The Frenchman directed the second leg: “I breathed a sigh of relief at Sheva’s goal, extra time would have been really difficult. Materazzi and Gattuso mumbled throughout the game, I can still hear their voices”
He puts the first point. “It was the most complicated match of my career.” Gilles Veissiere, 63, laughs it off and recounts the longest derby in the city of Milan with sharp shots. “I’ve overseen hundreds of matches, I can’t remember one so tense for players, coaches, managers and fans.” The Frenchman refereed the second leg of the Champions League semi-final between Inter and Milan at San Siro on 13 May 2003. That time too with the usual good-luck ritual: “To have more concentration, I spent the last few minutes before entering the field in the locker room, players names and numbers out loud. I couldn’t get anything wrong.”