Less than a year after the World Cup final, I found myself in the Champions League final against Liverpool. In doing so, I became one of a very select band who had played in a Euros final, a World Cup final and then a Champions League final in succession. The day before the match, in Madrid, I ran into Dejan Lovren, the Reds' defender and my former teammate at Lyon. "Hey, Hugo," he called out. "You got the World Cup, you can let me have the Champions League!"
I did not let him have it. It was snatched from us. The penalty awarded by referee Damir Skomina 24 seconds into the match - when the ball struck Moussa Sissoko's body and rebounded on to his hand - killed the final and wiped us out. From 2 June 2019, a change in the rules meant that a penalty would no longer follow if the ball struck a player's hand after touching another part of their body. The final took place on 1 June 2019, and something which wouldn't have been an offence the following day sealed the fate of the final before it had really begun.
This story is from the November 08, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the November 08, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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