Champions League final forgotten claims Hargreaves

By: Rob | May 27th, 2008

It always looked like it was going to be tricky – days after the first all English Champions League final, England are meeting up for friendlies against USA and Trinidad and Tobago. But according to Man United midfielder Owen Hargreaves, everyone has been professional about it, and the final has largely been forgotten.

Not that the side have skirted around the subject it seems, Hargreaves has said that the players have in fact discussed the epic game, and there are no hard feelings.

“It’s not been awkward at all, We’ve talked openly about the game. It’s been really good. Both teams have, in a way, a clear conscience because everybody gave everything.
It didn’t diminish the season they had given or the effort they put into that game. The penalties could have gone either way. I spoke with Ashley [Cole] about it. I played against him and said to him it was a great battle, up and down, up and down. Neither side wanted to give anything.

I spoke to Lamps during the game. In the end there were bodies lying all over the pitch and I said to him, ‘Jesus, what a battle this is.’ There’s a lot of respect for each other. It was a big game with a lot at stake but we didn’t forget that respect.
I got a cramp after going up the wing. I just grabbed Lamps to stretch it out and he said, ‘Good idea.’ He was suffering like me. I have a lot of respect for the way they carry themselves”

Apparently the midfielder has also talked with John Terry about penalties.

“I said to John I thought everybody knew which way my penalty was going to go because we trained for four weeks at the World Cup and I hit it in the same spot every time. I knew they all knew that. I thought I had to change spots and was going to put it in the other corner but, as I walked up, I thought, ‘Jeez, that goal looks small.’ So I put it where I normally do.”

I’ll bet he didn’t think Jeez. Its a credit to the team spirit perhaps, but Hargreaves has said he has long forgotten the game, and didn’t enjoy the aftermath anyway.

“I felt ill, really sick. I don’t think I’d eaten enough to last 120 minutes. It had started to rain, it was freezing. I took it easy and while everyone was out on the pitch I showered for about an hour because I was so cold.”

Hargreaves of course already has a winners medal, from his time at Bayern, where he completely ran the show. But its a credit to his determination to win again and again that the Euphoria has worn off already. I still suspect that the Chelsea players – Terry in particular – will still be privately not in a great way, and the way Hargreaves tells the story does edit out Vidic and Drogba’s little spat that led the latter to get sent off, and Terry’s oh-so-controversial spat [pun not intended, but then spotted and left in] with Carlos Tevez. Still he seems pretty honest, and I suppose you can’t really imagine C-Ron being so nice about it when he meets up with Rickie Carvalho for Portugal duty.