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It’s hard to believe, but another decade is almost finished, and with it, another ten years of football will be consigned to the history books. It’s been an amazing and fascinating decade with plenty of drama on the football pitch – we’ve seen three World Cups, two European Championships and six different UEFA Champions League winners, but more than anything we’ve seen some incredible performances from both individual players and teams.
In this piece we’re looking at the best team performances of the last ten years; matches that saw a full XI of players perform to the best of their ability to win big, be it at club or international level.
In chronological order, here are the ten best team performances of the decade (2010-2019).
#1 Inter Milan 3-1 Barcelona, UEFA Champions League semi-final, first leg – 20th April 2010
Current Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho built his reputation at Porto and Chelsea by winning multiple trophies, but his finest moment might’ve come as Inter Milan manager in the first leg of the 2010 Champions League semi-finals, against Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona side.
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La Blaugrana had defeated Manchester United to win the Champions League in the previous season, and thanks to the incredible talents of the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta – as well as the new innovation of tiki-taka - they were becoming recognised as perhaps the greatest club side of all time.
Mourinho’s Inter, however, were able to prove that possession wasn’t everything. In the first leg of their semi-final clash at the San Siro, they gave up 71% of possession to Guardiola’s side, but through incredible hard work, a heavy-pressing tactic and some swift counter-attacks, goals from Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito gave the Italians a 3-1 victory despite falling behind to Pedro’s 19th minute goal.
It was a landmark victory for the Portuguese boss and his side, who then produced a defensive masterclass a week later to shut out Barca – losing 1-0 but winning the tie 3-2 overall. Even though Inter went on to win the competition overall, it was their incredible first leg victory over Barcelona that still stands out at the end of the decade – living proof of Mourinho’s worth as a master tactician.
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#2 Barcelona 3-1 Manchester United, UEFA Champions League final – 28th May 2011
After their shocking Champions League loss to Inter Milan in 2010, Barcelona came back with a vengeance in the 2011 edition of the competition, taking apart a very strong Manchester United side in the final at Wembley and winning 3-1. The two sides had faced off in the 2009 final with Barca winning, but it was this game that really cemented Pep Guardiola’s side as contenders for the best club team ever.
Barcelona’s passing during this game was simply ridiculous – tiki-taka at its finest, as they dominated possession, taking 68%, and somehow maintained a passing success rate of 89.6% throughout the match. Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta were fantastic in Barca’s midfield, but the star of the show was undoubtedly Lionel Messi.
The little Argentine tormented United’s defence – including world-class stars such as Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic – throughout the match, and scored the second goal for La Blaugrana before creating their third with an incredible run into the box that ended with David Villa finding the net.
United never let their heads drop and did score a tremendous goal; Wayne Rooney hammered home past Victor Valdes just 7 minutes after Pedro’s opener, but for the most part it felt like they were chasing shadows, unable to stop what their boss Sir Alex Ferguson christened Barcelona’s “passing carousel”. This was a truly phenomenal performance from a once-in-a-lifetime team.
#3 Spain 4-0 Italy, Euro 2012 final – 1st July 2012
Vicente del Bosque’s Spain had won the 2010 World Cup with their variant of Barcelona’s tiki-taka style, making use of the talents of Barca stars like Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Sergio Busquets, but their performance in the final of that tournament had been somewhat lacking. Two years later though, they retained their European Championship crown by destroying Italy in a stunning, one-sided final that represented a side at the peak of their powers.
The two sides had actually met earlier in the tournament, playing out a 1-1 draw in the group stage with Spain actually playing without a conventional striker. The same system was repeated in the final – with midfield playmakers Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and David Silva being deployed as pseudo-forwards – but this time, Italy were well beaten, conceding more goals in a single game than they had across the entire tournament.
The match was dominated by Spain from the off; Italian playmaker Andrea Pirlo was never allowed to impose his will on the game as he’d done against sides like England and Germany in earlier rounds, while Spain’s midfield trio of Xabi Alonso, Busquets and Xavi seemed to hold a monopoly on the ball.
David Silva opened the scoring on 14 minutes with a header, and despite Spain waiting until the 41st minute to double their lead through Jordi Alba, it never felt like the Italians were truly in the game. Usually two late goals – in this case in the 84th and 88th minutes – would flatter the winning side, but not in this case. A 4-0 win was the least that this incredible performance deserved.
