🚨 Gerard Piqué on Chelsea 2012 at Camp Nou:*
"That Chelsea comeback against us in 2012 is honestly one of the two greatest comebacks I’ve ever witnessed in football. And I say that as someone who was on the pitch suffering through it.
We were 2–0 up at Camp Nou, Chelsea were down to ten men after the red card, and the whole stadium already felt sure Barcelona were going through. Normally in football, that situation is over.
But mentally, they were unbelievable. I remember looking across and seeing players throwing themselves into tackles, blocking shots with everything, fighting for every second like their lives depended on it.
What shocked me most was that they never panicked. Most teams in that atmosphere against Barcelona would completely collapse. Chelsea somehow became calmer after going down to ten men.
The goal before halftime changed everything psychologically. Suddenly, even with all the possession we had, you could feel Chelsea growing stronger mentally while frustration started entering our team.
And then Torres scoring at the end… honestly, I’ve never heard the Camp Nou go that silent. It felt impossible that we were out after everything that happened in the game.
People always talk about tactics in football, but that night was about mentality. Pure mentality. I still haven’t seen many teams react to adversity the way Chelsea did in that semifinal.
You can dislike their style, you can argue about luck, but mentally that Chelsea team was one of the strongest teams I’ve ever faced."
@YusufAsunmogejo@DanBurmawy I don't know if you anyone has ever told you this but... you are actually one of the reasons I look forward to coming on Twitter
Ìbàdàn, the ancient city that's still standing and very relevant. It has many brown roofs because many of its past inhabitants started using roofing sheets while some people were still using straw and bamboo.
Still, the city hosts many modern structures. That's why it revels in both past and present glories!
Ìbàdàn, the blessed city that sits on the hills, I love you so much!
'03 to '07 were some of my golden early memories. Watched & argued games with grown egbons, daddies & the whole community in our living room.
JS Park & YP Lee tormented seniorman Cafu so much. I can never forget one particular egbon yelling "Yeh pah Lee!" the rest of that week.
PSV Eindhoven vs AC Milan in the 2005 UCL semifinal is one of the best football games I’ve seen in the UCL.
Milan won the first leg 2-0 and were sure all was under control. When they got to the Netherlands, J.S Park gave them an inkling of what that night was going to be like as early as the 9th minute. 1-0
Phillip Cocu added a second in the second half to balance the game out.
Milan scored that all-important goal in the 91st minute to restore their aggregate lead. It came from the unlikeliest of goalscorers, ‘Massimo Ambrosini.
Less than a minute later, Cocu completed his brace and gave PSV a third goal.
It ended 3-1 and Milan won on the away goal rule.
If that game happened now, it’d have gone to penalties. An absolutely entertaining game.
The PSV midfield that night had Mark van Bommel and Cocu, two very tactically efficient footballers. There was Alex at the back, Jefferson Farfan and Park were a thorn in the flesh of Milan defenders that night. They were PSV’s two wingers.
There was Lee Young-Pyo, at PSV’s left back. He bombed forward so much and so well in that game.
The man upfront for PSV was the long name, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.
Milan were managed by Carlo Ancelotti, and PSV, Guus Hiddink.
Proper UCL heritage.
@Real1_balogun Siphiwe Tshabalala
Shunsuke Nakamura
Mauro Camoranesi
Recber Rustu
David Odonkor
Eric Djemba Djemba
Roman Pavlyuchenko
Juan Roman Riquelme
Tuncay Sanli