Post by Webster on Apr 16, 2019 3:07:24 GMT
The Guardian: Ole Gunnar Solskjær preaches belief on historic return to Camp Nou
-Read more: www.theguardian.com/football/2019/apr/15/ole-gunnar-solskjaer-camp-nou-manchester-united-barcelona
It is, as everyone knows by now, 20 years since Ole Gunnar Solskjær scored that goal in European football’s biggest stadium and on European football’s biggest night. And, if it has often felt inescapable over the last fortnight, inevitably it was there again when he finally returned two decades later, playing on the screens of the press room as he got up and made his way to the Camp Nou pitch for the first time since 1999, BarçaTV recalling the moment more than the man in the middle of it.
“I don’t know how I will feel when I get there – there will be many emotions and it is a fantastic memory for me of course,” Solskjær said before heading out. He was 26 then; he is 46 now. “That was the only time I have ever been on the pitch, actually. I came here to the clásico in 2016 with my young son; we bought two tickets and sat high up in the stands. And I came again 10 days ago [to watch Barcelona-Atlético], but that’s it and I don’t really look back that often. I’ll just focus on tomorrow, on a better performance.”
They will need it, Solskjær admitted. He admitted it repeatedly, in fact. The mystique may be there, and it can provide strength too, the United manager preferring to talk of belief rather than fate, but it can break on reality. Manchester United have won three of four games away from home, scoring in the last minute at Juventus and at Paris Saint-Germain, and the Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde talked about United’s “spirit”, noting “they have something special in the final minutes – in fact they won a Champions League here that way”. But he preferred not to hear destiny calling, and so too did Solskjær.
“We all take examples from the past to motivate us for the future; you can think it can happen again but in the end I think the destiny has to be written by you, not because it happened again,” Valverde said. “You have to seek it, and we will to seek our destiny tomorrow. I suppose United will do that too.”
“I don’t know how I will feel when I get there – there will be many emotions and it is a fantastic memory for me of course,” Solskjær said before heading out. He was 26 then; he is 46 now. “That was the only time I have ever been on the pitch, actually. I came here to the clásico in 2016 with my young son; we bought two tickets and sat high up in the stands. And I came again 10 days ago [to watch Barcelona-Atlético], but that’s it and I don’t really look back that often. I’ll just focus on tomorrow, on a better performance.”
They will need it, Solskjær admitted. He admitted it repeatedly, in fact. The mystique may be there, and it can provide strength too, the United manager preferring to talk of belief rather than fate, but it can break on reality. Manchester United have won three of four games away from home, scoring in the last minute at Juventus and at Paris Saint-Germain, and the Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde talked about United’s “spirit”, noting “they have something special in the final minutes – in fact they won a Champions League here that way”. But he preferred not to hear destiny calling, and so too did Solskjær.
“We all take examples from the past to motivate us for the future; you can think it can happen again but in the end I think the destiny has to be written by you, not because it happened again,” Valverde said. “You have to seek it, and we will to seek our destiny tomorrow. I suppose United will do that too.”