Owen Hargreaves has revealed he was ‘devastated’ to be dropped by Bayern Munich after serving to England to a 5-1 win at his membership stadium in 2001.
England had crushed Germany within the group stage of the earlier yr’s Euros, however when the Three Lions made the journey to Munich for a World Cup qualifier in September 2001, they’d not crushed them on German soil since 1965.
There have been additionally fairly a couple of excessive profile defeats nonetheless niggling on the English psyche. Dietmar Hamann had scored the last-ever purpose on the previous Wembley to present Germany victory simply the earlier yr, whereas England has suffered penalty heartbreak at German palms within the 1990 World Cup and Euro 96 semi-finals.
Hargreaves: ‘I used to be a younger man who had skilled this well-known win in his residence city, however I additionally blamed it for ending up on the bench at Bayern’
England appeared set for one more depressing night time in Munich after Carsten Jancker put the hosts forward after simply six minutes.
However Michael Owen equalised quickly after and Steven Gerrard struck on the stroke of half time to present Sven-Goran Eriksson’s aspect the benefit at half time.
Michael Owen scored a hat-trick in England 5-1 overcome Germany in Munich (Picture credit score: Alamy)
Owen made it 3-1 inside minutes of the restart earlier than finishing his hat-trick on 66 minutes, with one other Liverpool teammate, Emile Heskey, scoring to spherical off a 5-1 victory.
Having damaged into Bayern’s first group the earlier season Hargreaves got here off the bench for his second England cap only a few minutes after Heskey acquired the fifth, with the Canadian-born midfielder changing into the primary participant to seem for England with out ever having lived within the nation.
That capped an unimaginable yr for the then-20 yr previous – but in addition led Bayern to use the brakes barely thereafter.
Hargreaves informed FourFourTwo: “That was a wild time for me. We’d simply gained the Champions League closing with Bayern, I used to be enjoying for the primary group commonly and I acquired referred to as as much as play for the England group, so I used to be flying.
Owen Hargreaves gained the Champions League with Bayern Munich in his first season as a senior participant (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
“That sport was an odd one from a private perspective, as I used to be residing in Munich and had been trying ahead to the sport, hoping I’d get on.
“We battered Germany 5-1 and I truly acquired dropped by Bayern after that win.
“I don’t assume it was something petty – I feel they simply thought it was all going a bit too quick for me and I wanted to chill down. However I used to be devastated as I’d been on this nice run.
“So, I had combined emotions. I used to be a younger man who had skilled this well-known win in his residence city, however I additionally blamed it for ending up on the bench.”
Owen Hargreaves went on to develop into one in every of England’s most necessary gamers (Picture credit score: PA)
Hargreaves quickly regained his place at Bayern, nonetheless, and went on to assist them to 3 extra league title earlier than becoming a member of Manchester United in 2007.
Hargreaves performed an element in serving to Sir Alex Ferguson’s aspect win the league title and Champions League in his first season on the membership, however struggled with repeated accidents thereafter and hung up his boots in 2012.
Owen Hargreaves was chatting with FourFourTwo on behalf of TNT Sports activities.
