Saturday, August 7, 2010

Pires: I wanted to kill him!

Former Arsenal winger Robért Píres has admitted that he wanted to "kill" goalkeeper Jens Lehmann when the German was sent off during the Champions League final in 2006.

Píres has made no secret in the past of his disappointment, and to a certain extent, grudge, against manager Arsène Wenger for the decision that resulted in him only having played 18 minutes of a Champions League final.

The 36-year-old Frenchman, now plying his trade with Villarreal, was the player Wenger chose to sacrifice in order to bring on substitute keeper Manuel Almunia.

Although we opened the scoring through Sol Campbell, we couldn't contain Barcelona with only 10-men and eventually lost the match 2-1.

Speaking to FourFourTwo magazine, Píres said: "I will never forget that. I knew Villarreal wanted me but I hadn't made a decision, yet what happened in the final left me feeling very bad. That was the end; my mind was made.

"I knew a player had to go off after that red card but I never thought it would be me. When I saw it was my number, it killed me.

"I didn't want to kill Wenger, but Jens? Yeah, I'd have killed the German! B*stard! It was the worst moment of my career. When I saw the number I thought, no, no, it can't be!"

From arsenal-mania.com

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