“IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I’VE ENJOYED FOOTBALL THE LAST SIX MONTHS HAVE BEEN SO DIFFICULT”
The tunnel can feel lonely. It’s a place for reflection before a match, as you tune out the clink of studs in the darkness and rumble of expectation from outside. It’s lonelier still if the opponents you’re sharing it with are arguably the greatest side of all time.
In February 2011, Barcelona were the visitors in north London. Jack Wilshere was just 19 years old, breathing deeply, but already an Arsenal regular in a team full of 20-somethings. To his right, looking a little more relaxed, were seven World Cup winners in the opposition’s starting XI. That didn’t even include Lionel Messi, Ballon d’Or holder for the last two years, and who didn’t even swing a glance at Wilshere. You’d forgive the midfielder’s heart for racing a little quicker.
“I remember looking over at the likes of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta – I was so nervous,” Wilshere tells FourFourTwo, gazing into the distance as he returns to that famous night. “These were guys I’d seen win the Champions League just two years earlier. They were the best team in the world.”
That much was true, an understatement even – but as Wilshere discovered, the very best could be ruffled.
“There was a moment about 30 minutes in where I made a tackle on Andres Iniesta,” he recalls. “We were 1-0 down at the time and the whole crowd lifted. It really brought us back to life.”
Up to then, fear had seemed to squeeze all 10 of Wilshere’s team-mates too. Barça were toying with the young Gunners and had taken the lead through David Villa’s ice-cool finish, before that crunching tackle on Iniesta gave fans something
