was predicted. But what could not have been foreseen was the
manner of their victory. Two goals in injury-time by
substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer handed
them a victory every bit as remarkable as their first
European Cup at Wembley win 31 years earlier.
Yet the start for United could hardly have been worse. The
game was merely heading towards the fifth minute when
Bayern's giant striker Carsten Jancker burst towards the
opposing penalty area only to be unceremoniously brought
down by Ronny Johnsen's tackle some 19 yards out on the
left.
As the Germans loitered over the free-kick, United arranged
a long wall into which Markus Babbel infiltrated.
As Mario Basler hammered his shot towards the crimson
sentries, Babbel appeared to peel off backwards, taking the
end of the wall with him and the ball fizzed around the
defensive line with Peter Schmeichel, in his final game for
United, left angrily rooted to the spot as it hit the net.
Neither the United players nor the fans could believe they
were losing. After all the hope they had invested in this
tie, was defeat going to be the reality? About half the
giant bowl of the 90,000 capacity Nou Camp wallpapered red
by United supporters, a colourful backdrop made even bolder
by Alex Ferguson's starting line-up.
In the absence of the suspended Roy Keane and Paul Scholes,
the United manager took a huge gamble in this, without doubt
the most important game of his life, by risking David
Beckham alongside Nicky Butt in midfield.
The player constantly praised as the best crosser of the
ball in Europe and prior to the game rated by Pele as
currently the third best player in the world behind Rivaldo
and Zinedine Zidane, has filled this central role hardly at
all in his career and just once this season - in last
Saturday's FA Cup final.
But the move did not entail just one risk. To accommodate
Beckham's switch, Ryan Giggs was relocated to an equally
unfamiliar position on the right wing, and the squad player
Jesper Blomqvist brought in on the left.
Going a goal behind so early offered an even stiffer test of
the effectiveness of Ferguson's brave redesign. But slowly,
as they have done so many times before, United worked their
way into the game.
Andy Cole bundled a shot under pressure just wide and Dwight
Yorke met Beckham's ball to the near post with a turn and
shot which the Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn rushed to punch
away. But the difficulty of United's task was frequently
exposed. Beckham is great going forward but when, on 29
minutes he was naively dispossessed by Jens Jeremies just
inside the Bayern half, the ensuing counter-attack ended
with Alexander Zickler shooting just wide of Schmeichel's
goal.
Johnsen, preferred in central defence to midfield, proved an
unexpectedly wobbly compatriot for Jaap Stam, while
Blomqvist was also fitting uneasily into the United
reshuffle, not only leaving the left side virtually a cross-
free zone but directing too many passes to players in grey.
But Ferguson's team were pressing for the equaliser even if
they were not getting very far. The closest to a chance
early on in the second half fell, actually, to Blomqvist,
whose outstretched foot directed a deep cross from the right
over the bar.
But Bayern's well-organised and quick-witted side always
remained a danger as United pushed forward. Not for the
first time Jancker ran uninterrupted into the area only to
see his acute-angled shot shovelled away by Schmeichel and
then Basler nearly chipped the keeper from the halfway line
before Stefan Effenberg blasted just wide from 25 yards and
forced Schmeichel to tip over from close range shortly
after.
A United change was inevitable and on 67 minutes the
ineffective Blomqvist made way for Saturday's man of the
match Sheringham. And twice Bayern could have stretched
their lead as shots rebounded from the United woodwork.
Bayern would regret those misses as they missed a chance of
their own Treble.