-1 agg)
“In this room, he’s the chief, the man – I can’t compete,” snapped Pep Guardiola to the media, addressing José Mourinho’s recent dig at his management style in the lead-up to this semi-final joust. A third Clásico in 11 days was approaching, the most recent having brought a Copa del Rey title for Madrid that bandaged the wounds of a 5-0 defeat earlier in the season. “On the pitch, we’ll see what happens,” warned Guardiola, though it took a half-time scuffle and three red cards before the first leg at the Santiago Bernabéu received the sprinkle of stardust it needed, with Lionel Messi truly rising to the occasion. After tapping in the opener, he wove his magic to bamboozle the hosts’ back line, scoring one of the defining solo goals of his storied career. Mourinho seethed, but Barcelona stayed calm to punch their ticket to Wembley in the second leg, while everyone still reeled from a manic first.
(2-1 agg)
Bayern had once against quashed St-Étienne’s hopes in the 1976 final to make it three titles in a row, and looked well placed to make it four as they cruised into the last eight for the fifth year running. The Munich club eked out a narrow first-leg lead thanks to Rainer Künkel’s goal shortly before half-time but were under pressure from the first whistle in the return at NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv and would have been pegged back on aggregate had Sepp Maier not turned Oleh Blokhin’s first-half penalty on to a post. Dynamo kept coming but Bayern held them at bay until seven minutes from the end when Anatoliy Konkov’s run from deep won a second penalty and this time Leonid Buryak smacked in the spot kick. Tails up, Dynamo struck again two minutes from time as Petro Slobodyan beat Maier to a free-kick, his header finally ending Bayern’s era of dominance.
(5-6 agg)
The denouement of this tie featured one of the game’s greats displaying his otherworldly gifts on British shores. Both teams went for it over the 180 minutes, but the lasting image is of Ronaldo leaving the Old Trafford pitch to a standing ovation after his second-leg hat-trick, the Brazilian having mesmerised a rearguard including the world’s most expensive defender, Rio Ferdinand. The first match had yielded a classy 3-1 victory for the Galácticos , yet it was a lot closer in England. Although United edged it 4-3 on the night, Ronaldo’s imperious treble (featuring two thunderous strikes) showed how a truly deadly striker can drag their team out of trouble. The praise was richly deserved, and that shot of him departing for the bench in Madrid’s menacing black away strip became an instant classic. “Being applauded off by the United fans was a unique and very special moment for me,” said the man himself.
(6-5 agg)
In 2021, a new word entered France’s Larousse dictionary, a word that had swept north from Spain and seared itself into a nation’s consciousness. Football had witnessed comebacks before Barcelona hosted Paris Saint-Germain in March 2017, but this was something else. This was a whole new category. This… was a Remontada . After all, few had dared to believe in Barça’s chances following their 4-0 humbling at the Parc des Princes, aside perhaps from Luis Enrique. “We can score six,” vowed the Catalan club’s defiant coach, ensuring a feverish atmosphere for the Camp Nou return. And so it proved as the hosts surged 3-0 ahead shortly after half-time, the crowd urging them on even after Edinson Cavani complicated their task. Although Barça still needed three more goals with two minutes left, up stepped Neymar to unleash mayhem… burying a free-kick, a penalty, and then feeding Sergi Roberto to complete the biggest comeback in Champions League history.
(3-2 agg)
This was the night that gave birth to the legend – or myth, depending on your allegiance – of the great Anfield European night. Only 22,000 had witnessed victory against Irish side Crusaders in the first round, but 55,000 convened for the quarter-final visit of storied Saint-Étienne, the previous season’s runners-up. According to goalkeeper Ray Clemence, those fans produced “the greatest atmosphere I ever experienced” as the Reds sought to overturn a 1-0 deficit. There would be no repeat of Liverpool’s mistake a decade earlier, when manager Bill Shankly dismissed the threat of Ajax. “I don’t underestimate Saint-Étienne,” swore successor Bob Paisley. He was as good as his word. Liverpool led 2-1 but were heading out on away goals when Paisley summoned David Fairclough, the original supersub. “He didn’t give specific instructions,” Fairclough explained. “He said he hoped I’d get a chance.” It came with six minutes remaining and the outcome was never in doubt.
