The serious, almost Spartan expression of Juliano Haus Belletti (Cascavel, Brazil, 20 June 1976) changes completely when he is reminded of what he experienced (and what Bar\u00e7a fans experienced) on 17 May 2006. The scorer of the decisive goal against Arsenal is now the coach of Bar\u00e7a Atl\u00e8tic, after a successful spell with the U19 A team. He knows no path other than effort and teamwork, and that is what he passes on to his players. In this conversation with BAR\u00c7A MAGAZINE, he makes that very clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the goal in Paris in 2006?
My celebration, with so much emotion, and also that so many people around the world talk to me about that day (smiles). I remember kneeling down, with my hands over my face\u2026 On TV, it\u2019s always shown in slow motion\u2026 It was a flood of emotions. I scored a goal in a Champions League final, when scoring wasn\u2019t really my thing!<\/p>\n
How do you remember the moment just before the shot? What went through your mind?
As a full-back, you always try to get forward to provide the assist. So when I got the ball from Larsson, the first thing I thought was to control it and play a pass back. But it was raining heavily, I was arriving at speed and I was very close to the byline, so I had no option but to shoot\u2026<\/p>\n
And your shot went through Almunia\u2019s legs and into the net.
When I controlled the ball inside the box, there was a defender stretching to block my shot. I focused more on the ball than the goal because of the speed of the move. And yes, in the end the ball went through Almunia\u2019s legs and in.<\/p>\n
At that moment in the match, were you aware you were doing something that would go down in Bar\u00e7a history?
While I was playing, no. There were ten minutes left and Arsenal had had very clear chances, one for Thierry Henry, which Vald\u00e9s had saved. When Larsson and I came on, they changed their defensive strategy. Then, at 2\u20131, the four of us at the back (myself, Puyol, M\u00e1rquez and Gio Van Bronckhorst) decided not to push forward, because we didn\u2019t have any defensive-minded players in midfield. We were tryinh to hold onto the result.<\/p>\n
What did Frank Rijkaard say to you before you came on, with the score at 1\u20130, to try to change the game?
Rijkaard knew I was an attacking full-back, so before I went on he asked me to get forward down the right, to try to provide assists from the byline. It was the same thing he had asked of me in the quarter-finals against Benfica and in the semi-final against AC Milan. We were losing, we had a player sent off and they were very compact in the middle. So we had to try it down the wings. And that\u2019s how we turned it around: the first goal came from the left and the second, from the move with Larsson, from the right.<\/p>\n
With the perspective of time, how do you assess the importance of that goal on a personal level?
I learned just how worthwhile it is to work for the team. I was a futsal goalkeeper until I was 15, I didn\u2019t have outstanding natural talent for football, so I had to create something to be useful in a team. And that was working for the team. That idea has stayed with me to this day. I tell my children and my players that they have to put their talent at the service of the team.<\/p>\n
Now you coach players who weren\u2019t born, or were very young, when you scored that goal. What would you like the new generations of cul\u00e9s to understand about that goal and that team?
That goal made me the protagonist, and Bar\u00e7a fans all over the world thank me for it. But I always say we had an incredible team. Vald\u00e9s in goal; Puyol and Rafa [M\u00e1rquez] at centre-back; in midfield, Edm\u00edlson, Iniesta, Deco; and up front, Ronaldinho, Samuel [Eto\u2019o], Giuly, on my side\u2026 In 2006 we brought joy back to this club, which has always worked to achieve a style of play people enjoy. So I tell the players I coach, who weren\u2019t born or were very young in 2006: \u201cWhat a team!\u201d We won that Champions League because we followed Bar\u00e7a\u2019s values: a lot of effort, a lot of ambition to improve, a lot of humility to understand that you have to work to achieve your goals, and a lot of teamwork from day one. I scored the goal, but the real protagonist of that Champions League was the team.<\/p>\n
THE FULL INTERVIEW WILL BE PUBLISHED IN ISSUE 129 OF BAR\u00c7A MAGAZINE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The serious, almost Spartan expression of Juliano Haus Belletti (Cascavel, Brazil, 20 June 1976) changes completely when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,483],"class_list":{"0":"post-16680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}