Dimitar Berbatov will be in Bilbao for the Europa League final, but he has not decided how he can best respond if a goal goes. “Aplumumment or neurralal to stay? I think what to do,” he tells Sky Sports. “We'll see. It will be difficult for me to look. “
Crueller observers can speculate that 'hard to view' is a suitable preview of the upcoming final between two by Berbatov's former clubs, Manchester United and Tottenham. Both have endured particularly miserable Premier League seasons.
Unbelievable, because the two teams met in London in mid -February, neither of them managed to beat an opponent who will participate in the Premier League of next season – their only victories that come against the degraded trio. In Bilbao it will be 16th against the 17th.
“Some will say that it might not be fair when one of them wins and goes to the champions because they have not earned it or qualify in the right way. But it is what it is and it will now be an interesting game because their backs are against the wall,” says Berbatov.
“The final is about concentration, about not making foolish mistakes, because you could be punished and there is no rematch. Maybe we will be surprised and it will be an open game, but I expect caution, nobody wants to take risks. Their seasons are at stake.
“The only thing that can justify in the two season is to remove that trophy. Who needs the lake? That is the question. United is going backwards while others have improved. Spurs have not won a trophy in 17 years. So in a certain sense both managers need it.
“Ange postecoglou, he can say,” I told you that I always win something in my second season. Now you keep your mouth shut. ” Whether Ruben Amorim can say: “Believe me, this is the system that we are going to play and now we can build United with that trophy”.
It was Berbatov himself who scored the goal when Tottenham won the 2008 League Cup final – their last piece of silverware. They came from behind that day in Wembley to beat a strong Chelsea side side. “We were the underdogs, we had nothing to lose,” he recalls.
“That was the Chelsea of ​​Didier Drogba, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech, some great players. But we knew that we would have our chances to score because we scored many goals, that team, especially in front with me and Keano (Robbie Keane).
“Everyone expected Chelsea to win. Drogba scored a great free kick, but we kept going.” Berbatov equalized the penalty spot and Jonathan Woodgate won the cup in extra time. “Sometimes that is all you need, a penalty or a corner or whatever.”
Berbatov of course has had his own frustrations in the final. In the Champions League final of 2002, his Bayer Leverkusen team was eliminated by the superstars of Real Madrid in an even match in Hampden Park. A moment of magic from Zinedine Zidane decided it.
“It was probably the biggest goal ever in a final of the Champions League. There was nothing that you could do. The ball just landed at the feet of one player you don't want the ball to land. In football, sometimes even your best is not good enough. It is a cruel game.”
It was also cruel in 2011. Despite the fact that the season was the Joint-Top Scorer in the Premier League, Berbatov was shared that season the Golden Boot with Carlos Tevez, not only omitted from the United team for the Champions League final, but also the whole team.
Sir Alex Ferguson has since apologized for the move – he started Javier Hernandez, with Michael Owen preferred on the couch. Does Berbatov already understand the call? “Not personally, but Sir Alex clearly admitted that he probably made a mistake,” he says.
“My self -confidence was heavenly high. You are king of the world or so I felt. In every game you think you're going to score. But even if I played, I don't know if it would have made any difference because Barcelona had Prime Lionel Messi in that moment!”
Berbatov left United for Fulham at the end of the following season, where Ferguson called the time on his long reign at Old Trafford only a year later. The Scottish legend bent with another Premier League title, but since then United has been in decline.
“United remains enormous all over the world, but it is a long time since the last Premier League and that way of thinking, that mentality to win every game, it has disappeared,” says Berbatov, in his role as a LiveScore European Brand Ambassador.
“United has been struggling for years and that is of course painful. Everyone knows that – the fans, the management, the coaches and the players too. That is why this game is so important, so they can say:” Look, we are struggling, but we've still won a trophy. “
“In recent years it has always been about what the next season will be of us – and the next season. Again, we are in that position where next season the new manager can do it. Cliché as it sounds, you must always retain faith.
“Keep that faith and hope that Ruben, with a preseason behind him, will not start again, but perhaps bring in the players he wants because he is not going to change, he loves that system. So you need players to fit specifically with that system and hope the results will come.”
Is there a suspicion that United just seems to find a way? Berbatov speaks that they “have a DNA that they need to win trophies” while waiting for Spurs continues. But he is in conflict. “I don't think it is traces of having no faith. It is a difficult question to answer,” he says.
“On the one hand there is the DNA of the club, the history, everything you have won before, and you know that everyone's expectation is that you will eventually win. On the other hand, maybe if you are not expected, there is nothing to lose.
“Sometimes football can be a cruel game and there is just no explanation for it. You just go outside with your best intentions, you are fully concentrated, you are all ready to go, all your players from the first team are ready and they play and then it just doesn't happen.”
Anyway, Berbatov will look. Just don't ask him who he wants to win. “I will sympathize with the loser because I have been there, won the final and loses the final. Football will remember that there is so much joy, but so much pain too.”
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