#4 Brazil 1-7 Germany, 2014 World Cup semi-final – 8th July 2014
Football is a game that evolves quickly, and there was no better example of that during this decade than the success of Germany in the 2014 World Cup. Just two years after Spain had dominated their third international tournament in a row with their tiki-taka style, Joachim Low’s German side sliced their way through the field to win the tournament held in Brazil, using a hybrid of two styles; tiki-taka, and the heavy pressing, swift attacking style preferred by Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund side.
Their crowning moment didn’t come in their victory over Argentina in a rather dull final, though; it came in a one-sided mauling of the hosts in the semi-finals, a match that became known in Brazil as the Mineirazo, translated to ‘the agony of Mineirao’, after the stadium in which the game took place.
Brazil were without star striker Neymar, but it was their defence that really went missing on this night, cut to ribbons by wave after wave of rapid German attacks, with Low’s players using a series of quick passing movements to open up huge gaps in the Brazilian backline.
After just 29 minutes, Germany were 0-5 up and the match was essentially over, but Low’s side were still able to score two more goals to add to the humiliation in the second half. This was as one-sided a big match as has ever been seen in football history, let alone this decade, and it remains a landmark showing today.
#5 Real Madrid 3-0 Wolfsburg, UEFA Champions League quarter-final, second leg – 12th April 2016
Real Madrid looked dead and buried going into the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie with German side Wolfsburg in 2016. Dieter Hecking’s side had defeated Los Blancos 2-0 at the Volkswagen Arena in the first leg, taking a healthy lead to Spain, particularly as they had not conceded an away goal.
They hadn’t reckoned on the spirit of Zinedine Zidane’s Real side though, nor had they counted on the sheer individual genius of Cristiano Ronaldo. Within two first-half minutes, the German side’s lead was erased by the Portuguese forward, who scored from 6 yards after 15 minutes before heading in an equaliser in the 17th.
The match wasn’t all about Ronaldo, though; the likes of Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema performed tremendously to consistently threaten Wolfsburg’s defence, while Pepe and Sergio Ramos shut their front line out at the other end of the pitch.
With Real taking 16 shots, 7 of them on target, once Ronaldo equalised it always felt like there would be one winner – and it hardly came as a shock when the Portuguese completed his hat-trick on 77 minutes with a clever right-footed free-kick from the edge of the box that took Wolfsburg’s defence by surprise. This was a comeback for the ages, and led to Real eventually winning their 11th Champions League title.
#6 Barcelona 6-1 Paris St. Germain, UEFA Champions League second round, second leg – 8th March 2017
A game that became known as La Remontada (The Comeback), Barcelona’s 6-1 victory over Paris St. Germain in the second leg of their Round of 16 Champions League tie stunned the football world, most of whom believed Luis Enrique’s side were facing insurmountable odds after losing the first leg 4-0 a week prior.
That first game had seen PSG dominate proceedings, scoring a pair of goals in either half to seemingly book their spot in the quarter-finals, but the French champions were simply not prepared for the kind of onslaught that La Blaugrana threw at them in the Nou Camp. Needing goals, Barca struck early on through Luis Suarez, who opened scoring in just the 3rd minute.
Barca’s fans had to wait until the 40th minute for a second goal – an own goal from PSG’s Layvin Kurzawa – but after adding a third through Lionel Messi, Edinson Cavani scored for the French side, leaving the Spaniards needing a ridiculous three goals in half an hour to rescue the tie.
But with Messi, Suarez and the outstanding Neymar on top form, they somehow pulled off the miracle. On 88 minutes, the Brazilian scored a beautiful free-kick, and then converted a penalty as the match moved into injury time. And with time ticking away, Neymar then turned provider, threading a ball to Sergi Roberto, who hit the winner to send the Nou Camp into rapture. Comebacks don’t get much better than this one.
#7 Real Madrid 4-1 Juventus, UEFA Champions League final – 3rd June 2017
After winning the famous trophy after a penalty shoot-out in the previous season, Real Madrid uncorked a monumental performance to crush Juventus 4-1 in the 2017 Champions League final to retain their title and leave no doubt as to who Europe’s best side were.
The Italian champions, who had not lost a match in the entire tournament and had only conceded 3 goals, were put to the sword in scintillating fashion courtesy of Cristiano Ronaldo and company. The Portuguese icon opened the scoring after just 20 minutes, firing home from a pass from Dani Carvajal, but Juventus were given hope seven minutes later by the best goal of the match – a stunning overhead kick from Mario Mandzukic.
