Football · 2002 · Glasgow, Scotland
Zidane's Volley at Hampden Park
In the biggest club final in Europe, Zinedine Zidane meets a looping cross on the run with his weaker foot and buries it, one of the finest goals ever scored in a Champions League final.
Real Madrid 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Result
Hampden Park, Glasgow
Venue
9th
European Cups for Real Madrid
Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen were level at 1-1 in the 2002 UEFA Champions League final when Roberto Carlos, under little pressure on the left, sent a high, looping ball into the penalty area more in hope than design. Almost nobody inside Hampden Park expected it to end up in the net.
Zidane, arriving at the edge of the box with his back half-turned to goal, adjusted his body in mid-stride and met the dropping ball on the full with his left foot, not his stronger right. The volley arrowed low into the corner past goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt with the kind of technique usually reserved for a still ball on a training ground, not a match-defining moment in a European final.
Real Madrid went on to win 2-1, claiming their ninth European Cup in the competition's centenary season. The goal itself has outlived the scoreline in the popular memory, replayed for its technical difficulty and instantly recognisable, one of the small number of goals routinely cited as the greatest in the history of the competition.
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