Cremona crowns year with Euro title

Massimo Cremona became the first Maltese player ever to win the Champions League, a prestigious competition reserved for European clubs.

Cremona, currently ranked no.5 in the world, helped his team, F.illi Bari Reggiana, of Italy, to a stunning success in the competition which was played in Mattesburg, Austria, recently.

In the final, Cremona’s team beat host side TFC Mattesburg 7-5 on goal difference to clinch the club’s second European title in seven years.

It was third time lucky for Cremona after losing two Champions League finals, with the same Reggiana team, in 2005, and Perugia, in 2006.

In all, 18 teams, hailing from eight countries, took part in the Champions League.

Mattesburg, F.illi Bari Reggiana, Pisa and Perugia were ranked among favourites for the continental title.

Teams were split in two groups of eight with the top four from each section progressing to the knockout stages.

Reggiana won all their seven Group A matches beating Milano 2-1, Turia 4-0, Mattesburg 2-1, Hennuyer 3-1, Rochefort 3-0, Roligans 3-0 and Glide Slide 3-0.

However, things toughened up from the quarter-finals stage onwards as goal difference was needed for Reggiana to eliminate Austrian side Wiener Neustadt 9-6, after a 1-1 draw.

In the semi-finals, Reggiana were paired with Italian champions Perugia and again required goal difference (5-3) to advance to the final after a 2-2 draw. The final against Mattesburg was tight. In fact, goal difference (7-5) separated the two teams after a 1-1 draw for F.illi Bari Reggiana to be crowned Euro champions.

Cremona, who also has a World Cup winners’ medal for Malta, figured in all his team’s 10 matches.

The other players in the winning team’s line-up included Saverio Bari (captain), Marco Lamberti, Giancarlo Giulianini, Alessandro Corda and Carlos Flores, of Spain.

“This will be a year I will not forget easily,” Cremona said.

“In September, I was in the Malta team that won the world title and now this honour with my club F.illi Bari Reggiana. What more can I ask for?

“This competition was very close but we deserved to be crowned champions having beaten Mattesburg twice at their home and Perugia in the semis.

“As with Malta in the World Cup, from the quarter-finals onwards we always won on goal difference which shows the inner strength of this team.

“There’s so many people I would like to thank at this moment, not least my children, Christine and Michael. They always give me the motivation to carry on.”