It would be the lone highlight of the game for the Italians. They were simply swept aside by the all-conquering Los Blancos, who dominated play and took 18 shots on goal throughout the game. A deflected shot from midfielder Casemiro gave Real the lead on 60 minutes, and then three minutes later, Juve’s defence was sliced open by Luka Modric, who found Ronaldo to score his second goal.
Juve substitute Juan Cuadrado was then sent off before Marco Asensio sealed the deal for Real with a last-minute fourth goal. Considering the stingy nature of the Old Lady’s defence prior to this match, it was stunning to see them concede 4 goals – and the result proved exactly how good Real were.
#8 Spain 2-3 England, UEFA Nations League A, Group D – 15th October 2018
England fans didn’t have a lot to cheer about during the last decade, but the reign of Gareth Southgate would change all of that. The former Aston Villa captain led the Three Lions to their first World Cup semi-final since 1990 in 2018, but his finest moment as England boss would come a few months later, in the group stage of the inaugural UEFA Nations League.
Southgate’s England travelled to Betis to face Spain in what sounded like an incredibly tricky match; they had not won in Spain in 31 years, and hadn’t defeated a true elite opponent in a competitive game since 2002. Both statistics were blown away in just 38 minutes, as the Three Lions put together a ruthless counter-attacking display to slice Spain’s defence apart and take a stunning 0-3 lead, with two goals from Raheem Sterling and one from Marcus Rashford.
The second half saw Spain come back hard, scoring two goals, but despite dominating possession – 73% to England’s 27% - and having 24 shots to England’s 5, they simply couldn’t find a way to win the match. This was the very definition of a phenomenal team performance, with midfielders Eric Dier and Harry Winks covering every blade of grass, striker Harry Kane turning into a playmaker, and defenders Joe Gomez and Harry Maguire standing firm under immense pressure.
When all was said and done, England had pulled off probably their best win since the 1990’s, with Southgate – a relative rookie in managerial terms – delivering a tactical, counter-attacking masterclass that Jose Mourinho would’ve been proud of.
#9 Manchester City 6-0 Chelsea, Premier League – 10th February 2019
By 2019, it was clear that Manchester City were the defining team of the current Premier League era; they’d won the 2017/18 season with a record haul of points, and manager Pep Guardiola had put together a team capable of destroying any other in the world. But they saved arguably their best performance for this past February, as they took apart Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea – who eventually finished in third place – and scored six goals with none in reply.
This was Guardiola’s City at their finest, bedazzling their opponents with quick-fire passes and rapid attacks, and with just 25 minutes gone, the Citizens were already 4-0 up, with goals from Raheem Sterling, Ilkay Gundogan, and a brace from star striker Sergio Aguero.
It felt like Chelsea were chasing shadows throughout, and they seemed unable to offer any resistance against the City machine, with their defence simply collapsing under the weight of so many Sky Blue attacks. When Aguero completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot, and Sterling scored his second on 80 minutes, the Blues’ humiliation was complete.
This was a truly scintillating performance from the best Premier League side in recent memory, and it hardly came as a surprise when they went on to retain their title three months later.
#10 Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona, UEFA Champions League semi-finals, second leg – 7th May 2019
The 2019 edition of the UEFA Champions League saw two incredible comebacks in the semi-finals, but while Tottenham Hotspur’s win over Ajax was the more dramatic game, featuring a winning goal in what was practically the last kick, there can be no doubt that it was Liverpool’s performance in their second leg against Barcelona which belongs on this list amongst the best of the decade.
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds came into the game trailing 3-0 after a poor first leg showing in the Nou Camp, and like Barcelona against Paris St. Germain two years prior, they knew they needed goals to give themselves a chance of progressing to the final. And as if to highlight the fact that this was a tremendous team performance, all of Liverpool’s goals came from unlikely sources.
Stand-in striker Divock Origi – replacing the injured Roberto Firmino – scored the first after just seven minutes to give the Reds hope, but when the game ticked into the second half at just 1-0, the comeback didn’t look likely. But despite giving up possession, Liverpool kept harrying, kept pressuring their illustrious opponents – and then two goals inside two minutes from midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum suddenly put them on the brink of a miracle.
It was Origi that produced the defining moment; youngster Trent Alexander-Arnold caught the Barca defence unawares with a quick corner, and the Belgian striker struck the ball first time past Marc-Andre Ter Stegen. The result was a reward for Liverpool’s heart, desire and team spirit – and they swept away a better side on paper to pull off an all-time great comeback.