(3-8 agg)
“A Beatle called Best sends Benfica packing.” That was the headline in A Bola on 10 March 1966. The night before, a 19-year-old with a mop on his head and magic in his boots grabbed this quarter-final by the scruff of the neck with two goals inside 11 minutes in Lisbon: first a header, then a solo effort. United led 3-2 from the opening leg and, against hosts with a European Cup home record of W18 D1 L0, Matt Busby ordered an early containment game. George Best, he later said, “must have had cotton wool in his ears”. Benfica great Eusébio received his 1965 Ballon d’Or before kick-off from previous winner Denis Law. By the end, it was all about Best (right), who landed back in Manchester sporting a sombrero. Two years later, he was scoring against Benfica in the final – and holding his own Ballon d’Or.
(5-2 agg)
Ajax’s youthful side wowed everybody in cruising to the semis, but would Bayern be a stretch too far? The Amsterdam outfit proved otherwise despite a goalless first leg in Munich; nothing would hold them back after Jari Litmanen’s header broke the deadlock 11 minutes into the return. Marcel Witeczek levelled, yet by half-time Ajax were disappearing into the distance thanks to Finidi George’s thunderous strike and another from Ronald de Boer. “It’s a measure of the class in this Ajax side that the team didn’t lose confidence, just kept on going,” said coach Louis van Gaal. Litmanen vanquished any lingering doubt within seconds of the restart and, though Mehmet Scholl pulled one back from the spot, Ajax had the last word through Marc Overmars. “Ajax were like a Porsche,” rued Bayern chairman Franz Beckenbauer. “We were like a Tin Snail (Citroën 2CV).”
(4-3 agg)
Real Madrid won 20 straight knockout ties during their early domination of the European Cup. When that run finally ended – in the 1960/61 first round – it was arch-rivals Barcelona who knocked them off their perch. For the Blaugrana , this was revenge for a 6-2 aggregate semi-final defeat seven months earlier. The platform was a 2-2 draw in Madrid, Luis Suárez twice equalising. Back at the Camp Nou, the hero was Brazilian Evaristo. After Martín Vergés’s first-half goal, Evaristo’s diving header in the 81st minute meant there was no coming back for Los Blancos , despite a late Canário strike. Barcelona went on to reach their first final, though by then coach Ljubiša Broćić had made way for Enrique Orizaola. Evaristo grabbed the semi-final winner against Hamburg, but it’s the image of him flying through the air against Madrid that has endured.
(6-6 agg; Monaco win on away goals)
“A lot of things happened” was master of understatement Pep Guardiola’s view of the first leg in Manchester, a night of eight goals and rambunctious attacking thrills. There were doubles for Sergio Agüero and Radamel Falcao – who also missed a penalty – but the buried story was the identity of the fresh-faced scorer of Monaco’s other goal. At 18, Kylian Mbappé had just announced his talent to the world. Leonardo Jardim’s exciting young team was full of burgeoning stars (not least future City ace Bernardo Silva), but there was something extra special about this teenage tearaway with fearlessness and energy to burn. And it was Mbappé (right) who kick-started Monaco’s comeback in the return, another topsy-turvy occasion settled by Tiémoué Bakayoko’s late header.
(6-7 agg)
Bayern were clear favourites when the champions of the two post-war German states met in the European Cup for the first time, but they were given a mighty scare at Munich’s new Olympiastadion. It took Bayern president Wilhelm Neudecker raising the victory bonus per player to 12,000 Deutschmarks during the half-time break for the hosts to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 victory, with Gerd Müller (left) scoring the winner. Before the second leg, Bayern spent the night in Hof in West Germany rather than Dresden, through fear of being spied on by the Stasi. The caution paid off. An early double from Uli Hoeness laid the foundations for Bayern’s progress in a tie that reverberated with wider significance.
(aet; 3-2 agg)
French football’s dominant power at the time, St-Étienne announced themselves on the European stage in 1974/75, making the semi-finals before defeat by Bayern. Dynamo were no novices either, having won the Cup Winners’ Cup in the same campaign, and Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s innovative approach looked set to make his charges the USSR’s first European Cup semi-finalists when Anatoliy Konkov and Oleh Blokhin earned a 2-0 first-leg victory. Dynamo held out for almost three-quarters of the return, but seconds after Blokhin had spurned a golden chance, Patrick Revelli set up brother Hervé to revive home hopes. Jean-Michel Larqué forced extra time and, with players pushed to their physical limits, Dominique Rocheteau – restricted by a calf injury – slotted in with seven minutes left. “This match,” said victorious coach Robert Herbin, “was a complete spectacle of the ideal of football.”
