Football Finals Quotes

It's very difficult to reach World Cup and Champions League finals and I want to experience those things again.

To be honest, I was never expecting to be in a World Cup final, a Euro final, a Champions League final, a Europa League final. I've done much more than I dreamt, and that's incredible.

It was my proudest moment as a manager when England drew 0-0 with Italy in Rome to qualify for the World Cup finals. Fifteen years later, the stakes are equally high for both countries as they go head-to-head for a semi-final place at the European Championship.

My first season at Liverpool had good moments but also bad ones. We played three tournaments and we played two finals, and that was good.

I won three FA Cup finals, two League Cup finals, and played in one of United's two Champions League-winning finals. But I lost in a lot of finals, too: the FA Cup in 1995, 2005 and 2007, the League Cup in 2003, and the Champions League in 2009 and 2011.

I played in the Champions League constantly for 12 or 13 years in my career, and I reached only two finals. I know how difficult it is to get to that point.

The truth is that I don't have a favourite goal. I remember important goals more than I do favourite goals, like goals in the Champions League where I had the opportunity to have scored in both finals I have played in. Finals in the World Cup or Copa del Rey are the ones that have stayed with me for longer or that I remember more.

Everyone goes on about Manchester United all the time, but they're just another team in the final. I don't see it as anything special.

There was a tremendous amount of disappointment in missing the World Cup finals in 1998, so they're getting excited about this one and I really think we could do well in the Far East.

I thought I was going to stay at City, but when a team like Lyon comes in for you, I think I'd have regretted it if I had said no to them. Not just because of making finals, but because of the players I get to play with every single day.

When I follow the finals of the European Cups, I look at all the aspects surrounding protocol, to get some ideas. I am interested in personalities, sponsors and the stands. But as soon as the whistle goes, it's all on the pitch.

In the World Cup finals, you're unlikely to meet a continental rival. In Copa America, you know they are just around the corner and that you will have to beat them to win the competition.

It was very painful to be so close to a World Cup final.

To be playing in FA Cup finals at Wembley is obviously a dream come true.

This is what playing football is all about - trying to reach finals and trying to lift trophies.

A burning ambition of mine is to take Scotland to a major tournament. It should be the pinnacle of any players' career to get to a World Cup finals with their country.

Not many players played in a World Cup and Champions League final.

I dreamt of playing in front of thousands of people as a kid, but I dreamt of playing in World Cup finals as well.