Peter Schmeichel reflects on Charlton away from 1999 in new book

Arsenal in the semi-final. We were neck and neck in the league and the build-up was all about our rivalry. Whoever wins the cup tie will win the league, the media said – and internally we shared that feeling. It went to a replay which began with Teddy holding off close markers and setting up David for a brilliant strike, and then you couldn’t take your eyes off the game. There were incidents everywhere. Seaman made an exceptional save from Ole, Dennis Bergkamp equalised via a deflection and I made a bad mistake, fumbling a shot for Nicolas Anelka to score – he was off side, thankfully.

Roy got red-carded for two bookings. Arsenal had the momentum. In stoppage time, Phil Neville tripped Ray Parlour – never our favourite player – and Bergkamp had a penalty to win it. In the moment, I did not understand that everything was on the line, there and then. I thought there were ten minutes left or something. I hadn’t seen the board for stoppage time go up. I thought that, even if Bergkamp scored, we would have time to chase an equaliser.

Bergkamp was a great footballer, but in that moment I did not care who he was. With penalties, I never thought about the taker, never researched what side he liked to put it and all that. My approach was to focus not on my opponent but on me: that way, I put myself in control, not them. I would make a clear decision about which way I was going to dive and stick to it, so that it was my call, my responsibility, about me. And there was my arrogance – or rather, the conscious way I used arrogance as a tool. Don’t look at the taker. Treat them like air. Act superior. Let them know: if you want to score against me, you have to be at your best.
Bergkamp put the ball to the side where I was diving, at a nice height, and I pushed it away. Players came to congratulate me, but if you look at the footage I’m screaming at them to go away. Guys, guys, the ball is in play, get upfield. I was surprised when the ref blew for full time straight away. And so we plunged into extra time: the FA Cup and probably the Premier League, thirty minutes, us or them.  

FA Cup semi-final replays were scrapped after 1999 and I think Andy Gray said in commentary that if Ryan Gigg’s winner was the last semi-final-replay goal we would ever see then so be it, because his goal will be up there with all the goals we talk about until the end of time. I had the perfect view. As soon as he collected Vieira’s stray pass in our own half, I could see something was happening. It was the way he ran, the purpose in his movements, the acceleration with which he set off – with Arsenal stretched.

It was a killer sniffing blood. Ryan bobbed past the first man, Lee Dixon, then wove past the second, the covering Vieira. Then when Dixon got back, Ryan went past him again. He left Martin Keown on his backside, then veered away from Tony Adams. We played with Mitre balls in the FA Cup, which weren’t great, and it was a bumpy pitch, yet Ryan just flew across the ground. Seaman was fantastic across the whole semi-final and beating him took something special. But Ryan just blasts it – over his head into the top of the net. What a goal. Crazy good. ‘Hey, boys . . . ten more wins!’