Twice champions of France, in 1995 with Nantes then in 2000 with Monaco, Christophe Pignol also played in two Champions League semi-finals, each time coming up against the realism of Turin. The memory of the semi-final lost in 1998 is particularly painful. The fault was the heavy defeat conceded in the first leg in Piedmont (4-1) but also the blow received in the head which cost him a trip to the emergency room and hospitalization.
“Just before half-time of the semi-final first leg of the Champions League Juventus-Monaco (4-1, April 1, 1998), (Angelo) Di Livio gave me a blow on the temple which sent me for several days at the Turin hospital. A gas factory. I find myself in a room of four or five”,
he remembered in the columns of L’Equipe. But if he remained marked by this mishap, it is also because of the class of the Turin players, Zinedine Zidane and Didier Deschamps in the lead.
“The big class”
“(Zinédine) Zidane, (Didier) Deschamps, Di Livio and (Alessandro) Del Piero came to see me. The wife of a guy who had just had surgery couldn’t believe her eyes. She kept shaking him, but he couldn’t wake up from his anesthesia.”he continued, adding:
“Deschamps arranged for Cathy, my wife, to change hotels and lent her his phone. Zidane asked her if she needed to go shopping. Juve is great class.”
When naming the strongest player he has met, the former defender did not cite Zidane, but rather David Ginola. “Tall, strong, he was complete in every way, both in physical combat and technical ease. With very good ball coverage, we had to go around to take the ball from him”he explained, also quoting David Beckham: “He wasn’t an exceptional player, but suddenly he went behind your back and you didn’t see anything. »
