Olivier Giroud nominated for 2020-21 UEFA Champions League Goal of the Tournament

Olivier Giroud may not have played a single minute in Saturday’s final, but he played a massive role in getting Chelsea to the final and he finished as our leading goalscorer in the competition with six in eight appearances, only two of which were starts.

He scored five of the six goals in those two starts, including one of the most masterful goalscoring performances we’ve ever seen in a four-goal haul against Sevilla. But it was his goal against Atlético Madrid that was the most spectacular: a bicycle kick to win the game against the would-be La Liga champions, and set the tone for the rest of the knockout rounds.

Giroud’s goal is one of ten thus nominated for Goal of the Tournament. Incidentally, two of the other nine were goals scored against Chelsea — Mehdi Taremi’s own spectacular bicycle that was late consolation for Porto and Karim Benzema’s powerful volley out of nothing to give Real Madrid hope — which means that fully half of the goals Chelsea conceded in this year’s Champions League campaign have been nominated for the best goal of the season.

Other nominees include long-range efforts from Alassane Pléa, Luka Modrić, and Lionel Messi, a sweet team move from Shakhtar finished off by Solomon, a nice PSG counter finished by Mbappé’s curling effort, and individual bits of magic from Neymar and RB Leipzig’s Angeliño, which was especially jaw-dropping.

You can watch all nominees on the UEFA website or YouTube channel.

And then vote for Oli here.