迪馬特奧、牛頓、切赫、喬˙柯爾對歐冠決賽的的回憶與祝福 - 切爾西足球俱樂部 Chelsea Football Club

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/05/26/
di-matteo-and-newton-s-munich-memories

Di Matteo and Newton's Munich memories

26 May 2021


Roberto Di Matteo and Eddie Newton were two of the coaches who led us to
Champions League glory in 2012 and the pair shared a few stories from that
incredible run to Munich, when we were crowned champions of Europe for the
first time.


https://i.imgur.com/vBrwMXZ.jpg


Just as this term, it was a mid-season managerial change that sparked a
run to the final of the Champions League that season, as Di Matteo was
promoted from his assistant manager role to replace Andre Villas-Boas. One
of his first acts was to add Eddie Newton, his fellow goalscorer from the
1997 FA Cup final, to his coaching ranks, rekindling a double act that had
previously worked wonders with MK Dons and West Brom.


Within a few weeks they had masterminded an unlikely comeback against
Napoli, overturning a 3-1 first-leg deficit, and then by May we were in
our second Champions League final, having beaten Benfica and Barcelona
along the way.


So, how did they do it? Both of the protagonists gave lengthy interviews
for the book Blue Day, which featured interviews with each of our 1997 FA
Cup winners, and within it the topic of Munich came up, which they both
addressed at length.


'We just got into the dressing room,' Newton said. 'Nothing special.
Nothing magical. We just got into the dressing room. One to one, asking
senior players their opinion and getting to know personalities.'


https://i.imgur.com/jG2yk4k.jpg
Eddie Newton offers some mid-game advice to Didier Drogba


Many may have seen the opportunity to manage Chelsea at that time as a
shot to nothing for Di Matteo, who had cruelly seen his playing career cut
short in 2000 through injury, but the Italian certainly didn't see it that
way. The contrast between playing and managing could not have been greater.


'No – with a capital N and capital O,' is his response when asked if he
felt anything like the pressure of being a manager during his playing
career. 'The responsibility is all with the manager. As a player, you can
share it with your team-mates – the enjoyment of the win or the pain of
defeat. As a manager it's just yourself. You carry all the responsibility.


'The experience you gain as a player will help you to be a manager, but
being a manager is completely different. For me, it's completely detached
from being a footballer player.'


https://i.imgur.com/N7Qrvpt.jpg
Di Matteo gees up his players during the Champions League final


One thing that never changes in football, whether you're a player or a
manager, is superstition; for all the millions spent at the highest level,
the countless hours of preparation, some still believe in fate.


That was clearly a factor ahead of Munich, as Newton recalls.


'Petr Cech had told me that at Moscow in 2008 [when we lost the final to
Manchester United] everything around them was red,' he said. 'In Munich,
the stadium was blue, everything was blue this time. Little things like
that get in to the mentality of players. It does. Just that little thing
to make it feel, “It's our time.”


'I had to go to the meetings before the game and the Champions League
trophy was there. Some guy from Bayern said, “You should go and touch it,
pick it up. Take a picture.” No, no, no, mate. I'll do that after the
game. Don't play those games. I've been in football a long time, I said.
Don't play those games with me.'


Still, that mindset of being a player hadn't left either Newton or Di
Matteo, and a number of our squad from that game have spoken about an
inspirational meeting on the eve of the game that gave everyone added
motivation.


https://i.imgur.com/JRHXevt.jpg
Getting their hands on the trophy at last - Newton, Di Matteo and Steve
Holland who was the other assistant


At the team hotel, a video was played to the squad, featuring messages
from their nearest and dearest.


'It was just a little bit of a personal touch,' recalled Di Matteo. 'I
will tell you, that removed a lot of tension and nervousness from the
room. I remember that very well. It was a surprise for the team. It's a
big game. As cool as everyone wants to be, the night before a big game you
are a little bit tense.


