2018: Top memorable and iconic football moments.

2018 has come off to an end. It was a fabulous year for football.

From Manchester City winning the Premier League with record-breaking 100 points to Croatia with just a population of 4 million people reaching the finals of the FIFA World Cup.

From Real Madrid winning the Champions League third time in a row to Lopetegui sacked twice in four months.

There was no scarcity of iconic, and memorable moments. In this slideshow, we bring five of the most iconic and memorable moments of 2018.

---

#1 Julen Lopetegui sacked twice in four months

In an unfortunate course of events, Julen Lopetegui saw himself sacked from two of the biggest jobs in the world football.

Back in June, Spain were one of the favourites to win the title. They were functioning like a well-oiled machine under the tutelage of Lopetgui's. But everything came down crashing when Florentino Perez, Real Madrid president announced him as the Zidane's successor.

Spanish FA was not happy with all the drama, and they took no time to show Lopetegui the door and appointed Fernando Hierro as an interim coach. Lopetegui would have thought that he would redeem himself at the Bernabeu but, unfortunately, his tenure did not go well. He was sacked just 140 days after he took the job.

---

#2 Roma's comeback against Barcelona

Roma's win against unbeaten La Liga leaders and Spanish giants FC Barcelona in the Champions League quarterfinals will be one of the biggest comebacks of all time. After a 4-1 defeat at Camp Nou, most of the people in the footballing world thought it as the end of AS Roma's journey in the Champions League but defying all the odds Roma achieved the impossible.

The Italian side put up a dominant performance in the midfield completely nullifying any Barcelona attack. They sealed the comeback with the goals from Edin Dzeko, Daniele De Rossi, and Kostas Manolas.

As soon as the referee blew the whistle, the whole stadium erupted in joy. It was an extraordinary win as before AS Roma, only two teams in the Champions League history overturned a lead of 3 or more goals.

They went on to the semifinals where they gave a good fight to the eventual runner-ups Liverpool.

---

#3 End of dominance at the Ballon d'Or

The man to break the dominance of Messi and Ronaldo at the Ballon'd'Or

Ten years of dominance of Messi and Ronaldo at the Ballon d'Or stage finally saw its end when Croatian midfield wizard Luka Modric won the top honour in 2018. He became the first person other than Messi and Ronaldo, to win the highest individual award in football since 2007.

Croatian led an unheard and unknown side to the finals of the FIFA World Cup 2018. He also played a pivotal role in Real Madrid record-breaking thirteenth Champion League win.

Ada Hegerberg-The Lionel Messi of women football

Also, Ada Hegerberg became the first woman Ballon d'Or winner. The 23-year-old, Lyon and Norweign footballing superstar was the highest scorer in the Champions League this year. She also scored in final against Wolfsburg as Lyon became the first team to win Champions League thrice in a row.

#4 Implementation of Video Assistant Referee(VAR) at the World Cup

For the first time in the history of the World Cup, FIFA decided to implement the Video Assistant Referee in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

It had a lot of direct influence on the results as the number of penalties awarded skyrocketed.

Thanks to the Video Assistant Referee(VAR), a record number of 29 penalties were awarded. Out of the 29 spot kicks awarded, 22 were converted into goals.

#5 Historic Champions League 2018 campaign

Real Madrid Celebrate After Victory In The Champions League Final Against Liverpool

Real Madrid defeated Liverpool by 3-1 in the Champions League final 2018 to become the first and the only team in the Champions League era to win the title three times in the row. They also became the first team to win three back-to-back titles since Bayern Munich defeated Saint-Étienne in the 1976 European Cup Final.