[ad_1]
Juan Román Riquelme advances slowly. It is a recognized tango in the cobblestones of the mouth, on the nights of the morning of Conmebol Libertadores. But the stage is now another. It is the UEFA Champions League. It is the Villarreal. Yellow and blue survives as a reminiscence of the past, but Things, this time, will be different.
The stadium contains breath. Minute 87 at Madrigal. If Román converts, Villarreal will force the lengthening in front of Arsenal and keep alive the illusion of reaching the Champions League final for the first time in its history. On the other side, Jens Lehmann opens his eyes. Patea Román.
It's me.
It is him.
It's me.
Ataja Lehmann. And an entire town is frozen.
That night, on April 25, 2006, was tattooed in the memory of football. Villarreal lived his fairy tale in Europe. Arsenal wrote a heroic chapter. And Riquelme, one of the most elegant talents of the century, the bullfighter who had ruined Real Madrid a few years ago in the Intercontinental final of Tokyo, became – without looking for him – in the tragic protagonist of one of the most painful postcards of the continental tournament.
Today, 18 years later, Arsenal returns to semifinals, and the ghost of that night in Castellón reappears. Because no matter that the gunners have thrashed Real Madrid with authority. It doesn't matter if the opponent is now the PSG. The last time they got so far, Román was on the other side.
Arsenal present: firm and with pending accounts
Mikel Arteta's team lives a dream moment. After an almost perfect league phase (6 wins, 1 draw and 1 fall), he crushed Feyenoord in the round of 16 (9-3 in the global) and then dispatched Real Madrid with a forceful 3-0 in London and a 2-1 solid in the Bernabéu. Spoiler Alert: To enjoy again, Declan Rice's free kick goals.
The 5-1 global, categorical by the way, deposited them for the third time in its history in the semifinals.
But the data is not less: the two times before Arsenal reached this instance, was eliminated by the finalist. In 2006, the case cited in this article, defeated Villarreal by the minimum and fell in the final against Barcelona. In 2009, it was swept by Manchester United. Will this be the defeated?
The penalty that marked an era
That Villarreal of Manuel Pellegrini was a mixture of South American talent and European temper. Mariano Barbosa, Sebastián Viera, Marcos Senna, Josico, Diego Forlán, Juan Pablo Sorin and Rodolfo Arruabarrena were part of a team that surprised everyone. “The penalty did not erred Roman, we all erred it,” Josico recalled. “We went with our heads high, but we were very close.”
“We are always going to have Riquelme's prison in the head, but I can't reproach anything. That day he played very well,” added Javi Venta, another witness of that drama.
It was Villarreal's first participation in the Champions League. Getting to the semifinals was already a feat. But football does not live on deserves or moral champions. A penalty separated the dream from history.
Roman and a legacy that persists
Recurrent hero in South America with Boca Juniors, Riquelme could never play a Champions Final. His name always reappears in the popular imaginary when Arsenal returns to the first planes. Not by revenge. Not because of the fault. But because that penalty condensed everything that football can be: glory, pain, and the bitter taste of what could be and was not.
Arsenal will be measured now With the PSG for a place in the grand finale. It will be his third attempt. The first – and more remembered – was that of 2006, with Riquelme face to face with Lehmann. That image, that scene, that moment that defined a semifinal and was recorded forever.
Every time the gunners get among the four best in Europe, Román's memory returns to the scene. Thus things work. Because in the history of the Champions, there are unforgettable goals.
And also, of course, frustrations that never forget.
[ad_2]