'That was a little personal touch to show them everyone was with us – the
wives, parents, children. When we went into the room, there was tension.
After the meeting, I cannot give you a reason why, but the players were a
bit more relaxed. You could feel it.


'I can't remember the inspiration [for the idea]. I just thought... behind
the players, who spend a lot of time away from home, there is a wife,
parents for the younger players, always someone you leave behind. I just
wanted to do something different.


'We tracked down Michael Essien's mother in Africa and she recorded a
message for him. Michael was very close to her. There were a few tears,
but it was funny as well.'


Of course, no one needs any reminder of what happened next, as the Blues
defied the odds once more to become London's first Champions League
winners. It came after almost a decade of disappointment in the
competition, when we'd come so close on so many occasions…


'To go into their home patch and take them on and win – that's special,'
adds Newton. 'Especially to win the club's first Champions League. When
they brought down that banner – our city, our stadium, our trophy – I
thought, “You cheeky... all right, all right. Here we go.” I went into
the dressing room and said, “I'm not having that, by the way. Come on.”
Everyone was together.


https://i.imgur.com/WAU4qmM.jpg
Di Matteo ended up in the pool at the team hotel


'We should have known it was our time just from the Barcelona game. After
that, I said, “If we don't win the Champions League this time we are
never winning it!”


'And then it was a great night. I remember sitting down next to Florent
Malouda afterwards and giving him a hug. You could see, he was looking
into the abyss, as if to say: “I've finally done it.” He was just
sitting there. It was a picture, looking at all the faces. The club had
been chasing this for a long time.'


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https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/05/29/
the-diary-of-a-champions-league-finalist---you-have-emotions--fe

The diary of a Champions League finalist - You have emotions, feelings and
dreams

29 May 2021


So what is it like to prepare for and face the biggest club game in world
football? Chelsea's current technical and performance advisor Petr Cech
did so twice, in 2008 and 2012, so ahead of the class of 2021 following in
his footsteps, he details the days and hours leading up to the big
kick-off…


https://i.imgur.com/dOW858A.jpg


A big difference I had with the preparation for the Champions League final
compared with other games was having more time to prepare. I had two weeks
without a game before both finals.


That means you can get more data and add extra information into the
preparation. You also have to take into account that it might go to
penalties, with the possibility of everybody shooting a penalty, so you
prepare for everybody and try to find information about everybody or all
the different scenarios.


What's also different is the mental preparation for how to deal with the
demands of the final, because you know how much is at stake. You know how
much it means to everybody so the pressure is adding and you are fully
aware that with the Champions League final, unless you are in an
exceptional team and things are going well, you are not playing in it
every season.


You have to find your own way to digest all this. The easiest part is once
the game is being played because you do what you are supposed to do.


In the last days before the game, how people prepare for this level of
pressure which comes with playing the final is the biggest part, as well
as adding all the necessary data and information.


https://i.imgur.com/zQsI2Xd.jpg
Petr Cech training at Cobham in May 2012


Having to come in to training every day thinking the final is coming, the
time goes slow and things drag.


The more time you have to think about it, the more pressure it creates.
You have to be able to accept there will be pressure, that the game might
start to go wrong so what would you do next, what is your next plan.


You have to be prepared for everything and that's the key for the final.
Two weeks is probably too big a gap between the last game and the final
but this year the players probably do not feel it as much because the
turnaround is quite quick.


There is lot of media activity that takes place ahead of the final.


Some people are more comfortable doing interviews and some people might be
shy and not as comfortable having to do all the interviews, the taking of
the pictures and the short videos. Whether it is a distraction or not is
very individual but it just shows you how big an occasion it is. You
really realise this is special because this is not normally happening and
it's really amazing to be involved in it.


People think okay, you play professional football all your life, go and
play another game but actually it's not entirely true because as a human
being, you have emotions, feelings and dreams.


https://i.imgur.com/nI2oOfx.jpg
Joining manager Roberto Di Matteo for press conference duties in 2012


The two finals I played in ended in a penalty shoot-out and we had
practised penalties a lot in the build-up.


