Legendary Italian referee Pierluigi Collina has explained the moment he walked to a visible broken Bayern Munich defender Sammy Kuffuor to console him after the 1999 UEFA Champions League final against Manchester United. The Germany giants were minutes away from winning the competition when the Red Devils staged the most famous comeback in football history to win the UEFA Champions League. With few seconds remaining, former Ghana defender Kuffuor was in uncontrollable tears as he broke down in agony staring at defeat.
According to Collina, he wanted to inspire Kuffuor to fight on, but it was a little too late for the Bavarians: “It was the last two minutes of the Champions League final. I saw the Bayern players on the bench getting ready to celebrate the title. The Bayern fans in the stadium were happy that their team was crowned with the Champions League title. Suddenly, Manchester scored two goals in two minutes and overturned the result. I will never forget how the English stands were filled with great noise as if they were roaring lions, while there was a funeral silence in the Bayern stands. The Manchester United players were celebrating their second goal hysterically when I saw one of the Bayern players falling to the ground completely desperate and feeling great disappointment. I approached him and found nothing to say to him except “Get up and fight, you still have 50 seconds! At that moment, I saw the true face of football, death and life in one stadium, people celebrating madly and desperate people to death."
Source: GhanaWeb
