The Champions League serves up a brand of drama that can't be found elsewhere.
Under the floodlights, with the greatest players in Europe competing for the biggest prize in club football...and it doesn't hurt that you get some spectacular goals, either.
These are the best 20 of the bunch, but we honestly could have gone way beyond that - we've left a lot of very good efforts on the cutting room floor here.
20. Declan Rice, ARSENAL 3-0 Real Madrid, 2024/25
The first free kick Rice scored in this game was excellent. The second was little short of sensational.
It's the audacity that does it. The obvious thing is to try and go over or around the wall and score at the near post, as Rice did with his first effort. One of the best keepers in the world, Thibaut Courtois, has the far post well covered, after all.
Declan, mate, the only way to get it into that corner is if it's so powerful and so accurate that...oh, you've done it. Lovely.
19. Allan Ravn, BRONDBY 2-1 Bayern Munich, 1998/99
Months before Bayern suffered heartbreak against Manchester United, the Germans had to pick themselves up from conceding two late goals to lose 2-1 in Denmark.
In fairness, though, that winning goal from Allan Ravn was pretty brilliant. Off a little dink over the top, he knocks it over a defender and races towards the edge of the box.
Bayern have another man coming in as cover, so Ravn takes the shot on early and gets it exactly right. Oliver Kahn is firmly on his line, but the shot comes with the trajectory of a lob and smacks in off the post.
18. Thierry Henry, Real Madrid 0-1 ARSENAL, 2005/06
The goal that decided this Round of 16 tie was Titi at his jet-heeled, cool-finishing best.
Henry races clear of David Beckham, Ronaldo and, er, Thomas Gravesen all in one go, then curves his run away from Sergio Ramos to go away from goal.
If Iker Casillas thinks he's safe with Henry going that way, he's dead wrong. The French icon happily takes the shot on with his left foot, catching the keeper just fractionally off-guard enough that his an accurate finish finds to the far bottom corner.
17. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Anderlecht 0-5 PSG, 2013/14
Zlatan doesn’t do sympathy. Which is why he scored this banana blaster as part of a four-goal salvo against the Belgian champions, to leave them with no goals scored and 10 conceded in the group stage.
Ibrahimovic didn't especially do boring goals, either, so from the moment a loose ball breaks to him 30 yards out, you know exactly what he's going to do: top corner, bang, goal.
That's what he was for.
16. Federico Valverde, REAL MADRID 3-3 Manchester City, 2023/24
We're not going to lie: we went to the highlights of this game because we were going to include Phil Foden's fizzing finish to the top corner. It would have been a worthy addition.
But then we remembered it wasn't even the best goal in this pulsating semi-final tie. Any striker will tell you just how brilliant this technique is just to stop it from flying 15 yards over the bar, let alone thump it into the far bottom corner.
It looks even better in slow motion: Valverde takes an almighty swing of his right leg and slices his foot across the ball, pummelling it across the ground with such venom and accuracy that the keeper can barely even react. Stunning.
15. Michael Essien, CHELSEA 1-1 Barcelona, 2008/09
Michael Essien was not known as a prolific scorer, but as Frank Lampard's blocked shot looped so nicely in his direction in the second leg of the 2009 semi-final, you couldn't blame him for taking on the left-footed volley. We've all done it. But none of us have ever hit a ball as well as this.
The arc of the ball, the clip off the underside of the crossbar, the way it bounces over the line so hard it cannons back up into the top of the net and makes a satisfying 'thwack'...it's perfect, other than him failing to shout "YEBOAAAHHH!" afterwards like a kid on the playground in the 1990s.
Andres Iniesta later scored a brilliant goal of his own to put Barcelona into the final, and it's only a shame that both efforts ended up overshadowed by Chelsea's extreme outrage at having been denied four controversial penalty shouts.
14. Hugo Almeida, Inter 2-1 PORTO, 2005/06
FFT reckons the Portuguese forward’s left-footed free-kick from about a mile out (OK, 35 yards) would have orbited the earth had it not been stopped by the top corner of the San Siro net.
Like Rice's effort against Real Madrid years later, it's ridiculous to even try going to that corner, especially as Almeida hits it with no swerve whatsoever.
But what it lacks in horizontal movement it more than makes up for in the vertical: it rises so extremely on its route to goal that at first glance it looks like it may have taken a deflection and then been fingertipped by the keeper. Nope, neither. An all-timer of a net noise, too.
13. Philippe Mexes, Anderlecht 1-3 MILAN, 2012/13
“You only score a goal like that once in your career,” Mexes said after the game. Yeah, if you're very lucky, Phil. Especially when you’re a centre-back.
This group-stage great comes courtesy of a long-range overhead kick after some already-impressive chest control to take it away from the Anderlecht defender.
By the time he realises Mexes is going for the spectacular, it's already too late: the ball is looping over the keeper and in at the far post.
