In celebration of the sporting decade that is coming to a close, writers from The Athletic have been picking their teams and highlights of the 2010s.
Barcelona 1-0 Inter, semi-final second leg
(aggregate: 2-3)
April 28, 2010
Jose Mourinho’s last great triumph. This Inter team that won the treble perfectly exemplified his ideals of organisation, discipline and ruthlessness. As they showed by taking on Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and beating them. They won 3-1 in Milan but the real thriller came in this tight 1-0 defeat in the Nou Camp.
Mourinho never wanted Inter to have the ball, he told them to sit deep, hold their shape, and not to press Barcelona until they were within 25 metres of the goal. “He gave us information nobody else could give us,” Wesley Sneijder said of his manager. “That is the power of Mourinho.” And Inter did that all night, even when Thiago Motta was sent off with less than half an hour gone. Tactically perfect, thrilling even in its negativity.
They held on against Barcelona’s waves of ultimately futile passing, and even when Gerard Pique scored late on it was not enough. Inter were through. Mourinho called it “the most beautiful defeat of his career”.
Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea, semi-final second leg
(aggregate: 2-3)
April 24, 2012
The most surprising and impressive Champions League win of the decade belonged to Chelsea, where an experienced group of players refused to be beaten and somehow found a way through every single round. Best of all was the semi-final against Guardiola’s Barcelona, trying but failing to retain it, just like in 2010.
Chelsea had won the first leg 1-0 but came under constant pressure at the Nou Camp, conceding twice in the first half either side of John Terry being sent off, which put him out of the final, too. That should have been that, but no one expected Ramires to score with a brilliant chip, or for Chelsea to defend quite as heroically as they did.
They needed to be lucky, and Lionel Messi missed a penalty early in the second half, but when Fernando Torres scored on the break in the 90th minute, Chelsea were through to Munich. An unlikely triumph of team-work and spirit.
Bayern 0-4 Real Madrid, semi-final second leg
(aggregate: 0-5)
April 29, 2014
The night Guardiola describes as “the biggest fuck-up of my life as a coach”. This was his first season at Bayern, and the first of the catastrophes that have so far defined his inability to win this competition when not in charge of Barcelona.
Bayern had lost 1-0 in Madrid and Guardiola’s idea was to control this decider with a flexible 3-4-3 formation, dominating possession. But he lost his nerve, changing to a 4-2-3-1 and then eventually a 4-2-4 he’d never tried before.
Guardiola implored his players to “go for the jugular” from the start. It was a disaster. Bayern were far too open and Real cut them to pieces. Sergio Ramos headed in two set pieces, Cristiano Ronaldo scored one on the break and then with a free-kick. Real were on their way to la Decima, and the first of four European Cups in five years. Guardiola cursed himself. “I got it totally wrong,” he reflected. “A monumental fuck-up.”
Barcelona 3-0 Bayern, semi-final first leg
(aggregate: 5-3)
May 6, 2015
There have been plenty of great Lionel Messi performances in the Champions League. This one might be the best. Guardiola brought everything to the Nou Camp this night: a brilliant Bayern team near its peak, and an aggressive approach which left space in behind but asked Barcelona plenty of questions. And it nearly worked, as Bayern clung on and made chances on the break, right up until there were 13 minutes left.
Then Messi took over.
He whipped one in at Manuel Neuer’s near post from 25 yards to put Barcelona 1-0 up. Then he scored one of his all-time classics, twisting in then out, leaving Jerome Boateng tumbling to the ground like a felled tree, before chipping into the net. His pass then set up Neymar’s cool last-minute third that killed the tie, putting Barcelona on the road to the Berlin final which, of course, they won…
Juventus 1-3 Barcelona, final
June 6, 2015
The last great Champions League final. This was the crowning moment for MSN (Messi, Suarez, Neymar), who at that point were setting new standards every week for how an all-star front three could somehow become something even better than themselves. They were up against Massimiliano Allegri’s Juventus, themselves combining military-level work ethic and organisation with plenty of individual talent.
Barcelona began on the front foot, slicing through for Ivan Rakitic’s fourth-minute opener before Juventus fired back at the start of the second half. The game was thrillingly open and Barcelona were on the ropes — “For five minutes, we were fucked,” Pique reflected after — only for Suarez and Neymar to win the game in the final quarter.
Xavi came on near the end for his last Barcelona appearance, in his fourth Champions League final victory. The perfect farewell.
It felt like the MSN era would go on for ever, but Barcelona have not reached a Champions League final since.
