No competition on the planet delivers spectacle quite like the Champions League. With the best teams in Europe facing off, fans are often treated to a feast of world-class attacking play and goals aplenty. It’s the competition that holds the most weight for the players, and as such, they tend to give that little bit extra in a bid to earn a place in the history books.
There are still occasions where defensive pragmatism is prioritised to gain an edge, but more often than not, the evenly-matched sides will thrash it out in thrilling end-to-end contests that could go either way. It’s also common for an overwhelming favourite to blow away the underdogs with a merciless display of clinical finishing, particularly in the earlier stages of the tournament.
The rarest phenomenon we see in the Champions League is ‘the heist’. These are the games when one team dominates proceedings from the first minute to the last, only to suffer defeat against an opponent that was barely able to get out of their own half.
In the most special cases, those stubborn, courageous, and – most importantly – lucky clubs have managed to grind out the most unlikely victories while recording just one shot on target. With that in mind, GOAL takes a look at the 10 greatest Champions League heists of all time below…