The Champions League always seems to throw up sensational goals and the 2009/10 competition has been no different. We’ve dug around in the vault (YouTube) and pulled out some of this season’s absolute best. We’ve ranked them – although we welcome withering comments on where we might have got it wrong.
5. Cristiano Ronaldo came up with a few beauties during this campaign, and more than one from set pieces. This one though, against Marseille, is the pick of his haul. At this distance, you have to wonder how he does it. The big handsome devil that he is.
4. Ryan Babel is an unusual creature at times but there is no doubting his ability to come up with occasional bouts of brilliance. The pool were up against Lyon away with less than 10 minutes to play. The 22-year-old picked up the ball way outside Lyon’s area, skipped past three defenders and let rip. The ball nearly burst out the top left corner of the net. Corker.
3. Bayern were in dire need of a goal against old Champions League rivals Manchester United when prematurely bald Dutchman Arjen Robben stormed forward to meet a high, awkward ball. Any normal individual would have tried to take a touch, but not young (but old looking) Arjen. Instead, he caught it on the volley, sweet as a nut, sending it straight into the bottom corner.
2. The second best goal in the Champions League this year, we (I) reckon, came in an even more striking David v Goliath-type scenario. This second pick came from the man with a name like a spilled can of alphabet spaghetti – Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Ryazantsev. Ryazantsev was plying his trade for little known Rubin Kazan when the Russian side were drawn against Barcelona in the group stages. He only went and made it 1-0 in the Nou Camp with this thunderous 35-metre top corner effort.
1. The highlight of Hannu Tihinen’s life arrived when he came up with that most rare of football commodities – a back-heel volley. It was all the nicer because the Zurich player is a lumbering centre half, it was the winning goal against AC Milan and this was his last season before retiring. Ahhh.
