22 years ago France beat Italy in the Euro 2000 final and Thierry Henry gave the likes of Alessandro Nesta and Fabio Cannavaro a torrid night.
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During his career, plenty of defences would have been given a going over by Henry, rightly considered as one of the greatest players in the history of the Premier League.
However, few defences are quite as legendary as the Italian pairing of Nesta and Cannavaro, who played in an era when Italian clubs dominated Europe.
The national team didn't quite live up to the standards of the club teams winning in the Champions League, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup in the 90s and early 00s but they did reach the final of Euro 2000.
There they met world champions France, who'd taken the title by winning the World Cup on home soil two years earlier, and on the night they met Henry in glorious form.
A video of the Arsenal legend terrorising the defence has gone viral, and it's incredible what he was doing at just 22-years-old, and how many fouls are needed to stop him.
22 year-old Thierry Henry terrorising Canavarro, Nesta and the whole Italy defence during the final of Euro 2000 🤩 pic.twitter.com/ho1CXp2QUr
— Gilles 🇳🇬🏴 (@_Grimanditweets) June 30, 2022
Somehow, despite all his fancy footwork, running and brilliant ability, it wasn't actually Henry who scored in the final, having scored three times up until that point.
In fact, up until injury time, it looked like he would end up on the losing team, after Italy had taken the lead through Roma forward Marco Delvecchio in the 55th minute.
Time was running out when Sylvain Wiltord struck in the 94th minute of the match and then, for the only time in its short history, golden goal decided a major international tournament.
The rule, that meant the first goal scored in extra time ended the game, wasn't used for very long but David Trezeguet's 103rd minute strike meant it went down in history.
It also made France the first team to win the Euros whilst being World Cup holders, although their era of dominance came to an end two years later, when they didn't make it out of the group stage at the following World Cup.
After years of brutalising defenders on the pitch, Henry is now not scared of going in on players off the pitch, in his role as a pundit on Champions League games.
Following the final in May, the former Barcelona star criticised Mohamed Salah for the Liverpool's forward revelation that he was out for revenge on Real Madrid.
Henry said the Egyptian should have waited till after the match to reveal his inspiration, following the English sides loss to the Spanish giants.
Featured Image Credit: Twitter
Topics: France, Italy, Arsenal, Thierry Henry
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