Most controversial Champions League goal? Luiz Adriano incident vs Nordsjælland in 2012 | OneFootball

Luiz Adriano is an interesting character when it comes to the Champions League.

The Brazilian striker has always had an eye for goal wherever he's played, but there's no denying that his time with Shakhtar Donetsk between 2006 and 2015 marked the zenith of his career.

And across that nine-year spell in Ukraine, Adriano thrived on the European stage and helped himself to a cool 32 goals across both the Europa League and Champions League.

Adriano in the Champions League

Adriano was part of the Shakhtar team that won the 2008/09 UEFA Cup - as it was called then - but closed out his time at the club with regular appearances in Europe's biggest competition of all.

In fact, Adriano even gained the distinction of matching Lionel Messi's record of scoring five goals in a Champions League game, coming within a whisker of a double hat-trick against BATE Borisov.

However, as the 2020/21 Champions League season comes to a close, we wanted to look at another way in which Adriano will always be remembered in the annuls of the tournament.

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Shakhtar Donetsk vs Nordsjælland

And that's because the former AC Milan striker arguably scored the most disrespectful goal that the competition has ever seen during a trip to Nordsjælland during the 2012/13 campaign.

Shakhtar emerged 5-2 victors at the Parken Stadium with Willian bagging a brace and Adriano helping himself to a hat-trick, even if his first goal was - how shall we say? - questionable.

That's because Adriano took advantage of Willian sportingly playing the ball back to Nordsjælland after a break in the game for an injury by running clear on goal to everybody's bewilderment.

Adriano's controversial goal

With the Nordsjælland goalkeeper having expected to simply receive the ball so the game could restart, Adriano curiously rounded him and slotted the ball into the back of the net. Madness.

There was so much confusion that certain Shakhtar players sought to allow Nordsjælland to score an equaliser straight from kick-off, only for one of them not to get the message and make a tackle.

It was just as bewildering as you're probably imagining in your head right now, so be sure to check out the bizarre footage down below:

Have you ever seen anything like that in the Champions League before?!

Banned by UEFA

The situation was taken so seriously by UEFA that Adriano, who later apologised for the incident, was slapped with a one-match ban for "violation of the principles of conduct."

According to Goal, the Brazilian striker explained: "I did not see the start of the move, because I was standing with my back to the ball and my face towards the opposition goal.

"I was in the attacking area and did not notice what had happened in our half. I was very focused on the game, and when the ball dropped near me the defenders did not show any initiative.

"I picked up the ball, beat the goalkeeper and scored - I am a forward, that is what I do.

"Later, after analyzing the replay of that episode and after talking to my teammates, I realized what had happened and I completely changed my view on the episode. I am very sorry about what happened, I apologize to all the fans and to UEFA."

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