THIERRY HENRY was that rare blend of great goalscorer and scorer of great goals.
The France legend holds the all-time record at Arsenal on 228 in all competitions while he added another 51 for his country, many of them works of art, that defined an era when Les Bleus sat atop world football.
But he maintains that his international colleague David Trezeguet was the best finisher he played alongside, as evidenced by the golden goal he scored on this day 20 years ago to secure the Henri Delaunay trophy for France. The Juventus striker pirouetted on to a Robert Pires' cross as the match to cap a memorable fightback by Roger Lemerre's side, who added the EURO 2000 title to their World Cup win two years earlier on home soil.
Trailing to Marco Delvecchio's 55th minute strike, France had ended the match with seven attackers on the pitch as Lemerre brought on Sylvain Wiltord, Robert Pires and Trezeguet and threw everything at the blue wall that had been marshalled superbly Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta. But a rare misplaced header by the former put in Henry's soon-to-be Arsenal team-mate Sylvain Wiltord, and he slid the ball across Franceso Toldo's giant frame in the Italian goal to set up extra-time.
Henry says some of Italy's players – including former Juventus team-mates – had been gearing up to celebrate prior to that point.
“. . . it’s a very famous picture in France – when Sylvain Wiltord scored, I just turned around and ran in front of the bench of the Italian players and I asked them to sit down,” he recalls. “I said, 'It’s not over, so sit down, put your bibs back on', because they were taking their bibs off, they were already dancing. You can only celebrate when it’s over.”
Instead it was the French who were celebrating 10 minutes later when Pires skipped free down the left and squared the ball to Trezeguet who produced an exquisite finish off his wrong foot.
For Henry, the goal was validation of what he had always known about Trezeguet, who had been a team-mate of his at Monaco, when both men where starting out in their careers.
“I’ve said it so many times, I maintain it, and I’ll say it again, says Henry. “The best finisher I’ve seen is David Trezeguet. In the box, he’s the best finisher that I’ve seen in my life. Nobody that I’ve seen can beat him. When that ball comes, the cross is behind him, and Robert Pires was like, “Oh. That’s a bad cross.” The ball is behind him. David Trezeguet has to step back... The ball is not behind him, because if the ball is behind you, you can still plant your foot and go and reach [it], right?
“No, no. He had to step back, and the power that he generates with his wrong leg, it’s just stupid. I don’t know how. And that’s what I said to you: it has to be the best scenario ever. Only he could have scored that goal, and he was there.”
It was a great goal that brought a definitive end. France had won their second major tournament in as many years, and reinforced their status as the pre-eminent team in world football. As Henry says, the best scenario ever.
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