10 Great Moments from Champions League Semi-Finals
Two finely balanced UEFA Champions League semi-finals resume this week, with Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Real Madrid all still eyeing a place in the Milan final after tight first legs.
All four clubs will each be targeting their own special moment to turn a place in the last four to a place in the last two, but will any of them rival these memorable ones from the past?
Let's take a trip down Champions League memory lane.
'They Daren't Let Him Have a Sight of Goal': Ronald Koeman vs. Porto, 1994
1 of 10Before he was the largely genial Southampton manager, Ronald Koeman was one of the best European footballers of his generation, and he proved that with this remarkable goal against Porto in 1994.
In the first semi-final of the rebranded Champions League era (in 1992/93, clubs went straight from a group stage to a final) the matches were played over just one leg, and hosts Barcelona raced into a two-goal lead in the first half against Porto at the Camp Nou thanks to a brace from Hristo Stoichkov.
A valiant Porto side looked to respond in the second half, but ultimately, they were undone by this remarkable strike from Koeman 18 minutes from time, when the Dutchman took aim from distance and lashed the ball into the net in the manner of a heat-seeking missile.
Barca won the match 3-0, matching AC Milan’s victory over Monaco in the other semi-final, but it was to be the Italians who triumphed in the showpiece event in Athens, where they hammered the Catalans 4-0 in one of the best Champions League final performances of all time.
'An Honour to Be Associated with Such a Player': Roy Keane vs. Juventus, 1999
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It is a season and a performance that has long since passed into Manchester United folklore, and perhaps the man most qualified to talk about it is Sir Alex Ferguson.
“It was an honour to be associated with such a player,” said the soon-to-be treble-winning United manager, as per the Guardian's Scott Murray and Rob Smyth, after Roy Keane had led his side into the 1999 Champions League final by coming from two goals down to beat Juventus in Turin, where the Irishman’s almost definitive captain’s display was the driving force.
Ryan Giggs’ stoppage-time equaliser had forced a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Old Trafford, but two strikes from Filippo Inzaghi inside the first 11 minutes of the second encounter looked to be enough to put the Italian side through.
However, Keane headed home David Beckham’s corner to start the fightback, and then his midfield dominance—albeit marred by a booking that would rule him out of the final—set the stage for goals from Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole to take United to the Camp Nou and a meeting with Bayern Munich, where another comeback was going to be needed.
'Van Gaal, Go Home': Valencia vs. Barcelona, 2000
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Barcelona were 3-0 down inside 38 minutes of their 1999/2000 quarter-final first leg against Chelsea, only for a remarkable fightback to end with a 6-4 aggregate victory after extra time in the second leg.
However, while that was going on, Hector Cuper’s Valencia were dismantling a Lazio side regarded by many as one of the best around at that time, so the warnings were there for Barca ahead of an all Primera Division semi-final. They obviously weren’t heeded.
Louis van Gaal’s side were crushed 4-1 in the first leg at the Mestalla, with only a Mauricio Pellegrino own goal to show from a night on which Miguel Angel Angulo, Gaizka Mendieta and Claudio Lopez ran riot, all getting on the scoresheet.
With Barca languishing behind eventual Primera Division champions Deportivo La Coruna domestically and Van Gaal proving hugely unpopular with supporters (sound familiar?), there was a feeling of mutiny about the Camp Nou for the second leg, where Barca won 2-1 thanks to two late goals, but that was largely irrelevant.
Van Gaal was gone a few weeks later.
'It Was a Goal from the Moon': Luis Garcia vs. Chelsea, 2005
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Liverpool weren’t even supposed to get out of their group stage in the 2004/05 Champions League, so by the time Rafael Benitez’s thrown-together side entered the semi-finals, they were punching above their weight.
In their way stood a Chelsea outfit that had run away with the Premier League title, but Liverpool held firm in the first leg at Stamford Bridge to force a goalless draw before the key moment of the tie four minutes into the return at Anfield.
As Milan Baros tumbled to the ground after being taken down by Petr Cech (an act arguably worthy of a red card and a penalty) Luis Garcia’s poked effort certainly went toward the vicinity of the goal line, but without technology, no one has been able to conclusively prove whether it crossed the line before William Gallas hooked it away.
Blues boss Jose Mourinho had seen enough, later telling the BBC Sport: “It's very strange. It was a goal from the moon or the Anfield Road stand, I don't know where.”
Wherever it came from, it sent Liverpool to Istanbul and a place in Champions League folklore.
'All I Was Thinking About Was Trying Something Special': Kaka vs. Man Utd, 2007
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Seemingly on a mission to put right their Champions League final loss to Liverpool two years earlier, AC Milan made it to the final against the same opponents in 2007 largely thanks to a virtuoso display from Kaka against Manchester United.
In a thrilling semi-final first leg at Old Trafford, the Brazilian cancelled out Cristiano Ronaldo’s early header midway through the first half before scoring a stunning second when he collected Dida’s long punt forward, skinned both Gabriel Heinze and Patrice Evra—who barged into each other in comical fashion—and then slotted a cool finish beyond Edwin van der Sar.
