The Champions League is back, and the famous theme, composed by English musician Tony Britten, will be ringing out in stadiums across the continent. Europe’s premiere competition is now entering its 32nd year since it’s 1992 rebrand, and across the decades Italian sides have featured heavily in creating magic in the competition.
Serie A dominated the early stages of the competition, with the first six finals all featuring a team from Italy. Then came the all-Italian final of 2003 between AC Milan and Juventus at Old Trafford.
Recent times haven’t been as kind to Serie A, however. The league lost its way in the middle of the 2000s due to a myriad of issues, and the nation hasn’t brought back the trophy since Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan side of 2010. Since then Juventus have reached two further finals and Inter reached the 2023 final, only to lose to Manchester City.
Yet Italian teams have produced some of the iconic goals in the competition’s history. Here, our writers at Destination Calcio pick out their personal favourites.
Hernan Crespo, Atatürk Olympic Stadium, 2005
Emmet Gates: There were plenty of options, but in the end I had to go for Hernan Crespo’s second goal for Milan against Liverpool in that final. Due to what happened, Crespo’s goal has sadly been reduced to an afterthought in a much bigger narrative, yet the goal — for my money — is the greatest ever scored in a Champions League final.
The beauty of it lies in its simplicity: from Andrea Pirlo to Crespo via Kaka’s gorgeous spin past Steven Gerrard and pass that amounted to just four touches of the ball, from one end to the next. Kaka’s pass remains one of the greatest assists in the history of the competition, a defence-splitting, soul-destroying pass that teed it up perfectly for Crespo.
Crespo’s finish is extraordinary, stabbing the ball past Jerzey Dudek, yet somehow creating a backspin that changed the trajectory of the ball upon landing. It was footballing perfection. Crespo admitted it was one of the best of his career, and it was worthy of winning to win the final, or any final. Yet football is a funny game.
“You look back at that team, and you think ‘how the fucking hell did we win that?” Laughed Jamie Carragher in 2015. Our thoughts exactly, Jamie.
Gabriel Batistuta, Wembley Stadium, 1999
Dan Cancian: Through its 32-year existence, Italian clubs have served up a hefty does of stunning goals on the Champions League stage. From Alessandro Del Piero’s backheel finish in the 1997 Champions League final to Kaka slaloming through Manchester United’s defence in the semi-finals a decade later, there’s an abundance of options to choose from.
But there can only be one winner and it has to be Gabriel Batistuta’s goal against Arsenal in 1999. Some players are great goalscorers, others are scorers of great goals. Batigol was both, as this frankly ludicrous finish proves.
In their first appearance among European football’s finest in three decades, La Viola found themselves in a group containing Arsenal and Barcelona and travelled to north London for the penultimate game of the group knowing the winner would go through.
The scoreboard remained untroubled until the 76th minute, when Jorg Heinrich burst through Arsenal midfield after receiving a pass from Aldo Firicano.
With no teammate directly ahead of him and Batistuta peeling off Nigel Winterburn on the right side of the box, Heinrich overruns the ball and changes direction just in time to play a pass into the Argentine’s path, who receives it from a standing start rather than on the run.
It matters not a jot. The Fiorentina captain cushions the ball, shifts it onto his left foot and drags it past Winterburn, who, sensing danger, lunges in with a last-ditch tackle to force him wide.
Batistuta is almost parallel with the six-yard box when he pulls the trigger from a ridiculously acute angle. The ball detonates off his right foot and past David Seaman, smashing into the net before anyone in the ground has had time to digest what has happened.
It was arguably the last great goal witnessed at the old Wembley, which would close its doors 12 months later. It could hardly have been more fitting.
Mauro Bressan, Stadio Artemio Franchi, 1999
David Ferrini: In terms of extraordinary goals in Europe, Italian clubs have frequently delivered. Mario Mandzukić was nominated for the FIFA Puskas Award for his audacious overhead against Real Madrid in 2017. Marco van Basten scored one (in his bag of four) when he decimated Göteborg in 1992. Thirty years later, in Rossoneri stripes again, Philippe Mexès chested up a long ball at the edge of the penalty area and dipped his rovesciata over the Anderlecht goalkeeper.
You can see where I’m going with this. Fans love bicycle kicks.
As Dan explains, Gabriel Batistuta regularly found a way to score unstoppable goals, including his wonder strike against Arsenal. But it was during the following game that little-known teammate Mauro Bressan would stun the world with the most ambitious bicycle kick in Champions League’s history.
With Batistuta unavailable for the final group-stage game against Barcelona and Arsenal counting on Fiorentina to lose, Bressan stepped up to fill the creative void vacated by his prolific Argentinian captain.
Giovanni Trapattoni signed Bressan from Bari during the summer as nothing more than a midfield squad reinforcement. Yet, here he was, 26, starting his first Champions League match against a Barca XI which featured Pep Guardiola, Luis Figo and Rivaldo.
But it was Phillip Cocu who had the best view of the strike, which ITV ranked (harshly) as the second-best goal in UCL history, behind Zinedine Zidane’s stunning goal in the final against Bayer Leverkusen. The Dutchman watched as Jorg Heinrich battled to bring down Barcelona’s defensive clearance, with the loose ball bouncing at the perfect height for a header back into the penalty area.
However, Bressan had other ideas, twisting his body to elevate his right boot to head height, then making perfect contact with the ball. From here, Cocu observed the masterpiece dip and sail from outside the right post to the underside of the left corner, with Arnau smeared into the side netting.
Batistuta watched from the stands as Bressan later provided a spectacular backheel pass to assist Abel Balbo.
I sincerely envy everyone who attended the Franchi to witness that worldie. Bressan’s was the first goal of six on that November evening. It finished 3-3, and Fiorentina snuck through ahead of the Gunners.
In my humble opinion, there is no better bicycle kick in Champions League history than Mauro Bressan’s for Fiorentina.
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