With the process of shooting the penalties and saving the penalties in
training, you can't really replicate the pressure and the moment.
Everybody can shoot a penalty without pressure because it's easy but once
you have everything at stake and the margins are small, it is a completely
different exercise.


The players go through the penalties in practice to see what they would be
comfortable repeating in the game. It is about being clear when the
penalty comes that I will shoot this way and trust it. We practised
because we wanted people to find their way.


The players who don't shoot normally might be involved in the shoot-out
and they have to find out what they are going to do. In one of the finals
I played in it worked out, in the other it didn't, but that's exactly
football when you go to the shoot-out. It is a bit of a lottery.


For goalkeepers, practising penalties gives you time to observe how people
shoot and their body language.


You can play with the timing, you know you can go faster, you can go
slower, you can move or you can stand. You can work out what you do
against a penalty taker who goes slow and find out what's comfortable and
what's not profitable, what might work, what might not work.


You already have the information about the opposition team, what their
penalty takers usually do. You need to trust the process because if you go
unprepared and try to figure out what you're going to do in an
off-the-cuff way, it might be too late.


When you have some kind of strategy and you tried it in training, it keeps
you prepared.


There was uncertainty about who would play in the defence in front of me
for both finals.


Ashley Cole was injured in training the night before the 2008 game and
David Luiz and Gary Cahill both had injuries leading up to 2012.


We did not know who would play until after the warm-up before the game. We
had a team plan with both in, we had a team plan with one in, we had a
team plan with none of them in. We had a team plan with Ash playing in
Moscow and another team plan without him in Moscow.


The players go to the warm-up and you just hope they will survive it but
because we talked about it and we knew that might be the scenarios for the
final, people were prepared for it.


It's not ideal but the worst part is when you are not prepared for
anything like that, when the changes happen out of nowhere.


https://i.imgur.com/blxSXE7.jpg
Gary Cahill testing his injury in Munich


For a Champions League final, you have a good idea what the opposition
team is going to be and the opposition knows that about you as well.


There is not a big element of surprise in terms of the personnel. When you
come to the final, usually you don't experiment because of the pressure.
You rely on the team feeling comfortable in the shape and in the system.


In Moscow, it rained heavily but I actually like it when the pitch is wet
because although the ball skids through fast and is slippery, it has a
consistent bounce.


When you have a hot day and they water the pitch, the problem is that in
some places it dries out faster and it creates inconsistent bounce. It's
easier to catch the ball when it is dry but personally, when the pitch can
change the direction of the bounce, I found that trickier.


https://i.imgur.com/ibRQs1e.jpg
Saving a Ronaldo penalty in the Moscow rain


In Munich, we knew it would be like an away game.


We had no illusion about that although you know it was a fair split of the
tickets from the point of view of those given to each club. The moment we
walked out of the tunnel, we realised that everything's red and only
behind one goal is blue but we said okay, it is what it is, you need to
deal with that and during the game you really lock into what is happening
on the pitch.


You know when playing a final as an away game, all the statistics and all
the probabilities are of the home team winning. Everything is in favour of
Bayern, playing in their own stadium and using their own dressing room.
You realise how much tougher it is and how big an achievement it was for
us to win.


The night before the two finals, I was not able to sleep very well.


It was because of all the information I had in my head, thinking about
penalties, asking do I remember the plans, do I need to check the notes
again. You wake up having a dream about letting the ball run through your
legs and you just go okay, I don't want to do that. All sort of things
like that go through your head and you sleep but you might wake up a few
times.


The day of the game, I had always 20 to 30 minutes nap, a kind of power
nap just to charge up a little bit but by the afternoon, you have the
adrenalin already going through you because you know the game is coming.


In Munich, I was drumming for about two hours. I took my practice pad out
of the bag and the sticks and I did some exercises on that as I needed to
find some distraction away from the game. This helped me to relax because
I was concentrating on the drum patterns. It helped me greatly to find a
little bit of peace of mind.


https://i.imgur.com/UhVYkp2.jpg
Drumming is a Petr passion


You don't feel tired by the time the game comes but you feel the pressure.


