The motivation for Sébastien Pocognoli to defeat Newcastle United in his club’s first-ever home Champions League game runs deep.
It was May 2017, and the last minute of the final game of the season, when word spread like wildfire around St James’ Park of a goal some 200 miles south at Villa Park. Jack Grealish had just bent in a 25-yard shot against Brighton & Hove Albion, an equaliser that handed Newcastle United the Championship title.
Brighton had led Newcastle by seven points with three games remaining, scarves with “champions” had been made and sold, but that Grealish goal took the title from their hands, right at the death.
When the ball struck the net Pocognoli, on loan at Brighton from West Bromwich Albion, was on the edge of the six-yard area and he covered his eyes. For the left back, who had won a Dutch league title with AZ Alkmaar nearly ten years earlier, it marked the end of a largely forgettable three years in England.
Pocognoli, left, in his playing days for Brighton, which ended in Championship title heartache after Aston Villa scored a late equaliser on the final day of the 2016-17 season