(5-7 agg)
When FIFA president Jules Rimet dubbed Saarbrücken “the most interesting team in Europe”, he was likely not just referencing their 4-0 friendly defeat of Real Madrid in 1951. Unmoored by the political situation after the Second World War, the club played in France for a few years before representing the protectorate of Saarland in the first edition of the European Cup. Which might explain why an AC Milan side featuring Cesare Maldini and Nils Liedholm expected a comfortable evening at the San Siro. Instead, Saarbrücken fought back from 3-1 down to stun their illustrious hosts 4-3. “Maybe they underestimated us,” said winger Werner Otto, whose team were still poised for a famous upset after 77 minutes at home – only for the Rossoneri to finally prevail. “It could have been different,” added Otto. “It wouldn’t have been a big surprise for us to go through.”
(1-0 agg)
“It was a goal that came from the moon – from the Anfield stands,” quipped José Mourinho, laying the sarcasm on good and thick. Almost 20 years later, Luis García’s ’ghost goal’ still divides opinion, settling a monumental semi-final amid a raucous Anfield atmosphere and setting up the Miracle of Istanbul. Mourinho’s team had come through epic ties against Barcelona and Bayern on their way to the latest chapter in an increasingly fervent rivalry against Liverpool. The decisive moment arrived after only four minutes of the second leg, García pouncing on a loose ball and diverting it goalwards, with William Gallas adjudged to have arrived too late to prevent it crossing the line. “My reaction to the goal is straightforward,” the Spaniard said. “I wait for it to bounce and then I go to celebrate. I don’t wait around, I just run off to celebrate. My reaction means I saw the ball going in. Nothing more to say, your honour.”
(2-3 agg)
Perhaps the ultimate José Mourinho performance culminated in the Inter coach sprinting across the Camp Nou pitch, fingers pointing to the skies, his team having survived for more than an hour following Thiago Motta’s dismissal to dethrone Pep Guardiola’s side and reach their first European Cup final since 1972. Even more impressively, the Nerazzurri protected their first-leg advantage despite ending with 14% possession – although Barcelona could point to luck going against them across the tie, notably the ash cloud from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull that forced them to make the 1,000km trip to the first game in Milan via coach, plus Bojan Krkić’s late strike in the return being ruled out for a marginal handball. “This is the best loss of my life,” said a breathless Mourinho in the aftermath. “I’ve won the Champions League, but today was better. My side are a team of heroes – the players left their blood on the pitch tonight.”
(1-3 agg)
Diego Maradona’s European Cup debut was momentous, and not because of the Argentinian’s sublime skills. The great man was marked out of the first leg, Madrid prevailing courtesy of a penalty and a deflected shot. Napoli bounced back via Giovanni Francini at a raucous Stadio San Paolo, but this was not to be Maradona’s night either, Emilio Butragueño levelling to keep Los Blancos out of reach. No, what mattered most was that the Italian champions were out – and it was still only September. Napoli had been unseeded, and this first round tie against Spain’s self-anointed guardians of the European Cup left many frustrated. Figures including AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi began pushing for a major format change, and from that groundswell of grievance, the Champions League was eventually born.
(4-12 agg)
“Eintracht? Who are they?” wondered visiting boss Scot Symon upon arrival in Germany. Rangers had won 31 Scottish titles; Frankfurt were European Cup newcomers. This, quite literally, was professionals against amateurs. After two memorable matches, everyone knew who Eintracht were. In the first leg, the German side produced a performance still regarded as the greatest in club history, a hard-running team thwarting Rangers with ice-cold precision. Scoring five times after the interval, Frankfurt had sewn up the tie, but that didn’t prevent another six-goal salvo in Glasgow. A stunned Ibrox crowd could only applaud, and a young Rangers fan by the name of Alex Ferguson marvelled at the visitors’ quality: “We thought those guys were gods.” Two weeks later, Ferguson was at Hampden to see Frankfurt brought back down to earth, humbled 7-3 by Real Madrid in the final.
(0-2 agg)
Upstart English champions Nottingham Forest had hoped for a first round tie in Spain or France. What they got was a meeting with the European Cup holders from up the motorway: Bob Paisley’s Liverpool. Few fancied Forest, but wonderful performances from Garry Birtles and Tony Woodcock gave Brian Clough’s boys a 2-0 lead to take to Anfield. Colin Barrett’s second came when the Reds were chasing an equaliser, and Paisley later admitted his side should have settled for a 1-0 loss. The Liverpool fans sang, “At Anfield, the Forest will fall,” but Peter Shilton kept Kenny Dalglish and Co at bay. Perhaps Liverpool knew something was in the air when legendary ex-boss Bill Shankly arrived on Forest’s coach as a guest of Clough (right), who led his side all the way that season.
