Not many German keepers can say they’ve played in a Champions League final.
I knew that was going to be the last chance to play in the Champions League final – I was desperate to win, I put a lot of pressure on myself. Finally I got hold of that cup – it was the defining moment of my career. I got really emotional and nearly fainted on the pitch.
It’s nice to be settled and enjoying my football, the new experience, playing in the Champions League and all the things you dream about when you start playing football.
The Champions League is more important than the Scudetto.
We want to win everything: League, cup, Champions League and Supercopa.
I feel like I’d be able to gain so much by playing big games on a regular basis, including the Champions League.
At other clubs I have been, at Juventus, at Barca, we had two ‘ships’: one for the domestic league and another for the Champions League.
The Champions League, for me especially, is the most beautiful competition.
I am thrilled to participate in the World Boxing Super Series, the Champions League of boxing.
Football is a sport that you play with a team and I think if you want to win the Ballon d’Or, you have to win the Champions League.
The Champions League is the most important competition; it’s fundamental to be involved in it.
Too many points are being won or lost on the back of bad decisions which could cost clubs a place in the Champions League or send them down.
My goal is to play with a club in the Champions League.
It’s never easy in the Champions League, but you never know what can happen.
I am happy to make my debut in the Champions League.
Dennis Bergkamp is, in my eyes, still ‘The Master’. The fact that he never won the Champions League, the European Championship, or the World Cup does not take anything away from his greatness as a player.
Ronaldo has nothing to prove to anyone, he has proved his talent by being the top scorer in England. He has proved it by winning the Premier League, by winning the Champions League, with Manchester United.
During my time at Juve, I didn’t score more than 20 goals a year, but I won every title except the Champions League. I’ve scored 15 or 16 goals, and I’ve lifted titles, and other strikers have scored 35 and haven’t won anything.
In the Champions League, there are no weak teams.
Since I was a little boy, I’ve watched the Premier League and seen Liverpool playing in the Champions League on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
I want to play for a club that fights to win the Champions League title.
I went to the final of the Champions League, and I scored 32 goals. This pressure does not weigh too much. I’m on the field to have fun and give pleasure to the fans.
The Champions League was something very distant for us. I grew up in a very small town with 50,000 inhabitants, and it was a way of being able to watch my idols or people I admired play football on television.
To see myself with the Champions League trophy at such a young age was an incredible and tremendous feeling.
It’s not easy to win the Champions League.
I’m very pleased to play for Manchester United. I want to hep the team get into the Champions League.
After the Champions League final in 2007… I would never have thought I would have finished my career in Milan!
Everyone benefits from a strong Paris Saint-Germain – the club itself, the French league and also the Champions League.
The thing about Champions League football is it can turn on an instant. You can have a very good, solid team over the course of the season, but the Champions League is more like the World Cup, where your fate can be decided in a second and you need a bit of luck too.
I’ve always been a very passionate football supporter, and I used to watch the Champions League.
It’s the Champions League that really gets the Barcelona fans buzzing.
It’s not enough to be top in your league if you don’t do anything in the Champions League.
The team that wins the Champions League is the one that is most united.
Playing so many important games in a prestigious competition like the Champions League, I have experience to call upon, and I’m thankful for that. I hope the other players can feel more confident because of that.
I won the title three times with Ajax; I played in the Champions League final and won the league title with Atletico. I have also played in the World Cup.
I know what a Champions League final is like.
Sometimes in the Champions League, I don’t think it’s always the best team that wins it. It depends on how you play on a certain day.
In the Champions League you need a certain level of perseverance, strength, dedication to scoring over 90 minutes.
When Pep Guardiola accepted the Manchester City job, he would have asked himself one question about the club’s current squad: is this a team that can win me the Champions League?
Every player’s dream is to play Champions League and the World Cup.
We want to make our dreams come true and the Champions League is a dream for all of us.
Playing in the Champions League and getting to the final is everything you could ask for.
There are two things I will always remember. First, a shot against Derby that hit the inside of the post but didn’t go in, and we could only draw 2-2. And then the really big chance against Bayer Leverkusen, two minutes from the end of the Champions League semi-final, when I shot over the bar. That hurt a lot.
You know when you have a manager that is always successful, is always in the title race and always playing in the Champions League.
If you’re a talented player, and you’re 20 years old, you should be playing in the UEFA Champions League or in the elite European teams like AC Milan, Juventus, or Chelsea.
Don’t get me wrong, by the time I finish I will have had a fantastic career. But you do sit there sometimes and think, ‘could I have gone higher? Could I have been playing in the Champions League?’
In Europe, matches are different because you play a lot on a one-on-one basis. There’s less tactical importance in the Champions League. The value of the individual player makes the difference.
With the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, and League Cup, I will play many games with Spurs. And I’m going to enjoy all the playing time I get.
Football is football but life is life. I am so happy at being a father and reaching the Champions League final.
You can never know if there will be a second Cruyff, someone with a great personality who can grow up and make it into the squad of the club they love. But what is certain is that, in the Champions League, there will be big clubs producing these players forever.
The Champions League is the biggest trophy. Everybody in the world wants to win it.
It is impossible for you to be remembered as a great team if you do not win the Champions League.
Ancelotti is a coach with a lot of experience. He won the Champions League while at Milan, playing some great football in the process.
I hope that one day I will be able to play with City at the Sanchez Pizjuan in a Champions League game; it would be an incredible experience.
I want to win trophies, even the Champions League. You have to be ambitious.
To win the Champions League for a second time or even to have been in three finals and won two of them is a bit special.
We know that in the Champions League and the knockout competitions, you can’t make any mistakes.
I feel very good at Atletico, and being here allows me to play in the Champions League.
Some of my closest friends, the England lads, have played in the Champions League, so it’s a big thing to be there as well.
I’m desperate to play Champions League football, and that’s why I have to leave Villa.
You don’t want to play one year in the Champions’ League and go out. You don’t then establish yourself as a big club.
This game is about engagement and respect, whether you’re playing in the Champions League or in the fourth division.
I won my first Champions League in 1989, and I won my last one 18 years later.
The Champions League has always been a target of mine. I do want to play at the top.
Not so many Armenian players are given the chance to play in the Champions League, and this is really important for me, because I want to do everything to impress the children who are watching me playing.
Every single player has to take responsibility for what they do. Look at the Manchester United team that won the Champions League in 2008, they didn’t have a ‘leader’ like Roy Keane any more.
My aims have always been to win titles and cups, to qualify for European football and to play in the Europa League or the Champions League.
Of course I have dreamed about that – and about showing off the Champions League trophy to the cows back in Liencres.
Great moments of entertainment, great football, unforgettable evenings. I think that’s what it’s all about: experience, emotions, and the special touch that the Champions League brings on and off the field.
Any strengthening of the squad, in a League and Champions League which demands so much, is a good thing because you need many top quality players.
Winning one Champions League title is a dream come true, so just imagine winning three!
