With a hat-trick, Faustino Asprilla gave Newcastle unforgettable victory by Champions League.
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A day like today, September 17, 1997, Faustino 'Tino' Asprilla wrote Colombia's name in one of the most memorable episodes of world football.
It was not one or two, There were three goals that scored Barcelona In the Champions League of that year, On a magical night that serves today as a previous duel between both teams this Thursday, September 18.
Newcastle remembered it with a message on networks: “The iconic Hat-Tork of Tino Asprilla against Barcelona, his rival of the next day, in St. James' Park, a day like today, but 1997!”
The night in which the tino consecrated in England
That day, Tino signed one of the best individual performances of his career. He shone with all his talent against Barcelona in Rivaldo, Figo and Luis Enrique.
Asprilla did what was struck. The first goal scored it to the 22nd minute with a penalty that he manufactured, sanctioned by the Italian Pierluigi Collina. In an interview with the UEFA, the former Deliverero recalled how that there was already created:
“From the first minute I showed Barcelona that I was for great things that day. Seeing that none of my colleagues had the courage to go to grab the ball and say: 'I kicked,' everyone looked at each other and I decided to take the ball. When I see that the goalkeeper throws himself, I throw it a little further to the side and, although he manages to touch the ball, It was impossible for him to stop him”.
The second score came just nine minutes later. At 31 ', The tino rose inside the area to connect a center from the right. Asprilla was very present to his great partner of that night, Keith Gillespie, author of the centers in 2-0 and 3-0.
“Keith Gillespie was one of the fastest players I saw, he reached the background and focused, he didn't stop looking. When I see that he throws the center I get upI jumped and suddenly finished straight with a very violent force and the ball entered the goalkeeper, ”he recalled.
The third goal was almost a copy of the secondalready in the complement: another ball to the area, another spectacular jump of the tino and again the ball at the bottom of the network. On that 3-0, practically traced, Asprilla explained: “I make a threat to Nadal that I am going to the first stick and when the defender comes out, I went back to him, I look at the goalkeeper and I put it right at the point where I wanted”.
“I no longer paid a drink in the city”: Tino Asprilla
That exhibition was forever recorded in the Colombian's memory: “Marking a hat-trick in the Champions League was not absolutely easy. After the game ended I realized the game, not before. That is nice, once your sports career ends you have these things you achieved. ”
Not even Luis Enrique and Figo's goals, who approached Barça on the scoreboard, They could overshadow the madness that was lived in St. James' Park with the historic 3-2.
Asprilla himself recalled in several interviews the magnitude of that night. “I was not aware of what I had done until the end of the game and days later, then I no longer paid a drink in the cityeveryone wanted to talk about the game with me, ”said the Tino for the Daily Mail.
He added that “I thought that game was not going to play it because days before the club fined me for not attending a team meeting. When the coach said my name with the starting eleven, it surprised me a lot, but it was one of the most important matches in the club's history: the first in the Champions League. ”
And between laughs, he did not hesitate to remember the atmosphere that was lived in the city: “There were many beautiful women in Newcastle. I often set up parties in my house and told the girls that Ginola was coming. Then they asked me: 'Where is Ginola?'“.
Twenty -seven years later, Newcastle will appeal to the spirit of Asprilla, who will be in the stadium, to face Barcelona again at the Champions League.
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