(6-1 agg)
To many, the first leg was an indication of the massacre to come. Arrigo Sacchi’s dynamic Milan outplayed their regal rivals at the Bernabéu – earning applause from a home crowd grateful to have escaped with a draw. Somehow, this tie still looked open, but once midfield enforcer Carlo Ancelotti gave the Rossoneri a 17th-minute lead at the San Siro, the obliteration of Leo Beenhakker’s men began. The imposing, impeccably drilled hosts moved up and down the pitch in unison and deployed a feverish press, high line and ruthless offside trap. Los Blancos couldn’t cope. Milan plundered five goals in the first hour, from five different players, and the stunned Spanish press could only praise this most “un-Italian” side. The Rossoneri were just getting started, eventually beating Steaua Bucureşti 4-0 in the final.
(aet; 5-4 agg)
Napoli faced the unusual task of tackling two different teams in the same tie... in a manner of speaking. A dispirited, disorganised Chelsea struggled at the Stadio San Paolo, losing 3-1, a humbling defeat that was among the final straws for under-pressure boss André Villas-Boas. By the time the second leg rolled around, caretaker coach and fan favourite Roberto Di Matteo was in the dugout. The boys in blue were transformed, feeding off their guests’ nerves at a raucous Stamford Bridge, where Frank Lampard’s penalty made it all square on aggregate after 75 minutes. So imperious at home, Walter Mazzarri’s Napoli now succumbed to the suffocating pressure in extra time, Branislav Ivanović scoring the crucial goal, and Di Matteo’s reinvigorated team went on to win the competition.
(3-3 agg; Barcelona wIn 5-4 on pens)
Yes, a team of Swedish part-timers really were in a European Cup semi-final. It was some team too: twice UEFA Cup winners in the 1980s, IFK left Barcelona reeling after a 3-0 first-leg win in Gothenburg, inspired by Johnny ‘in a hurry’ Ekström. Barça’s first European Cup adventure since 1975 looked all but over. Even after Pichi Alonso’s early opener at the Camp Nou, IFK twice hit the woodwork and had a goal disallowed. “The key was the second goal,” said Alonso of his 2-0 strike on 63 minutes. Six minutes later, with a glorious diving header, he had his hat-trick. Barcelona were level. The shoot-out demanded another comeback: Göteborg led 4-2 and Roland Nilsson could have won it, only to be foiled by Urruti, who then converted his own penalty. After Víctor Muñoz’s winning kick, it all ended with a ball boy called Pep Guardiola celebrating on the pitch with Terry Venables. For the first time in 25 years, Barcelona had reached the final.
(3-1 agg)
It’s hard to know exactly how many people attended the second leg of Celtic’s semi-final with Leeds on 15 April 1970. Officially, 135,805 were packed into Hampden Park – still a competition record – but those present insist there were plenty more, all keen to witness the first tie between the champions of Scotland and England. The game had been moved from Celtic Park, such was the demand for tickets, and the locals were not left disappointed as Jock Stein’s Bhoys snared the cross-border bragging rights. Britain’s first European Cup winners in 1966/67, Celtic held a 1-0 lead from the first leg, and despite faltering when Billy Bremner struck for Leeds on 14 minutes, goals from John Hughes and Bobby Murdoch took them through to another final. “No one left the stadium on the final whistle,” Celtic midfielder David Hay recalls. “There was no running for the last bus or train. We did a lap of honour, which was a fantastic experience.”
(aet; 6-5 agg)
Manchester City led 2-0 inside 11 minutes of the first leg. They led 5-3 on aggregate entering the 90th minute of the second. Then everything changed. A 90th-minute Rodrygo goal. Sixty seconds later, another. Five minutes into extra time, with City spinning, Karim Benzema’s penalty completed this most astonishing of comebacks. Waves of belief had rolled around the Bernabéu, the collective confidence of a club with the most European Cups. The mentality of a team of seasoned winners helped. So too, Carlo Ancelotti’s wisdom in introducing fresh young substitutes. Madrid had pulled off their third thrilling escape act en route to the trophy, having already battled back from the brink against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. “The paranormal became normal,” declared newspaper AS. “Come down, God, and explain this,” said Marca. Logic had no answer to such force of will.
