The adidas F50 adizero in the 2010/11 Champions League Campaign

The Barcelona squad that won the 2011 Champions League is regarded as one of the greatest of all time, and one Sir Alex Ferguson described as the best he had ever faced. The squad featured the likes of; Puyol, Pique, Dani Alves, Iniesta, Villa, Xavi, Busquets and of course Lionel Messi, who's performances in the adidas F50 adizero inspired adidas to remake the iconic boot in the Champions League colourway. 

Barcelona kicked off their Champions League campaign with a 5-1 win over Panathinaikos and didn’t look back. The club went undefeated in the group stages, only dropping points away at Copenhagen and at Rubin Kazan in Russia. Barcelona finished top of Group D and drew Arsenal in the round of 16. 

In the most difficult game of the campaign for Barca, they were upset by Arsenal who won 2-1 in London with late goals from Van-Persie and Arshavin. The side needed to turn it around in the 2nd leg and two first-half goals from Messi helped, going into half-time 3-2 up. Arsenal scored again to level things up but then went down to 10 men soon after. Xavi went on to score the winner, sending Barcelona through to the Quarter-Finals. 

Barcelona were up against Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk who had just beaten AS Roma 6-2 on aggregate. Shakhtar were brought back down to earth with a 5-1 thumping in the first leg at the Camp Nou, Messi added another one in Ukraine and Barcelona marched on through to the Semi-Finals. 

All that stood in the way of Barcelona and their 2nd Champions League final appearance in three years was their biggest rivals Real Madrid. The first leg was a feisty affair, with Pinto seeing red for Barcelona and Pepe followed 15 minutes later, with Jose being sent to the stand as well. The game was looking like a 0-0 until Lionel Messi scored twice in the last 15 minutes to give Barcelona the edge. The second leg finished 1-1 with Pedro sealing a champions league final birth in the 54th minute. 

The Champions League final was a rematch between the two best sides in the world who had played off 2 years earlier, Barcelona and Manchester United. United couldn’t get near Barcelona in the final, with Lionel Messi dropping one of the best Champions League final performances in the iconic 2011 adidas F50 adizero’s, scoring in the 54th minute and setting up David Villa’s screamer to seal the win who was also wearing the boot. 

The win confirmed Pep Guardiola's Barcelona team as the best in the world, winning their 2nd Champions League in 3 years with Lionel Messi as the best player in the World, winning the Ballon d'Or that year. Barcelona & Messi's performance in the final gave the adidas F50 adizero a special place in Champions League history.