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BIG PETE: Roberto Di Matteo on the inside story of Chelsea’s Champions League triumph

LI

Livesport

Published 1 month ago

The first season of Big Pete by Flashscore and CANAL+ is nearing its end. In this episode, we revisit one of the most memorable moments in modern football: Chelsea’s legendary Champions League run under Roberto Di Matteo. We take a look behind the scenes at the preparations for the final, when the team had to cope with the absence of key players, improvise with lineups and deal with defenders’ fitness concerns right up to the last minute. The episode is filled with memories of crucial moments, emotional scenes, and the mutual trust that laid the foundation for the most famous night in the history of the London club.

[embed guid="eb8918a3-21b0-4df5-92ee-ce682e9d9df4" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnDRxMee5v0" social-type="youtube" /][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/di-matteo-roberto/zqXyRsVG/"]Roberto Di Matteo[/a] spoke about how important unity and trust within the squad were during their Champions League journey: “It never crossed my mind that we were out of the running. Even when we were in huge trouble, like in the second leg against Napoli or in the matches against Barcelona, I always felt there was still hope. That group had something special. So many personalities, so many players who truly deserved to experience victory and lift the famous trophy. The trust I had in the team was absolutely limitless,” he told [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/cech-petr/fTjQ34vo/"]Petr Čech[/a].[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/chelsea/4fGZN2oK/"]Chelsea[/a], despite ongoing difficulties, managed to reach the final and ultimately secured the coveted trophy.[/p][p]“The whole week before the final was unusual - four players were out, and right up until the last moment, we didn’t know if [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/cahill-gary/pKpkgR1U/"]Gary Cahill[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/david-luiz/G04qmSno/"]David Luiz[/a] would be fit in time. We knew we couldn’t improvise on match day, so we had two different lineups prepared. In the end, both of them made it, played the full match, and I think it was mainly down to the team’s desire to succeed. In fact, it was the easiest lineup I’ve ever put together for a final,” Di Matteo recalled.[/p][p][i]The full TV version of this episode of the Big Pete documentary series will be available on CANAL+ Sport and the CANAL+ streaming service in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Poland, Myanmar, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania, and Hungary, and on SuperSport in South Africa and Switzerland.[/i][/p]

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