2 interesting articles about Manchester United. the one of 1999 and 2001 respectively.
Manchester United 2-1 Bayern Munich, Champions league final, May 26 1999, Nou Camp
English football fans brought up in an age when the German national team was, if not all conquering, then certainly one of the dominant international sides, could be forgiven for raising a smile at the site of Carsten Jancker, Lothar Matthaus et al slumped on the Nou Camp turf crying like 10 year-old-girls on hearing the news of the disbanding of Take That.
All the portents were right for United. The game fell on what would have been Sir Matt Busby's 90th birthday, it was Peter Schmeichel's final match for the club and the opponents were a team from Munich, a city etched painfully into the history of the club.
Yet Bayern Munich had held a one goal advantage from as early as the sixth minute after Mario Basler had put them ahead. Defending adroitly and looking the more likely of the two sides to score again, they appeared to be on the way to a fourth, and deserved, Champions Cup as the clock ticked past the regulation 90 minutes. Bayern had struck woodwork through Mehmet Scholl and Jancker in the 78th and 83rd minute. Either would have settled it; but United lived to fight on.
With United having failed to bring their swashbuckling style of the earlier rounds to the final - there was no Paul Scholes or Roy Keane on the pitch to arrest the malaise - it looked all over for them. Bayern colours were on the cup - literally.
But then the intervention of substitutes turned the game decisively on its head. Teddy Sheringham had already been thrown on; he was joined by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer; then off went Matthaus and Basler as Bayern decided to shut up shop. Big mistake.
The fourth official's board showed three minutes of stoppage time as United summoned a desperate, late push. A corner from Beckham wasn't properly cleared, Giggs miss-hit his shot from outside the box but Sheringham, from six yards, directed it goalwards. So, extra-time? Golden goals? Penalties? Not a bit of it.
Moments later, another corner was swung over, Sheringham rose highest and flicked it on to where Solskjaer, un-marked, stuck out a leg and scored one of the most famous goals in United's history.
An emotional Alex Ferguson summed it up best: 'The most important factor was the spirit of the team, they just never give in, they don't know how to. A manager can talk about tactics, but if the players can't bring that inner beast out of them then he's wasting his time. Well, they've got that beast inside them and found it when it mattered.'
---
Spurs 3 - Manchester United 5, FA Premier League, White Heart Lane, 29 September 2001
Sir Alex Ferguson's famous hairdryer was possibly upgraded to a blow-torch when he delivered his half-time team-talk to his troops in the White Heart Lane dressing room. The Premiership champions had been comprehensively outplayed and outmuscled by Glen Hoddle's Spurs who were good value for a 3-0 half-time lead.
Dean Richards, a now laughable £8.1 million acquisition from Southampton, scored with a near post header 15 minutes into his Tottenham career before Les Ferdinand benefited from a botched offside trap to lash a fine finish past the hopelessly unprotected Fabian Barthez.
With United falling apart even best buddies David Beckham and Gary Neville could be seen pointing accusatory fingers in each other's direction, not to mention some barely disguised invective hurled the same way, after Christian Ziege became the latest beneficiary of United's largesse; Gus Poyet given time and space to measure a deep cross to the German.
What Ferguson told to - or, more likely, spat at - his players we do not know. What we do know is it worked.
Mikael Silvestre replaced Dennis Irwin on the left, Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer came on for Nicky Butt and greater attacking impetus was given to the visitors.
United needed a quick response and they got one less than a minute after the restart when Andy Cole headed home from a Neville cross. On the hour it was 3-2. Laurent Blanc headed in a David Beckham corner and, though the home team still held a lead, there was only going to be one winner from here on in. The equaliser duly arrived after 72 minutes, when Cole supplied Silvestre, whose cross from the left presented Ruud van Nistelrooy with the simple task of putting away United's third headed goal of the afternoon.
Juan Sebastian Veron gave United the lead for the first time with a sweetly struck left-footed strike from the edge of the box four minutes later before a bedazzled and shell-shocked Neil Sullivan was required to fetch the ball from his net for a fifth and final time thanks to a wonderful, blistering shot from Beckham.
The very epitome of a game of two halves, the breathless glory of United's play after the interval was in stark contrast to their haphazard and slipshod opening period. 'Remarkable, absolutely remarkable,' enthused Sir Alex Ferguson, who described the victory as the best his team had achieved outside Old Trafford. 'It might not have been too good for the blood pressure but I'll be able to look back on this day and remember it vividly for the rest of my life.'
