April 21 – United Stun Juventus
WHILE Sir Alex Ferguson will be delighted when his team win the Premier League again this season (which they surely will), what would give the Scot greater pleasure would be to win the Champions League for a second time.
Despite United’s domination of domestic football in England they have under achieved in Europe, but on this day in 1999 they took a giant step towards winning the trophy when they beat Juventus in Italy in the semi final second leg to seal their place in the final.
The first leg at Old Trafford had ended 1-1 with Juve grabbing a precious away goal and things looked extremely bleak for United after just 11 minutes of play of the second leg after Filippo Inzaghi put the home side 2-0 up.
Thereafter the United players put in the game of their lives to seal a 3-2 win in the best comeback since Lazarus. Captain Roy Keane epitomised the spirit of the team with a virtuoso performance, including United’s opening goal. His display was even more impressive given that he was booked early on in the match meaning he would miss out on the final.
United’s equaliser came on 34 minutes from Dwight Yorke and with just nine minutes left they had the tie sewn up when Andy Cole netted the winner.
In a cracking game, Jaap Stam had to clear off the line for United, Inzaghi had a goal ruled out for offside, while both Denis Irwin and Dwight Yorke hit the post.
The result meant United were in the final for the first time since 1968, when Sir Matt Busby’s side won the trophy. They also became the first English club to reach the final in 14 years.
Bobby Charlton, a hero of 1968 game, paid tribute to the team, and said: “Everybody was fantastic tonight. Who would have thought after two down we’d come back like that?”
Most people probably thought that would be the best comeback United would muster in the competition that season but apparently they did rather well in the final against Bayern Munich, but that’s another story.
Here are some good highlights of the match in Turin with all the talking points, and we will be back tomorrow with more footballing blasts from the past.
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[...] only contribution to the annals of football history today, so check out what else he was up to here and join us tomorrow for more footballing [...]