Bayern 2-1 Atletico, semi-final second leg
(aggregate: 2-2, Atletico win on away goals)
May 3, 2016
The three occasions when Guardiola’s Bayern fell short in Europe were all thrillers, and this last one might have been the best. This was a team at their creative peak but they came up against Diego Simeone’s Atletico, a dogged side desperate to make up for the pain of Lisbon 2014, when they lost the final to Real Madrid having led 1-0 two minutes into stoppage time.
Atletico won 1-0 at home but then had to go to Munich, where Bayern hit them with the kind of whirlwind of attacking football only they could produce. So much movement, so much speed, and Atletico were hanging on by their fingernails, suffering like never before. Xabi Alonso levelled the tie on the half-hour, and three minutes later Thomas Mueller had the chance from the spot to take the lead. But Jan Oblak saved it, and Alonso’s follow-up.
When Antoine Griezmann scored on the break, from one of Atletico’s few attacks, it was fatal to Bayern, and to Guardiola’s hope for a European legacy at Bayern — despite a late Robert Lewandowski ‘winner’.
Barcelona 6-1 PSG, last 16 second leg
(aggregate: 6-5)
March 8, 2017
The most spectacular collapse in modern Champions League history, and a game that set up a mini-era of comebacks, having proven that no margin is ever fully safe. Paris Saint-Germain had been brilliant in the first leg, winning 4-0, and looking for the first time like plausible European champions.
Barcelona went 3-0 up before Edinson Cavani scored a huge away goal after an hour. PSG had two more big chances to kill the tie, which they missed. Barcelona still needed three goals with two and a half minutes of normal time left, and somehow they got them: a Neymar free-kick, a Neymar penalty and then a Neymar chip through to Sergi Roberto for the winner 4:41 into the five added minutes.
PSG coach Unai Emery looked totally broken at the end, opposite number Luis Enrique called it a “victory of faith”.
This was the 214th time in the competition a first leg had ended 4-0, but the first time that team had gone out.
And it had historic ramifications: PSG were so humiliated, they signed Neymar that summer for a world-record £198 million.
Man City 4-3 Tottenham, quarter-final second leg
(aggregate: 4-4, Tottenham win on away goals)
April 17, 2019
The steepest emotional rollercoaster on this list, a night when nobody knew who would go through until the final seconds. Tottenham brought a 1-0 lead to Manchester, lost it early on but then fired back with two incisive Son Heung-min finishes on the break. Bernardo Silva pulled it level, and there had been four goals in the game’s first 11 minutes.
That prompted a City onslaught as they tried to blow Spurs away. For 14 minutes in the second half they were 4-2 up and going through before Tottenham dug deep and found a way, Fernando Llorente bouncing one in off his hip from a corner. Even that was no preparation for the end, as Raheem Sterling thought he had won it two minutes into added time, only for VAR to intervene.
City were utterly crushed after another painful exit for Guardiola. Spurs could not believe it, but even this turned out to only be practice for the next round…
Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona, semi-final second leg
(aggregate: 4-3)
May 7, 2019
Anfield has staged so many magical European nights, but this might be the best of all. Liverpool looked finished after the first leg, hope extinguished by Messi’s 82nd minute free-kick to make it 3-0 at the Nou Camp.
“I think it’s impossible,” Jurgen Klopp told his players beforehand. “But because it’s you, I think we have a chance.” Mohamed Salah, out injured, wore a “NEVER GIVE UP” t-shirt to the game.
Divock Origi scored early on, but it was not one-way traffic from there. Messi created three great chances for team-mates, all of them missed,. The game turned when Klopp threw on Gini Wijnaldum for the second half.
The midfielder scored two goals in three minutes just before the hour, with Barcelona looking totally unprepared for his explosive power. They were shell-shocked, and did not even defend Trent Alexander-Arnold’s quick corner which Origi turned in 10 minutes from time to complete the win.
No game better sums up Klopp’s Liverpool — “mentality giants” — than this.
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham, semi-final second leg
(aggregate: 3-3, Tottenham win on away goals)
May 8, 2019
Even the Etihad three weeks before did not compare to this, another epic just 24 hours after Liverpool’s against Barcelona. Ajax won 1-0 in north London and then scored another two in the first half at the Johann Cruyff Arena. Three goals up, 45 minutes left. The tie felt dead. Ajax would be going back to the Champions League final.
But Lucas Moura intervened. He raced away to slot in the first and then brilliantly spun in the box for a second. Out of nowhere, Spurs were one goal away with 30 minutes still to play. It came, but only after all five of the minimum five added minutes, a long ball, a Llorente flick, and Moura found the bottom corner again. Chaos does not do it justice.
What followed was the most contrasting display of emotions you will ever see: Ajax players collapsed to the floor in unison and in tears. Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino charged around the pitch, crying very different tears of his own.
“Thank you football,” he said afterwards, still clearly overcome. “This type of emotion, without football, is impossible to live.”