In a 2015 interview with the Daily Mail's Sam Cunningham, Kaka revealed it to be his favourite goal, saying: “When the ball dropped from Dida’s long pass all I was thinking about was trying to do something special. To do it at Old Trafford, with all the history of the stadium, was amazing.”
Wayne Rooney’s own brace meant United won the game on the night, but Kaka’s two away goals were telling, and he scored again in the second leg as Milan won 3-0.
They beat Liverpool in the final this time too.
'What About That? What About That?': Paul Scholes vs. Barcelona, 2008
6 of 10Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty in the third minute of Manchester United’s semi-final first leg at the Camp Nou, but what he couldn’t do from 12 yards, Paul Scholes could do from 25.
The United icon struck this powerful effort just 14 minutes into the second leg against Barcelona at Old Trafford in 2008, and the Red Devils progressed to their first Champions League final since Scholes, along with Roy Keane, was banned for the final in 1999.
Scholes’ angled drive could hardly have been better-placed, leaving ITV commentator Clive Tyldesley grasping for words as the ball hit the net in the video above.
Staying typically low-key, Scholes himself put the victory down to the team’s hard work, telling the Manchester Evening News years later: “We matched them all over the pitch and kept our levels of concentration high. I managed to score the goal that won the tie.”
United beat Chelsea in the Moscow final on penalties, but Barca would later have their revenge, beating Scholes’ side in the 2009 and 2011 finals.
'Destiny Had This Space Saved for Us': Andres Iniesta vs Chelsea, 2009
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Had things been a little different, then you could well be looking at Michael Essien’s face on this page, such was the majesty of the Chelsea midfielder’s goal just nine minutes into the second leg of the 2009 semi-final tie against Barcelona.
But then from that point onward, virtually everything went wrong for Guus Hiddink’s Blues, who felt they were on the wrong end of a series of contentious decisions from referee Tom Henning Ovrebo, who turned down a series of the hosts’ penalty claims.
The Norwegian did send off Barca’s Eric Abidal, though, but with the Catalans depleted and facing elimination at Stamford Bridge, Andres Iniesta popped up to fire home a dramatic late winner to stun Chelsea and send his team through on away goals.
“Destiny had this space saved for us,” Iniesta later told an interview with Barca TV. Chelsea had a few other opinions.
Didier Drogba especially. *Warning: Video contains NSFW language*
'The Most Beautiful Defeat of My Life': Jose Mourinho vs. Barcelona, 2010
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It mustn’t be forgotten that Inter had turned in a performance of style and elegance in beating Barcelona 3-1 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final at the San Siro in 2010, but it largely slips the mind because of what came next.
Seeking to hold onto that advantage, Jose Mourinho’s men went down to 10 men at the Camp Nou when Tiago Motta was dismissed just half an hour in, but through incredible defending, they managed to hold out until six minutes from time, when Gerard Pique fired home.
Barca needed one more goal, but the 10 men held on and allowed Mourinho to sprint onto the pitch and celebrate wildly at full time.
Barca’s fans were less than impressed, but the Portuguese didn’t care, saying it was “the most beautiful defeat of [his] life.”
According to the Telegraph's Henry Winter, Mourinho added: “It is a style of blood not skill. When the moment of leaving everything on the pitch arrives, you don't leave the skill you leave the blood. We were a team of heroes. We sweated blood. It's a pity I could not play because I have got the same blood. I have already won a Champions League but today was even better.”
He probably said a blood a bit too often then, didn’t he?
'El Puto Amo': Lionel Messi vs. Real Madrid, 2011
9 of 10It was around about 2011 when the genius of Lionel Messi was beginning to be compared to the all-time greats of the game, and that year, the Argentinian wrote his name large all over a Clasico semi-final that he defined.
Having scored the only goal and with Real Madrid down to 10 men following Pepe’s red card, Messi imbued a feisty Clasico with a moment of sheer genius when he ran directly at the home defence at the Santiago Bernabeu, sending them scuttling backward in fear of what he was about to do next.
In the end, he stroked home a clinical finish into the far corner to secure what was an unassailable 2-0 first-leg advantage, with the Spanish press left in awe of his genius in the newspapers the following day.
As reported by the Guardian’s Paul Hayward, both El Mundo Deportivo and Sport described Messi as “El Puto Amo” on their front pages.
Put simply: “The F--king Man.”
'Ohhhhhhhhh': Fernando Torres vs, Barcelona, 2012
10 of 10In a moment made all the more famous by a man who was sitting several hundred yards away, Fernando Torres’ cool finish to put Chelsea into the Champions League final in 2012 must not lose its context.
After the Blues won the first leg at Stamford Bridge 1-0, they looked to be tumbling out when goals from Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta gave Barca the advantage, John Terry’s brainless red card for clattering Alexis Sanchez only adding to the Liga side's sense of superiority.
Yet somehow, a side under the temporary stewardship of Roberto Di Matteo lifted themselves up off the canvas at the most intimidating place in world football.
Ramires elegantly chipped them in front on away goals, and after Lionel Messi hit the woodwork with a penalty, substitute Torres—who had only been on the pitch for 10 minutes—raced clear of the home defence, rounded Victor Valdes and sent co-commentator Gary Neville into levels of ecstasy not normally associated with sports television channels.
