Michael Ballack's time at Chelsea is coming to an end but before leaving he shared with the Official Chelsea Website two games that hold a special place in his memory - one involving his nation on the biggest stage of all, and the other a club game against English opposition during the period he was making a major name for himself throughout Europe.
Favourite game played:
Michael Ballack enjoyed some good days against Liverpool during his four years with Chelsea but for his favourite game played, he turns the calendar back to 2002 and the night the Merseyside team visited western Germany in a European encounter.
Bayer Leverkusen had been a strengthening force in the Bundesliga since German reunification and that season made the Champions League Final, but not before overcoming Premier League sides Manchester United in the semis and Liverpool before that. It was the quarter-final that set the pulse racing for Ballack.
'We lost the first game 1-0 at Anfield which for Liverpool was a good result,' he recalls. 'But I was able to score early in the second game.'
The goal deserves some explanation, the midfielder seeing off his marker and finding the top corner with his left foot from 30 yards.
'Steven Gerrard came really close to press me and I dummied with my right and shot with my left.
'But Liverpool scored just before half-time and the game was really open. We played really good but there was always a danger with Michael Owen up front and Jari Litamen was very good for them also, and the game went up and down.
'It was really close because we had to score two more and against Liverpool that is really difficult. But I scored for 2-1 with my head this time and Liverpool had two great chances so we were a little bit lucky.
'But with the second goal from me we got new hope, we had a lot of pressure and we scored the third.'
Leverkusen's strike that made it 3-1 and put them in a position to go through came from a player who would eventually join Ballack in swapping Germany for London - Dimitar Berbatov - but it did not take long for Litamen to make it 3-2 on the night and 3-3 on aggregate. Liverpool were set for the semis.
That was until Brazil's current World Cup captain came forward from the back to hammer a left-footed winner six minutes from time.
'Lucio scored our fourth and the atmosphere was fantastic and it was one of the best games, not only for me but for the club. It was really exciting,' enthuses Ballack. His side lost at Hampden Park in the Final to Real Madrid and a famous Zinedine Zidane goal. Ballack, having then helped Germany to the World Cup Final, moved on to Bayern Munich at the end of the summer.
Favourite game watched:
His spectator high point won't go down in anyone's book as a classic match, yet it is understandable why it made a huge impression on a then 13-year-old Ballack.
The Germans' 1990 World Cup Final 1-0 victory over Argentina was a dour 90 minutes, but it is the one time his nation has been crowned world champions in Ballack's lifetime.
It will have cemented the likes of Lothar Matthaeus, Jurgen Klinsmann, Pierre Littbarski and scorer of the winning penalty, Andreas Brehme, in the affections of the future German captain and his contemporaries, although there is an incongruity.
It was a team entered by West Germany in 1990. Reunification was officially three months away - and Ballack is an East German.
'There was no player from the east in the side but by now you could watch them and they had become more close to us,' he explains.
'The reunified country was still very young - but we all felt like Germans.'
Favourite game played:
Michael Ballack enjoyed some good days against Liverpool during his four years with Chelsea but for his favourite game played, he turns the calendar back to 2002 and the night the Merseyside team visited western Germany in a European encounter.
Bayer Leverkusen had been a strengthening force in the Bundesliga since German reunification and that season made the Champions League Final, but not before overcoming Premier League sides Manchester United in the semis and Liverpool before that. It was the quarter-final that set the pulse racing for Ballack.
'We lost the first game 1-0 at Anfield which for Liverpool was a good result,' he recalls. 'But I was able to score early in the second game.'
The goal deserves some explanation, the midfielder seeing off his marker and finding the top corner with his left foot from 30 yards.
'Steven Gerrard came really close to press me and I dummied with my right and shot with my left.
'But Liverpool scored just before half-time and the game was really open. We played really good but there was always a danger with Michael Owen up front and Jari Litamen was very good for them also, and the game went up and down.
'It was really close because we had to score two more and against Liverpool that is really difficult. But I scored for 2-1 with my head this time and Liverpool had two great chances so we were a little bit lucky.
'But with the second goal from me we got new hope, we had a lot of pressure and we scored the third.'
Leverkusen's strike that made it 3-1 and put them in a position to go through came from a player who would eventually join Ballack in swapping Germany for London - Dimitar Berbatov - but it did not take long for Litamen to make it 3-2 on the night and 3-3 on aggregate. Liverpool were set for the semis.
That was until Brazil's current World Cup captain came forward from the back to hammer a left-footed winner six minutes from time.
'Lucio scored our fourth and the atmosphere was fantastic and it was one of the best games, not only for me but for the club. It was really exciting,' enthuses Ballack. His side lost at Hampden Park in the Final to Real Madrid and a famous Zinedine Zidane goal. Ballack, having then helped Germany to the World Cup Final, moved on to Bayern Munich at the end of the summer.
Favourite game watched:
His spectator high point won't go down in anyone's book as a classic match, yet it is understandable why it made a huge impression on a then 13-year-old Ballack.
The Germans' 1990 World Cup Final 1-0 victory over Argentina was a dour 90 minutes, but it is the one time his nation has been crowned world champions in Ballack's lifetime.
It will have cemented the likes of Lothar Matthaeus, Jurgen Klinsmann, Pierre Littbarski and scorer of the winning penalty, Andreas Brehme, in the affections of the future German captain and his contemporaries, although there is an incongruity.
It was a team entered by West Germany in 1990. Reunification was officially three months away - and Ballack is an East German.
'There was no player from the east in the side but by now you could watch them and they had become more close to us,' he explains.
'The reunified country was still very young - but we all felt like Germans.'
No comments:
Post a Comment