The six best goals by Irish players in the Champions League era
Liam Miller, Roy Keane, Damien Duff, and Ian Harte.
This season's Champions League brought an end to a four-year gap since the last Irishman to play in Europe's top competition.
CaoimhĆn Kelleher followed in fellow Corkonian Eoghan O'Connell's footsteps when keeping a clean sheet in goal for Liverpool against Ajax last December.
The wait for an Irish goalscorer in the Champions League extends back a full decade, though, since Darron Gibson hit the net in Manchester United's Champions League semi-final win over Schalke.
It's reason enough to think back to happier times for Irish players in the Champions League, with 34 goals recorded by boys in green across the years.Ā
On the day Chelsea meet Man City in the final, we count down the top-six.
The second of Liam Miller's two goals from Celtic's 2003-04 Champions League campaign under Martin O'Neill, the Corkman followed up a header against Lyon with this cracking finish in a dominant performance against Anderlecht.Ā
A fine team goal, Miller needed just one touch to dispatch John Hartson's knock-on after a visionary run across the defence to exploit a pocket of space. Celtic went on to draw with Bayern but a late Lyon winner on the final day cruelly denied the Hoops qualification.
The goal that got Leeds United fans dreaming of a Champions League semi-final, Ian Harte's 26th-minute free-kick set the Elland Road-side on their way to a 3-0 first-leg win that their Spanish opponents couldn't haul back in the return leg.
The left-back's fourth set-piece goal of that European run, and second free-kick, came from the edge of the box. Harte sent a powerful curling shot down the middle as it clipped off the underside of the crossbar on its way to the net.
A magical night at Elland Road š«
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 4, 2019
šļø #OTD in 2001, Leeds beat Deportivo 3-0 with goals from Ian Harte, Alan Smith & @rioferdy5 š#UCL | #ThrowbackThursday | @LUFC pic.twitter.com/0bAeoZ1hwE
Another big Celtic Park win, and Celtic's only victory of the 2008-09 Champions League, was secured by Aiden McGeady's goal to make it 2-0 in first-half injury time, albeit in a dead-rubber against an already-qualified, 10-man Villarreal side.
A sweeping break, starting on the edge of the Celtic box, arrived at McGeady's feet just past the halfway line. He had the space to speed towards the Villarreal box and drilled a low left-footed shot into the far corner.
š„ On this day in 2008, Aiden McGeady scored the second goal in a 2-0 win over Villarreal at Paradise pic.twitter.com/JpnLSbO3gZ
— Read Celtic and The Trinity Tims (@ReadCeltic) December 10, 2017
A man who scored on the two biggest occasions he played in Europe, Darron Gibson netted in the 2011 semi-final against Schalke and, more eye-catchingly, a third-minute strike that gave United the lead in their 2010 quarter-final second leg against Bayern Munich. A surprise selection, Gibson's right-footed shot, after being teed-up by Wayne Rooney, deceived Bayern stopper Hans-Jorg Butt as it flew into the net.
2-1 down from the first leg, that goal sparked United into a 4-2 aggregate lead before Bayern responded; Arjen Robben's wondergoal bringing it back to 4-4, with Bayern advancing on away goals.Ā
In the toss-up between style and importance, we've opted for Damien Duff's fine solo goal, the third of a 4-0 win over Lazio, ahead of his crucial finish in the famous 4-2 victory to knock out Barcelona a year later.
Duff's first Champions League goal came at Rome's Stadio Olimpico, taking the ball on the left wing and advancing forward. He quickly ducked inside, across three Lazio defenders, and beat the keeper with a low finish.
- Duff's goal is at 0:11.Ā
In the absence of bone fide worldies, the vote goes to the most significant goal scored by an Irishman in the Champions League era. Roy Keane's 24th-minute header triggered a three-goal comeback from 3-1 down on aggregate away to Juventus that sent Manchester United into the 1999 Champions League final. Keano, albeit suspended for that final, remains the only Irishman to captain a club to the European title.
The flicked header may not be the most spectacular strike of his 14 Champions League goals, with honourable mentions for his thunderous close-in volley against Fiorentina in March 2000, a driven half-volley against Valencia in December 1999, and a long-range swerving hit against Sturm Graz in September 1999, but it counted for the most.
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