What a performance from the Brazilian
Tottenham Hotspur looked down and out after only 35 minutes of Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Ajax at the Johan Cruyff Arena.
Fortunately for them, Lucas Moura had different ideas and scored a wonderful second-half hattrick – including the 95th-minute winner – to send Spurs through to the first Champions League final in the club’s history.
As if that wasn’t enough of a reward, the quicksilver forward has now become just the tenth player in history to earn a perfect 10/10 player rating from L’Equipe – who are notoriously tough critics and dish out 1s and 2s with regularity.
(If you’re wondering, only Arya Stark has ever earned a perfect 10 rating on JOE.co.uk)
We witnessed history in Amsterdam last night as Spurs pulled off a miracle 😲
⚽️ 5' De Ligt
⚽️ 35' Ziyech
⚽️ 55' Lucas
⚽️ 59' Lucas
⚽️ 90+6' LucasRelive it all in just 60 seconds… pic.twitter.com/X4yXgkpCmT
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 9, 2019
Lucas joins some esteemed company, even if it is a fairly rogue assortment of players.
One of his opponents on the night, Ajax’s Dusan Tadic, actually achieved the same 10/10 rating for an outstanding performance earlier in the competition, against Real Madrid in the Round of 16.
Unsurprisingly, Lionel Messi is the only player to have been awarded a 10 twice: for his respective one-man demolitions of Arsenal (2010, four goals) and Bayer Leverkusen (2012, five goals).
Polish striker Robert Lewandowski was also awarded a 10 for his heroics for Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals against Real Madrid – scoring all four goals in a 4-1 first leg win that proved enough to send them through to the final in 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DK17Uy_LnI
Two other Brazilians in the form of PSG’s Neymar and Al-Hilal’s Carlos Eduardo have both also achieved the feat. Neymar earned perfect plaudits after scoring four and assisting two goals during the Parisien’s 8-0 rout of Dijon earlier this season.
The lesser-known Eduardo earned it whilst on loan at Nice from Porto after scoring five goals in their 7-2 win away at Guingamp in 2014.
And this is where it starts to get a bit niche.
Danish goalkeeper Lars Windfeld earned a 10 for his display for Aarhus in the UEFA Cup in 1997, almost singlehandedly keeping French side Nantes out in the second leg as his side held on for a 1-0 win.
Former Rangers player Oleg Salenko got his 10 after scoring five goals in Russia’s 6-1 win over Cameroon in the group stages of the USA ’94 World Cup.
And finally, two France u21 players that sound like Football Manager regens – Frank Sauzee and Bruno Martini – earned their L’Equipe honours after beating Greece u21s in the 1988 final. Sauzee scored two screamers in the game and Martini did his bit between the sticks to earn Les Bleus the under-21 trophy a decade before their senior side did the same in Saint-Denis.
