Dusan Tadic produced a stunning individual performance to help Ajax secure a famous 4-1 victory over Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on Tuesday night.Madrid, winners of the Champions League in each of the past three seasons, were dumped out of Europe’s premier club competition by their Dutch opponents - despite winning last month’s first leg 2-1 in Amsterdam.Tadic scored one goal and assisted two others, earning himself a perfect - and extremely rare - 10/10 rating from French publication L’Equipe in the process.The Serbian midfielder, who previously played for Southampton, became only the ninth player to be handed a perfect score by L’Equipe since the 1980s.The previous player to receive a 10/10 was Neymar in 2018.
- L'Equipe give their incredibly rare 10/10 rating to Dusan Tadic
- The world media react to Frenkie de Jong's performance
- Fan footage of Lasse Schone's incredible free-kick vs Real Madrid
The list of players to receive a 10/10 rating from L’Equipe is as follows…
1. Franck Sauzee (1988)
2. Bruno Martini (1988)
3. Oleg Salenko (1994)
4. Lars Windfeld (1997)
5. Lionel Messi (2010, 2012)
6.. Robert Lewandowski (2013)
7. Carlos Eduardo (2014)
8. Neymar (2018)
9. Dusan Tadic (2019)
As you can see, there’s one player who has received the perfect score on two separate occasions: Lionel Messi.
The Argentine superstar was first handed a 10/10 back in 2010 while playing for Barcelona against Arsenal in the Champions League.
He scored four goals that night and you can watch his highlights here…
"He's like a PlayStation [player],” Arsenal’s then manager Arsene Wenger said after the match, per the Guardian. “I think he can take advantage of every mistake you make.”
Messi’s second 10/10 performance came two years later in the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen.
The legendary South American forward scored five goals in a 7-1 win for Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
Watch his highlights from that game here…
“His class is just extraordinary, there's no discussion,” Bayer Leverkusen boss Robin Dutt was quoted as saying by BBC Sport at the time. “Without Messi, Barca are the best team and with him, they are in another galaxy.”
The only surprising thing is that Messi hasn’t been awarded 10/10 by L’Equipe since.
He’s produced a number of masterclasses in the Champions League since then, but it just shows how difficult it is to achieve a perfect score with them.
Still, you wouldn’t bet against him completing the hat-trick before he hangs up his boots.