12. George Weah, Bayern Munich 0-1 PSG, 1994/95
The stuff childhood memories are made of. A flowing team move, silky solo run and long-range worldie all rolled into one, as the legendary Liberian inspired group stage smash-and-grab in Bavaria during the group stage.
Weah leaves two players on the floor on his way towards the box - one of whom appears to try and grab him by the ankle on his way past, but can't - then skins another defender before putting a sumptuous finish into the top corner.
No wonder Weah won the Ballon d'Or that season if he was doing things like that.
11. Dejan Savicevic, MILAN 4-0 Barcelona, 1993/94
The pick of the goals as a great Milan side gave Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team nightmares in the 1994 final.
Andoni Zubizarreta isn't even particularly off his line as Savicevic wins the ball out wide just outside the Barcelona box, but the lob is just so good it beats him anyway.
A super bit of vision and an even better execution from the brilliantly classy Yugoslavia international.
10. Lars Ricken, BORUSSIA DORTMUND 3-1 Juventus, 1996/97
You wonder if managers consoling players they've named on the bench for a Champions League Final bring up Lars Ricken.
Just 16 seconds after his introduction as a 70th-minute substitute, Ricken sprinted into space and put a lovely lob into the net to make it 3-1 and kill the game off for surprise winners Dortmund.
It is the fastest goal ever scored by a substitute in a Champions League final...and must be close to the fastest booking, too, after he was carded for jumping the hoardings in celebration.
9. Cristiano Ronaldo, Porto 0-1 MAN UNITED, 2008/09
Tap-ins, headers, free-kicks, mazy dribbles – CR7 can score all kinds of goals.
That includes swerving piledrivers to put the then-reigning champions into the semi-finals, testing his popularity in Portugal’s second city.
8. Mauro Bressan, FIORENTINA 3-3 Barcelona, 1999/00
“It probably seemed a bit crazy at the time," Bressan told FourFourTwo, “but I wanted to try it because I had attempted it a few times in training with not much success.”
Weird logic, but hey, it worked. Bressan was an unremarkable journeyman midfielder, but if you are going to be remembered for one thing, it might as well be this from outside the box against one of the continent’s giants.
"When I got back onto my feet I just started screaming," he added. And rightly so.
7. Divock Origi, LIVERPOOL 4-0 Barcelona, 2019/20
Some of the goals on this are thunderous efforts from distance, others are moments of sublime technical skill...this is all about wit.
Divock Origi makes the finish look easier than it was, but the semi-final winner owes everything to Trent Alexander-Arnold being a step ahead of anybody else on the pitch when he takes a quick corner to catch Barcelona unaware.
Just to make it even more iconic, that fourth goal meant Liverpool successfully overturned a 3-0 deficit from the first leg to reach a final they would go on to win.
6. Lionel Messi, BARCELONA 3-0 Bayern, 2014/15
It wouldn't be a best goals list without an appearance from Lionel Messi, and we bet even he is pleased with this one.
The little magician sits Jerome Boating down before chipping Manuel Neuer with his weaker foot.
Breathtaking. But then, Messi always was. Case in point...
5. Lionel Messi, Real Madrid vs BARCELONA, 2010/11
It's a classic Messi mazy run, against their biggest rivals in a semi-final of the Champions League...all worthy enough to give this goal a place on our list.
Yet it's that one-two with Sergio Busquets that leaves the greatest impression; Busquets barely even touches the ball, knowing all he needs to do is let Messi run onto it at full pace and do what he does best.
That was a very good Real Madrid side, but Messi made them look like total chumps.
4. Mario Mandzukic, JUVENTUS 1-4 Real Madrid, 2015/16
The Old Lady might have ultimately caved and lost the final after the Croatian's equaliser in the 27th minute, but there's no doubt this effort remains one of the greatest ever scored by a Juventus player.
The acrobatic finish is perfectly executed, but the move itself deserves plaudits too. A fine team goal, with a sensational full stop.
3. Dejan Stankovic, INTER 2-5 Schalke, 2010/11
A long-range specialist, but the thunderbooted Serb scored none better than this, a raking volley from the halfway line past some two-bob keeper called Neuer in the quarter-final first leg.
This is why keepers don't generally do diving headers, we guess.
2. Zinedine Zidane, Bayer Leverkusen 1-2 REAL MADRID, 2001/02
Apparently, two other goals were scored in the 2002 final... no, we don’t remember them, either. That’s because Zizou did this, hammering a volley into the top corner from Roberto Carlos’ looping cross.
Honestly we give up even trying to describe it. You just have to see it, again and again and again.
1. Gareth Bale, Real Madrid 3-1 Liverpool, 2017/18
Gareth Bale might have a patchy history with Real Madrid fans, but even the most hardened anti-Baler will remember this goal forever.
It's a sumptuous volley, scored by the much-maligned substitute after his introduction in the 61st minute, that ultimately won his side the game. An incredible goal in the biggest moment of all.
