Wes Brown Says Zinedine Zidane Made Him Question His Career Choice

Ah, one of Real Madrid’s most famous and breathtaking Champions League ties in club history: A 6 - 5 aggregate victory over Manchester United in the 2003 Champions League quarter-finals.

Wes Brown, who was chasing shadows in that tie, remembers how difficult it was to mark Zinedine Zidane. In the latest issue of FourFourTwo, Brown said: “He was on the left and I was at right-back, so I’m sort of marking him,”

“We lost 3-1 and it was one of those games where I could say, ‘I didn’t do anything’. If I moved up into midfield, he’d just run past me and I was in no man’s land.”

If you remember, Kiyan Sobhani, Matt Wiltse, and Gabe Lezra recently broke down the 3 - 1 win in the first leg on the Managing Madrid Podcast. It was, to this day, as Kiyan Sobhani puts it “One of Real Madrid’s most beautiful displays of football”.

Zidane was possessed that night: