Arsenal and Barcelona were playing the Final in Paris, and with all those famous players on the field, no one would have figured that Juliano Belletti will be the one to make the difference.
Not even him. But the Barcelona defender came on the field with 19 minutes to go Wednesday and soon scored the deciding goal to give his team a 2-1 victory over 10-man Arsenal to win the Champions League.
We must remember that the Gunners, which played with 10 men from the 18th minute after goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was red-carded, took the lead in the 37th at Stade de France when defender Sol Campbell headed in the first goal.
African best player Samuel Eto'o tied the match for Barcelona in the 76th minute, and Belletti scored the winning goal in the 81st.In that play, Henrik Larsson found Belletti on the run, and the Brazilian charged through the English defence and sent his angled shot off replacement keeper Almunia and into the net for his first goal in a European competition.
"Scoring a goal in the Champions League is really hard for a full back," Belletti claims. "I thought this afternoon that perhaps I would have played, but I knew it was difficult. The Champions League is for all the persons who don't appear in the press. It is for everyone."
