OTP this week enjoyed a rather laidback chat with Arsenal legend Robert Pires – his opinion of Thierry Henry’s mega aquarium and thoughts on Grant Holt being our main lines of inquiry.
We also took the time to ask him something a little less jovial, regarding his infamous early substitution against Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League Final.
As you will recall, Mad Jens Lehmann spoiled a festival of total football by clattering Samuel Eto’o with a little less than 20 minutes on the clock and with Arsenal holding their own.
Ludovic Giuly scored from the proceeding scramble but the referee called the game back, whistling for a penalty and sending Jens to a humiliating early bath.
And he wasn’t the only one. With a substitute keeper inevitably required and his whole family looking on, Pires was the unfortunate man to get the hook from Arsene Wenger. So, how the French midfielder looks back on the sour event today?
OTP: In the Champions League final against Barcelona you had to come off after just 18 minutes. Who were you most angry a: Wenger, Lehmann or life?
RP: Only the defeat because we lost.
OTP: Were you frustrated with Lehmann?
RP: Only for five minutes. I never forgot this moment but that’s life, that’s football. The responsibility is from the referee because after the action Giuly scored. Play on and let’s go for 11 against 11, but he killed the game, he killed the final. He killed me. He killed me.
Watching the brooding Pires utter the dramatic and contemplative repetition of the word ‘killed’ felt like something out of a 1950s Hollywood classic movie.
Humphrey Bogart comparisons aside, the World Cup-winner was clearly pained to discuss the disappointment – an event which was made all the more galling by the fact that referee Terje Hauge later admitted regret at sending Lehmann off and committing emotional homicide on Pires.
Speaking in 2006, the Norwegian said: “I would have liked to have taken a few more seconds before I made a decision. If I’d done that , I could have given a goal and given a yellow card as well.”
Here’s hoping a similar lack of foresight doesn’t mar this weekend’s showpiece final.