(2-5 agg)
In the ultimate act of impotent fury following their 4-0 trouncing in Amsterdam, goalkeeper Sepp Maier returned to Bayern’s team hotel and dumped his kit in the canal. Ajax had been at their untouchable best in that first-leg triumph – elusive, patient and cunning – even if it took 53 minutes for Arie Haan to open the scoring and usher in a rampant second half. The return game proved little more than a formality, and all-conquering Ajax went on to defeat Real Madrid home and away before downing Juventus to complete their hat-trick of European titles. It was Bayern who followed them onto the throne, however, and the German giants took hilarious, petty revenge when invited to face Ajax in Johan Cruyff’s farewell match in 1978. The club legend had briefly retired, and Ajax’s players expected a light-hearted run-out in honour of a departing hero. What they got was payback, an 8-0 hammering from a Bayern team with long memories.
(4-4 agg; Panathinaikos win on away goals)
When Panathinaikos were clobbered 4-1 in front of nearly 90,000 delirious locals in Belgrade, it was broadly considered that the Galloping Major had reached the end of his European Cup road. Ferenc Puskás might have won three continental titles as a Real Madrid player, but his chances of reaching the final as a coach seemed doomed – until Crvena zvezda visited Athens for the second instalment. There, Puskás’s side took an early lead through Antonis Antoniadis, and the same player doubled the advantage in the second half, three years after his transfer unveiling had been ruined when he was whisked to hospital with appendicitis. Defender Aristidis Kamaras ultimately buried the crucial third, adding to his first-leg goal, and although Ajax proved too strong in the Wembley decider, there was no mistaking the epic nature of Panathinaikos’ glittering run. “We were pioneers,” Antoniadis later commented. “It took us almost ten years to realise what we had achieved.”
(2-3 agg)
Legs pumping, fists punching the air and a long black coat billowing in the wind… this was José Mourinho’s box-office breakthrough moment. Old Trafford had never seen anything like it, a young coach brimful of attitude and charisma as he raced down the touchline, treating the place like his own back yard – which, years later, it would become. Mourinho had yet to anoint himself the Special One, but this was special all right, the then Porto manager celebrating Costinha’s last-minute finish with a manic dash to the corner flag. “It was a team of kids coached by a kid,” he would go on to explain, Porto having looked set to exit on away goals until Manchester United goalkeeper Tim Howard pawed at Benni McCarthy’s late free-kick, offering Costinha his chance to send the underdogs through. “Why not celebrate this way?” Mourinho later wrote. “Madness, but madness from our heart.”
(5-4 agg)
Holders Milan had powered past Sparta Praha in the last 16 and were expected to venture far again, especially given the brilliance of new star Kaká. In the home leg of their quarter-final against Deportivo La Coruña, four goals in nine minutes promptly sealed a commanding 4-1 win. The return in Galicia would therefore prove a formality – or so everyone thought. Instead, with a performance no less ferocious than the Atlantic Ocean a stone’s throw from their stadium, Depor sank Carlo Ancelotti’s prized ship. Javier Irureta’s team played like men possessed as Walter Pandiani, Juan Carlos Valerón and Alberto Luque spread panic with first-half goals. For all their talent and experience, Paolo Maldini and Co couldn’t live with the Spanish side’s commitment, power and running, and Fran later capped a stunning comeback as the Rossoneri ’s collapse foreshadowed events in the Istanbul final a year later.
(4-4 agg; Replay: Ajax 3-0 Benfica, aet)
The sands were shifting at the end of the 1960s. Old heroes and tired assumptions were about to be swept away by the Total Football revolution, and fans got a glimpse of the future when Benfica met Dutch upstarts Ajax in 1969. The traditional order still looked solid when legendary forward Eusébio and Co defied icy conditions to win 3-1 in Amsterdam, but Ajax were about to deliver a jolt to the system. Rinus Michels’ side were quick and fluid, forward-thinking in every sense, and their languid young genius Johan Cruyff struck twice in Lisbon to help level the tie. With shoot-outs yet to be introduced, the teams then headed to Paris for a replay – where 40,000 Ajax fans saw Cruyff and two-goal Inge Danielsson pounce in extra time. “The emergence of Ajax took Benfica from number one in Europe to number two,” said Eagles winger António Simões. “This was Eusébio passing the torch to Cruyff.”
Anyone who missed this game and saw the result was probably left wondering, “What happened there?” Those who watched it wondered the same. Bayern have dealt out plenty of agony down the years, but no one expected them to dismantle Barcelona with such frightening ease. The COVID-19 pandemic meant this last-eight contest had to be staged as a one-legged affair in front of empty stands in Lisbon, and that added to the eeriness of a total mismatch. “The way we dominated was brutal,” said two-goal Thomas Müller, whose early opener was quickly cancelled out before the illusion of balance was shattered. Ivan Perišić, Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich and Robert Lewandowski all shared in the bounty, but the true salt in the wound came in the form of a late double from Philippe Coutinho – on loan from the Camp Nou. While Bayern would go on to the lift the trophy, Barça were left facing the abyss.
