Cristiano Ronaldo’s superb effort against Juventus in Tuesday’s Champions League first leg has already taken on iconic status for football fans around the globe.
But was it the best ever in the competition’s history or does that honour belong to another individual, like current Real Madrid coach, Zinedine Zidane, for example?
Here Sportsmail’s writers name their favourite Champions League goal…..
Cristiano Ronaldo netted a sublime goal against Juventus in Tuesday’s Champions League tie
Ian Ladyman: Zinedine Zidane, REAL MADRID vs Bayer Leverkusen
The French master was on the touch line last night as Cristiano Ronaldo lit up Turin so it’s fitting that he should be one of the few former players around to have ever bettered that goal.
Zidane’s left foot volley against Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden Park in the 2002 final just edged out Ronaldo’s effort as the stakes we’re higher and the ball was dropping almost vertically from a looping Roberto Carlos cross meaning that the levels of technique required were – as strange as it sounds – even more demanding.
Rob Draper: Zinedine Zidane, REAL MADRID vs Bayer Leverkusen
It’s hard to get away from Zinedine Zidane’s volley in the 2002 final. It’s the dead-eyed stare as the ball drops and the balletic balance combined with a kick-boxer’s power in the strike. Just beautiful.
Some honourable mentions: Lionel Messi’s dribble through the Real Madrid defence in the semi-final in 2010 at the Bernabeu; if you were there you won’t forget the slick build up and ferocious finish of Gabriel Batistuta against Arsenal at Wembley in 1999; and Ronald Koeman’s free kick, also at Wembley, to win the trophy for the first time for Barcelona in 1992 was special.
It’s the magnitude of the occasion which elevates the goal. Which is why Zidane’s is the best.
Zinedine Zidane’s volley in the 2002 final feature heavily in our writers’ best goal selections
Matt Barlow: Cristiano Ronaldo, REAL MADRID vs Juventus
Goals you see with your own eyes stay with you in a different way. The angle is yours alone. Senses are heightened. The noises and the people around play a part. From tight seats in the overspill of the Juventus press box the Ronaldo goal went straight to the top of the list.
The match was tense, with needle creeping in and the home crowd was active, willing their team back into the tie when he produced a moment of athletic brilliance to take your breath away. The show had been stopped. And the appreciation of the home crowd produced a dimension absent from the amazing solo goal scored by Lionel Messi at Real Madrid in a Champions League semi-final in 2011.
Like Ronaldo’s goal, Messi’s came at a critical stage of a big night, giving his team a 2-0 lead. It stunned the Bernabeu into silence. I was very lucky to witness both and they are unfeasibly hard to separate. Entirely different, they go a long way towards defining two of the greatest footballers, both in terms of their differences and their similarities.
For the pure theatre of the Italian ovation and the freshness of a spine-tingling memory, I vote, on this occasion, for Ronaldo.
Dominic King: Zinedine Zidane, REAL MADRID vs Bayer Leverkusen
We are blessed to live in the era of two players who regularly do things that make us ask “is this the greatest thing you have ever seen”? We need to stop asking which one is better because it is simply a privilege to watch Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
But, in my humble opinion, neither of them have scored the Champions League’s greatest goal.
That accolade must be bestowed on Zidane for his extraordinary left-foot volley in the biggest game of all. Watch it again to remind yourself: how he never takes his eye off the dropping ball, his body shape, the ferocity of the strike and the accuracy of the execution. Zidane was a genius and this goal was his crowning moment.
Joe Bernstein: Zinedine Zidane, REAL MADRID vs Bayer Leverkusen
Zinedine Zidane’s volley in the 2002 final for Real Madrid v Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden.
A legendary player hitting a stupendous volley for the winning goal in the Champions League final. It just can’t get any better than that.
I know people who open presentations with a clip of that goal to summarise the majesty of football. Like Tardelli’s World Cup celebration, Zidane’s perfect body shape to hit the ball as it drops out of the sky is iconic. If Ronaldo’s goal had been in a final, it would have been close!
Paul Scholes’ top-corner volley for Manchester United against Barcelona was also mentioned
Mike Keegan: Paul Scholes, MANCHESTER UNITED vs Barcelona
With the semi-final locked at 0-0, Scholes’s magnificent, top-corner volley came from nowhere.
It would eventually be enough to defeat a fine Barca side – and poignantly send United to a European Cup Final 50 years after the Munich Air Disaster.
Craig Hope: Tino Asprilla, NEWCASTLE vs Barcelona
To answer this I think you need to trust your instincts and not rely on a Google search. To that end, the first goal which comes to mind when I think of the Champions League is Tino Asprilla’s hat-trick effort for Newcastle United versus Barcelona in 1997.
It was Newcastle’s first-ever group match in the competition and they were already leading 2-0 thanks to an Asprilla double when Keith Gillespie burned by left-back Sergi and swept a cross towards the penalty spot.
Asprilla leapt and, seemingly defying gravity, hung for an eternity before heading his third goal and celebrating with his trademark cartwheel. The noise, the incredulity of it all, it was something to behold and the memory still lives strong two decades on.
Riath Al-Samarrai: Zinedine Zidane, REAL MADRID vs Bayer Leverkusen
No. That would be his boss (Zinedine Zidane) – the one where the ball comes down off a cloud and he volleys the winner in the 2002 Champions League final.
Absurd goal.
Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a long-range effort for Manchester United away to Porto in 2009
Laurie Whitwell: Cristiano Ronaldo, MANCHESTER UNITED vs Porto
His thumping overhead kick was certainly peak spectacle, but for me Cristiano Ronaldo produced an even sweeter, awe-inducing strike for Manchester United.
Needing to win in Porto to progress into the 2009 semi-finals, Ronaldo decided there was only one thing for it when receiving possession 40 yards out: smack the ball as hard as possible. Such was the distance, there was enough time from foot to goal for the brain to gradually process the incredible strike taking place and jaws dropped when it arrowed into the corner.
Travelling at 64.2mph, it was frankly ridiculous.
Adam Shergold: Zinedine Zidane, REAL MADRID vs Bayer Leverkusen
I’ve chosen Zidane not only because it was a stunningly-executed volley demonstrating perfect technique but for the magnitude of the occasion.
It is one thing scoring a magnificent goal in a run-of-the-mill Champions League match, it is quite another to have the audacity to attempt it in the final with the scores locked at 1-1. Rarely has there been a more jaw-dropping goal to settle such a big occasion.