Pippo Inzaghi reflects on his four Champions League finals, and how San Siro “gave me wings”.
The striker is synonymous with the competition, and after this morning’s interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, he reflected on his career in a chat with France Football.
“My first final in 1998? We lost to an offside goal from [Pedrag] Mijatovic!” Inzaghi recalls, having lost 1-0 to Real Madrid while at Juventus.
Pippo Inzaghi reflects on his four Champions League finals, and how San Siro “gave me wings”.
The striker is synonymous with the competition, and after this morning’s interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, he reflected on his career in a chat with France Football.
“My first final in 1998? We lost to an offside goal from [Pedrag] Mijatovic!” Inzaghi recalls, having lost 1-0 to Real Madrid while at Juventus.
“I usually don’t watch my defeats and I haven’t seen this one again since, but I keep the memory of a game where we played well and we deserved to win.
“That was my first time and the outcome was bitter. Luckily I had other opportunities to make up for it [at Milan].
“As for the 2003 final [Milan-Juventus], that was a competition which particularly highlighted the Italian defences.
“There was the derby against Inter in the semi-final and those two games weren’t pleasant to look at either. The tension and concentration were at the maximum, so that reduced the margin of error to practically nothing.
“Inter and Juventus were the two great rivals of Milan. Losing those ties would have been doubly dramatic, and on the other side of the coin increased our satisfaction tenfold.
“So they certainly weren’t memorable matches, but I can assure you they didn't dampen the joy of our fans.”
The next final was the 2005 meeting with Liverpool, with Inzaghi watching from the stands as the Rossoneri threw away a 3-0 lead and lost on penalties.
“Until the last minute of training I tried everything to at least make the bench, but I didn’t succeed. So I ended up in the stands, and I helplessly watched this unlikely scenario.
“They played a perfect first half, leading 3-0, and the rest we know about.”
Two years later, Inzaghi scored twice to beat the same opponents in Athens, though the first deflected off him and into the net…
“When Andrea Pirlo took the free-kick, it wasn’t my sole aim but I’d scored two similar goals against Inter and Empoli in previous years.
“I went into the opposition wall to obstruct the goalkeeper, but it was a ploy because my intention was to be first to the ball if the ‘keeper parried it out.
“Above all, I knew exactly where Pirlo would direct his shot.
“Am I more attached to that than the 2003 title? I scored 12 goals including the preliminary [in 2003] but none in the semi-final or final.
“That’s why people associate me more with 2007, because I scored twice in the final even though I ‘only’ scored six during the competition.
“Suddenly it became the Inzaghi Champions League, although the two I won have the same value in my eyes.
“Paradoxically, one of the goals the fans thank me for the most is one I never scored! It’s the one to make it 3-2 in the last minute against Ajax in the quarter-final in 2003.
“Everyone thinks I scored twice that night, when in fact the latter was awarded to Jon-Dahl Tomasson by UEFA.”
The striker’s final Champions League appearance also featured two goals against Real Madrid, but the memory is tinged with sadness.
“It’s actually a mixed memory,” Inzaghi admits.
“I started on the bench and we were 1-0 down. I came on after an hour and scored two goals in 10 minutes against [Jose] Mourinho’s Real Madrid, at 37-years-old.
“Unfortunately, a week later, I did my cruciate ligament.”
Surely Inzaghi could have scored even more than his 46 goals if he’d taken the penalties?
“That wasn’t just down to me. I was always surrounded with penalty specialists, from [Alessandro] Del Piero and [Zinedine] Zidane at Juventus to Kaka, [Andriy] Shevchenko and [Andrea Pirlo] at Milan.
“I took one, against Hamburg in the Bianconeri shirt, and I scored it.
“Apart from the goals? What crosses my mind most often is the stadiums, including San Siro. You should have seen what it gave us on European nights, it was amazing.
“When they roared us on, I felt support and affection that made me grow wings. That’s another reason I scored like I did.”