(3-4 agg)
Twenty minutes into this barnstorming semi-final, Forest midfielder Martin O’Neill was wishing he could “start all over again”. Everything had gone wrong for Brian Clough’s side, already 2-0 down at home to a Köln team able to surmount the elements. “The pitch conditions were unbelievable – water, puddles, mud,” recalls visiting goalkeeper Harald Schumacher. Forest fought back to lead 3-2, John Robertson nodding in just days after his brother and sister-in-law had died in a car accident, but still Köln came at them, making it 3-3 through Yasuhiko Okudera. “The English fans gave us a standing ovation,” says Schumacher. “They had never seen a team fight so hard.” According to O’Neill, even Clough was pessimistic for the return, but Ian Bowyer headed in a corner and that was that. Two years on from being in the Second Division, Forest were through to a European Cup final.
(4-3 agg)
Five years after Steaua Bucureşti had won the European Cup, another Eastern Bloc representative cut a swathe through the competition: Crvena zvezda. Having thumped Grasshoppers, Rangers and Dynamo Dresden, semi-final opponents Bayern provided another step up. The Yugoslav champions were unperturbed, coming from behind to win at Munich’s Olympiastadion thanks to superb counterattacking goals from Darko Pančev and Dejan Savićević. Siniša Mihajlović’s deflected free-kick stretched the aggregate lead to 3-1 in Belgrade before nerves kicked in and Bayern scored twice in six minutes to level the tie. “If it had gone to extra time, we would likely have lost,” admitted winger Dragiša Binić, but in the 90th minute Mihajlović’s misdirected cross was sliced in by Klaus Augenthaler. “Luck is very important in football,” said Stevan Stojanović. “And, at that moment, it shone on us.”
(5-5 agg; Monaco win on away goals)
Three times a Champions League winner with Real Madrid, Fernando Morientes enjoyed a formidable partnership with Raúl González. But the arrival of Ronaldo had squeezed him out of the first-team picture. In a classic sliding-doors moment, a proposed loan to Schalke collapsed and a serious injury to Monaco striker Shabani Nonda paved the way for a move to the principality. Morientes scored five times en route to a Champions League quarter-final meeting with his parent club. Trailing 4-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu, Morientes gave Monaco a glimmer of hope seven minutes from time before again finding the net in the decider as Didier Deschamps’ side rallied from 1-0 down to win 3-1 and progress on away goals. The Spain forward also struck in both legs of the semi-final victory against Chelsea and returned to Madrid at the end of the season having finished as the competition’s top scorer.
(3-1 agg)
“In this room, he’s the chief, the man – I can’t compete,” snapped Pep Guardiola to the media, addressing José Mourinho’s recent dig at his management style in the lead-up to this semi-final joust. A third Clásico in 11 days was approaching, the most recent having brought a Copa del Rey title for Madrid that bandaged the wounds of a 5-0 defeat earlier in the season. “On the pitch, we’ll see what happens,” warned Guardiola, though it took a half-time scuffle and three red cards before the first leg at the Santiago Bernabéu received the sprinkle of stardust it needed, with Lionel Messi truly rising to the occasion. After tapping in the opener, he wove his magic to bamboozle the hosts’ back line, scoring one of the defining solo goals of his storied career. Mourinho seethed, but Barcelona stayed calm to punch their ticket to Wembley in the second leg, while everyone still reeled from a manic first.
(2-1 agg)
Bayern had once against quashed St-Étienne’s hopes in the 1976 final to make it three titles in a row, and looked well placed to make it four as they cruised into the last eight for the fifth year running. The Munich club eked out a narrow first-leg lead thanks to Rainer Künkel’s goal shortly before half-time but were under pressure from the first whistle in the return at NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv and would have been pegged back on aggregate had Sepp Maier not turned Oleh Blokhin’s first-half penalty on to a post. Dynamo kept coming but Bayern held them at bay until seven minutes from the end when Anatoliy Konkov’s run from deep won a second penalty and this time Leonid Buryak smacked in the spot kick. Tails up, Dynamo struck again two minutes from time as Petro Slobodyan beat Maier to a free-kick, his header finally ending Bayern’s era of dominance.
