It may have taken him 18 years but Swansea boss Francesco Guidolin is hoping to finally get his revenge on Mark Hughes at Stoke today.
The Italian was in charge of Vicenza when they were cruelly denied a famous European Cup Winners Cup semi-final victory over Chelsea.
Hughes’ spectacular strike with just 14 minutes left snatched a 3-2 aggregate victory for the Blues who went on to beat Stuttgart in the final in 1998.
Guidolin, 60, admitted: “That is a painful memory because it was an extraordinary situation for a little club like Vicenza to have the chance to win an international cup.
“We won the first leg 1-0 in Vicenza, we were 1-0 up in the second leg and then we had a goal disallowed. Then they came back.
“It was a very spectacular goal from Mark. It was a long ball from the keeper, he controlled it and hit it with his left foot.
“There is still some pain there. Maybe I owe Mark for this defeat, maybe revenge.
“But I remember him as a player, he was very good, an important striker and now he is a good manager.
“He has done very well at Stoke and I am happy for him.
“Mark has brought in some very good players like Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Arnautovic, Bojan, and Ibrahim Afellay.
“He understands their characteristics and lets them play as they like.”
The Swans are 15th and 10 points above the drop zone with just seven games left after picking up nine points from the last 12.
But Guidolin insists they have to show the same mentality they displayed against Aston Villa in their last game if they want to complete their Premier League survival mission.
He added: “I remember after the Villa game looking into their eyes at the end of the match and seeing that they had suffered a lot.
“In the games before we were in the position where we had to win and we had to play in the right mentality. We had to win and that was it.
“That is very difficult and now we have to think again because we have 36 points and the season is not finished. It will not be enough.
“The mentality has to be that we are playing in a cup final every match. We need that concentration, that focus and to play well for the win.”