Manchester United 2-1 Bayern Munich, Champions league final, May 26 1999, Nou Camp
English football fans brought up in an age when the German national team was, if not all conquering, then certainly one of the dominant international sides, could be forgiven for raising a smile at the site of Carsten Jancker, Lothar Matthaus et al slumped on the Nou Camp turf crying like 10 year-old-girls on hearing the news of the disbanding of Take That.
All the portents were right for United. The game fell on what would have been Sir Matt Busby's 90th birthday, it was Peter Schmeichel's final match for the club and the opponents were a team from Munich, a city etched painfully into the history of the club.
Yet Bayern Munich had held a one goal advantage from as early as the sixth minute after Mario Basler had put them ahead. Defending adroitly and looking the more likely of the two sides to score again, they appeared to be on the way to a fourth, and deserved, Champions Cup as the clock ticked past the regulation 90 minutes. Bayern had struck woodwork through Mehmet Scholl and Jancker in the 78th and 83rd minute. Either would have settled it; but United lived to fight on.
With United having failed to bring their swashbuckling style of the earlier rounds to the final - there was no Paul Scholes or Roy Keane on the pitch to arrest the malaise - it looked all over for them. Bayern colours were on the cup - literally.
But then the intervention of substitutes turned the game decisively on its head. Teddy Sheringham had already been thrown on; he was joined by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer; then off went Matthaus and Basler as Bayern decided to shut up shop. Big mistake.
The fourth official's board showed three minutes of stoppage time as United summoned a desperate, late push. A corner from Beckham wasn't properly cleared, Giggs miss-hit his shot from outside the box but Sheringham, from six yards, directed it goalwards. So, extra-time? Golden goals? Penalties? Not a bit of it.
Moments later, another corner was swung over, Sheringham rose highest and flicked it on to where Solskjaer, un-marked, stuck out a leg and scored one of the most famous goals in United's history.
An emotional Alex Ferguson summed it up best: 'The most important factor was the spirit of the team, they just never give in, they don't know how to. A manager can talk about tactics, but if the players can't bring that inner beast out of them then he's wasting his time. Well, they've got that beast inside them and found it when it mattered.'
---
Spurs 3 - Manchester United 5, FA Premier League, White Heart Lane, 29 September 2001
Sir Alex Ferguson's famous hairdryer was possibly upgraded to a blow-torch when he delivered his half-time team-talk to his troops in the White Heart Lane dressing room. The Premiership champions had been comprehensively outplayed and outmuscled by Glen Hoddle's Spurs who were good value for a 3-0 half-time lead.
Dean Richards, a now laughable £8.1 million acquisition from Southampton, scored with a near post header 15 minutes into his Tottenham career before Les Ferdinand benefited from a botched offside trap to lash a fine finish past the hopelessly unprotected Fabian Barthez.
With United falling apart even best buddies David Beckham and Gary Neville could be seen pointing accusatory fingers in each other's direction, not to mention some barely disguised invective hurled the same way, after Christian Ziege became the latest beneficiary of United's largesse; Gus Poyet given time and space to measure a deep cross to the German.
What Ferguson told to - or, more likely, spat at - his players we do not know. What we do know is it worked.
Mikael Silvestre replaced Dennis Irwin on the left, Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer came on for Nicky Butt and greater attacking impetus was given to the visitors.
United needed a quick response and they got one less than a minute after the restart when Andy Cole headed home from a Neville cross. On the hour it was 3-2. Laurent Blanc headed in a David Beckham corner and, though the home team still held a lead, there was only going to be one winner from here on in. The equaliser duly arrived after 72 minutes, when Cole supplied Silvestre, whose cross from the left presented Ruud van Nistelrooy with the simple task of putting away United's third headed goal of the afternoon.
Juan Sebastian Veron gave United the lead for the first time with a sweetly struck left-footed strike from the edge of the box four minutes later before a bedazzled and shell-shocked Neil Sullivan was required to fetch the ball from his net for a fifth and final time thanks to a wonderful, blistering shot from Beckham.
The very epitome of a game of two halves, the breathless glory of United's play after the interval was in stark contrast to their haphazard and slipshod opening period. 'Remarkable, absolutely remarkable,' enthused Sir Alex Ferguson, who described the victory as the best his team had achieved outside Old Trafford. 'It might not have been too good for the blood pressure but I'll be able to look back on this day and remember it vividly for the rest of my life.'
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