Manchester United legend Teddy Sheringham has reflected on that magical moment at the Camp Nou in 1999.
Ahead of the Reds’ trip to Barcelona this week, the prolific striker has looked back on that record-making game that saw United cement their status as one of the greatest clubs in history – as well as the best in England.
The Reds had already lifted the Premier League and FA Cup heading into the Champions League final against Bayern Munich. The Germans took a 1-0 lead, which they held until injury time. Punters can only imagine pulling off such a triumph, although it is possible with Slot88.
Sheringham netted an equalising goal before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer secured the victory and sealed off United’s treble-winning campaign – an achievement that is yet to be reached by any other English side.
Speaking on the Utd Podcast, Sheringham said: “I think I’ve told this story 15,000 times. People want to tell me where they were when they were watching it. Whether they smashed the lights out in their bedroom. Or they were watching in a bar in South Africa with a load of Germans. They want to hear my story and they want to tell me theirs.
“That’s the beauty and the history of scoring goals in cup finals. People talk about money and how much you’ve got at the end of your career but it isn’t about that. It’s about moments that you aspire to have when you’re growing up, practising and kicking the ball against a wall.
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“You think then, ‘I hope I do this in a cup final at some stage. I hope I do it in a Champions League final. I’ve watched all these other players do it and one day that might be me.’ And I’ve done it, I was there and now we can pass on the excitement and the buzz of what it felt like. “[People say] ‘Go on, tell me how it felt Ted.’ This is how it felt.
“Becks puts the corner into the box, it goes to the far post and Yorkie tries to head it back into the box. [Peter] Schmeichel’s up there so you know we’re running out of time. [Stefan] Effenberg tries to hit it out as hard as he can but he shanks it and it’s fallen to Giggsy on his right foot, and I thought, ‘This could go anywhere.’ I bet he [Ryan Giggs] was thinking that too! Luckily for us, he scuffed it along the floor, I had a swing at it, it came off about here – off the sock – and screwed into the bottom corner.
“I was on a half-turn from where Giggsy was, and there was a fella on the line. As Giggsy shot, he [the defender] was jogging up so by the time the ball got to me, the linesman could have made a bad decision and thought that I was offside. As I’ve scuffed it in, I’ve thought to myself, ‘Please don’t put your flag up, linesman.’
“As I wheeled away to celebrate, I just had a quick look over my shoulder and saw that his flag was still down. And it was like ‘Wow, let’s go nuts! Me and Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] actually had a conversation getting back to the halfway line and we said, ‘Brilliant! We’re going to have another half-hour.’ He loved playing football as much as I did, so we were just thinking we’re going to have another half-hour in the Camp Nou, playing on this stage, in this setting. We were both buzzing about that. We were like a pair of kids excited for our first game of football.
“Little did we know that half a minute later, Ole’s gone down the left wing, he’s tried to whip a ball in, it hits the defender and goes out for a corner. I can see Becks running across [to take it]. Now I’m obviously feeling ten feet tall, I’ve just scored the equaliser in the Champions League final. I was thinking, ‘Becks, just put it in an area where you know I want to attack the ball and I’ll jump above anybody. I’m ready, I’m buzzing.’ I’m tingling with the thought of it, I’ve just scored one, I’m going to score another, go on!
“As he’s run up to take it, I take my defender away to make him think I’m going to the far post and then make a hard run towards the near post. ‘Put it in there, Becks!’ And he’s put it in a beautiful area. As I’m running to get up, I’ve jumped and I want to head it back inside the near post. You talk about the instincts of what goes on in a footballer’s mind, and I instinctively thought, if I head it there for that near post, I’m up that slightly too early and it’s going to go over the bar. So all I can do is flick it on to the far post and hope that someone’s there.
“I didn’t want to waste that opportunity and so it was ‘bump, head it into that area’ and out of the corner of my eye, as I’m falling away, I see Ole poke it into the top corner. It was like ‘Oh my God! Let’s go!’ And he ran to the same place that I ran to. All the players came over, all the subs came over, in front of the Man United fans and it was like ‘can you believe what we’ve just done?”
