Del Piero: "I'm guilty"

June 3, 2000
Eurofootball.com

By Guglielmo Buccheri and Alessandro Cortese

Italy -- Benched at the beginning of the match, Alessandro Del Piero entered the field in the 53rd minute and 120 seconds later Italy had taken the lead.

However, minutes later the Juventus forward missed two easy chances to put the game beyond France's reach and assure the Azzurri of a second European Championship victory after 32 years. Now, on reflection, Del Piero is unable to forget those missed opportunities.

"Yes, I blame myself and I feel a lot of guilt. I had two great chances and I missed both of them, obviously I feel the most guilty member of the team for this defeat," Del Piero said.

The moment that Trezeguet smashed the ball past Toldo, Del Piero fell to the ground covering his face with his hands.

"I feel devastated. We could have won the game and now be telling all of you how great it feels to be the strongest team in Europe."

In trying to relive the emotions of a night he would like to forget the Italian commented: "When Ambrosini passed to me the second time I was sure I was going to score. I tried to keep the ball on the ground as Barthez was coming towards me, but the keeper did well keeping the ball out with his feet.

"It's very difficult to think clearly now, losing a final in this way darkens my mind. The only thing I know is that we lost the European Championship final, other matters are not important."

Finally, Del Piero comments: "I want to forget this as soon as possible, but it will not be easy. I wonder how long it will take to heal what I'm feeling inside. We were just seconds away from the end of the game and winning the title, but then the unexpected happened. The thing that hurts me most is the fact that I had those two chances. The ball came right to my feet twice and I messed up both times. Forgive me."

This has probably been the worst year of Del Piero's career: his season started on 1 July 1999 training with Juventus for the Intertoto Cup and ended on 2 July 2000 losing the Euro 2000 final. He hasn't had any success in a whole year and has scored just three goals in open play, one in the Coppa Italia against Lazio, one in Serie A against Parma and one with the national team in Euro 2000 against Sweden.
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