From Istanbul to the Etihad: eight of the most exciting Champions League games | Nick Ames


It was raining goals in Manchester on Tuesday but where does City’s 5-3 win over Monaco stand alongside other great Champions League nights?

Dynamo Kyiv’s wonderful team of the late 1990s deserved a Champions League final – but on a pulsating night at a packed Olympiyskiy they threw away the best chance they would ever have. It was exquisite fare for much of the evening and, when Andriy Shevchenko squeezed in his second goal of the night two minutes before half-time, seemed to be going precisely as the old master Valeriy Lobanovskiy had designed. Moments later Michael Tarnat’s daisycutter of a free-kick restored some doubt but Vitaliy Kosovskiy’s 50th-minute goal – capitalising on some sloppy defending – suggested Dynamo would cut loose. But this was an excellent Bayern side and they fought back with two goals in a frantic last 12 minutes. First Stefan Effenberg curled Bayern’s second successful set-piece of the night inside the near post; then Carsten Jancker poked out a leg for 3-3. You feared it might be decisive, and Bayern went on to make sure by winning the second leg 1-0.

Related: It was the Champions League but not as Guardiola used to know it | Paul Wilson

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