Shevchenko admits to waking up 'screaming in the night' after Istanbul and blames Ancelotti for not making a tactical change... 😳

Seems it really affected the lad who fluffed the final penalty...

Andriy Shevchenko has spoken openly about the infamous 2005 Champions League Final, in which he missed the decisive penalty.

The Italians had a 3-0 lead, but in six crazy second-half minutes, we fought back to make it 3-3, then somehow held off in injury-time and won the shootout.

It left Sheva with some serious scars from which he never really recovered.

“It bothers me that they said that we were carried away by the euphoria. Maldini said at half-time to be careful,” Shevchenko said.

“The first months after the final I would wake up screaming in the middle of the night thinking about it.

“Now that I am a coach I think about it. In those minutes in which we scored three goals…it is not a criticism of Ancelotti but I would have stopped the game, changed someone.”

We feel no pleasure at hearing these honest quotes. After all, they mirror much of what Steven Gerrard said about the mental fallout from his slip against Chelsea.

It’s football - a physical game fuelled by emotion - and players should be congratulated for speaking so honestly about it - the good, and the bad.