At the start of the warm-up it was like I was carrying a bag of 30 kilos
on my back but the moment you go to catch the first ball and start your
warm-up, the head switches and this is what you want to do – be on the
pitch and play rather than sit in a room and think about it.


I kept the same warm-up routine throughout my career but I'm not
superstitious so if I changed the order it didn't bother me. It was the
content of the warm-up which made me feel prepared to play the game.


When the first whistle of the Champions League final was blown at last, I
was like okay, this is it, this is the chance, let's go!


This is what you were waiting for so it is now or never and I was ready
for that.


Once you try to do your best out there, no matter what the outcome, you
can take it because you have no regrets about preparation and you know you
have done everything.


We did everything for Moscow, we did everything for Munich. The Moscow one
we lost, it hurt, and it will always hurt, but at the same time you know
you've done everything you could and it wasn't to be so you can live it.
Of course the Munich one we won.


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https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/05/29/
joe-cole--the-players-will-feel-the-buzz

Joe Cole: The players will feel the buzz

29 May 2021


Joe Cole has called on the Chelsea players to enjoy the occasion leading
up to tonight's Champions League final but advised them to try to focus
and prepare in the way they usually would.


https://i.imgur.com/AhLNl38.jpg


Our former midfielder spoke to us out in Porto ahead of tonight's final
against Manchester City, with Cole also recalling his memories of the
build-up to the 2008 final and how one moment from that day in particular
encouraged him to offer a word of advice to Mason Mount, when chatting to
the midfielder earlier this week.


'I told Mason not to look at the trophy,' explains Joe. 'Which might sound
a little strange but it was something I did in 2008 and I think it put me
out of my zone ever so slightly.


'It was from a personal experience and I told Mason [not to look at the
trophy] just to try and minimise things before the game. The only time in
2008 that it felt like a Champions League final to me was when we saw the
trophy.


'When I saw the trophy, it just threw me off kilter a little bit. I didn't
have a particularly good game in the final myself, me and Patrice Evra
just cancelled each other out, but I did just feel that my routine had
been interrupted ever so slightly.


'What I said to Mason was just to play the game and not the occasion,
focus as you normally would do and just enjoy. I was 28 when I played in
the final, which was my first and last. Mason is a young lad with his
career ahead of him and hopefully this will be the first of many Champions
League finals he plays in with Chelsea.'


https://i.imgur.com/Qc7Ttyx.jpg
Joe was part of the Chelsea side that faced Man United in 2008


The city of Porto is hosting this season's final and there have been
plenty of Chelsea and City fans arriving in Portugal ahead of the game,
which is to be played in front of a small amount of spectators.


Joe, who is out here working the game for BT Sport, said the players will
feel the excitement of the game but it's important to channel those
emotions ahead of a game that he feels offers more pressure to Man City
than the Blues.


'The players will feel the buzz leading up to the game but at the end of
the day, they have to be professional footballers and just try and channel
that as they normally would, prepare in the same way they have been doing
all season,' added Cole.


'Nobody within the club would have expected Chelsea to be in this position
at the turn of the year. It was more of a hope, whereas for City I think
it was more of an expectation. They've never won the Champions League and
they brought Pep Guardiola in for this project, so I think the pressure is
on them a little more than Chelsea.


'Thomas Tuchel has come in at Chelsea and done a really good job and it's
going to be really interesting seeing him and Pep go up against one
another again. Tuchel obviously had the upper hand in the two recent
games, but this is a final and anything can happen.'


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https://twitter.com/didierdrogba/status/1398672847275532297

B.E.L.I.E.V.E. @chelseafc @championsleague

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Burrell: "If the Gods are fucking you, you find a way to fuck them back.
It's Baltimore, gentlemen. The Gods will not save you."

- The Wire Season 3 Episode 3

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