Diego Forlan: My advice to Real Madrid and Juve players ahead of Champions League final — get some sleep

In his column this week, Diego Forlan looks ahead to the Uefa Champions League final and provides some insight from his experiences of major finals.

Juventus players take part in training ahead of the Uefa Champions League final in Cardiff, Wales on Saturday. Alessandro Di Marco / EPA

Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. Forlan's column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.

I have never been in a Uefa Champions League final, but I have played in some huge football games: the Copa America final, Europa League final, Copa del Rey final, European Super Cup and a World Cup semi-final.

I also played in the Champions League semi-final with Manchester United and Villarreal. Had Bayer Leverkusen’s Diego Placente not saved a shot off the line in the final minutes of the 2002 semi-final, I would have played in a Champions League final too, but football is full of what ifs.

The Real Madrid and Juventus players who will compete in Saturday’s Champions League final in Cardiff are all hugely talented and experienced but they will have different ways of containing any pre-match nerves.

It is normal for a player to feel anxious before a huge game, but not too much. If nerves undo you then you are unlikely to make it as a top footballer.

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But for the biggest games you know that everyone is talking about it and preparing to watch it. That adds pressure and I would find it difficult to sleep properly before those matches.

Before a big match my head would be full of too many thoughts, I would be playing the game in my mind; I struggled to get any sleep. It did not help me, so I changed my pattern to a way that did.

I would stay awake until two or three in the morning the night before the match and then wake up at 8am.

I would then be tired enough to have a sleep for an hour or two — an hour was the minimum I needed — on the afternoon of the game.

I did other things, too, like not read newspapers or look on social media. That was not going to help me in any way and could wait until after the game.

With experience, I became better at preparing, but I would still get butterflies in my stomach before the match. You have that confidence from playing well, like Cristiano Ronaldo or Paulo Dybala have now, but minor doubts, too.

I would try to suppress them, but by the time any footballer gets to May he is likely not to be 100 per cent fit.

He will have picked up niggles, muscle strains or knocks from tackles.

It is part of the wear and tear of being a footballer, but you cannot focus too much on any minor injuries, especially during the game. If you do that, the game will pass you by. The 90 minutes passes quickly enough as it is.

One of the biggest games I played in was the 2010 Europa League final, the start of a spell that saw Atletico Madrid winning trophies.

We played Fulham in Hamburg and our preparations were disrupted by an Icelandic volcano erupting, causing havoc all over Europe.

That meant we left a day earlier and that was a blessing as we were away from Madrid, where all the talk was of the game.

We were isolated, away from the centre of Hamburg, free to train, rest and relax and concentrate on our jobs. It worked.

I did not think too much about who I would be playing against in the biggest matches because you already know they are going to be top quality.

Better to focus on your own game, but it is sometimes easier said that done.

I have looked around the dressing room before all the biggest games I have played in. The players have to be at a high level to be playing in such games, but maybe the inexperienced ones are nervous.

I advise young players to start the game with a simple pass to help get their confidence up, not to try to hit a cross-field pass with a greater risk of losing possession. Do that and you are chasing your confidence from the start.

You can gain confidence from other players. It was raining in Hamburg and the pitch was slippery, fast.

In the first minutes of the game someone shot the ball and it was going high towards David de Gea’s goal. It was a difficult ball and he was in a good position to catch it.

It would have been easier to touch the ball over and send it out for a corner. De Gea jumped really high and caught the ball with both hands.

In that moment, from the other side of the pitch, I knew that we were going to be all right with our goalkeeper, and we were. When the game starts, your enjoyment all depends on the result.

There is no such thing as feeling good after playing well but being on the losing side.

Confidence, winning and enjoyment are intertwined. In Hamburg I scored both our goals as we won in extra time.

I got man of the match, too.

Of course I loved that night, as I did when Uruguay won the Copa America and I scored.

Losing in the Copa del Rey final and the World Cup semi-final were not great nights.

You would rather have not been there than lose, even though it is an achievement to reach a final.

I will be eagerly watching the game in Cardiff. It would be wonderful for Gianluigi Buffon to close his career with a European Cup and I do feel that this Juventus team deserves the trophy after missing out in 2015.

Football is a ruthless business, it’s not about sentiment and Madrid have all the motivation they need in trying to become the first team to retain the trophy in the Champions League era. I hope they all sleep well on Friday night.

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