As mentioned in my “Name on the Trophy” blog from the other day, I’d recently discovered three e-mails from 26th May 2004 from my old work e-mail address in London to my hotmail account. It was something that I had completely forgotten I’d done, but now so glad I had as it has been a fascinating read that I’d like to share with you.
The e-mails were entitled “Name on the Trophy!!! 26/05/1999 (1), (2) and (3)” and it was a load of quotes from the world of TV commentary from the day, as well as various newspaper reports from the days after the event. Below is one of those reports and I have many more to come, enjoy reading them. I certainly have.
“MANCHESTER UNITED and their manager Alex Ferguson found their Holy Grail in Barcelona last night.
They won the European Cup 2-1 in the most dramatic possible way by scoring twice in the 90th minute after they had trailed 1-0 to Bayern Munich for most of the final.
With the historic victory, they completed a unique treble by an English club, having already taken the Premiership title and the FA Cup.
The 45,000 United supporters stayed in the Nou Camp stadium to celebrate the amazing win as their heroes ran round the pitch, draped in scarves and banners.
Many fans who had been unable to get a ticket so were forced to watch the game on television, began a huge street party in the centre of the Catalan capital to salute their heroes, who had pulled off perhaps the most amazing victory in the 45-year history of the competition.
Their triumph was achieved before a capacity crowd of 90,000 and an estimated global television audience of 500 million people, a record for a club match. This included an estimated 16 million people in England.
United last won the trophy 31 years ago with their celebrated team, including Sir Bobby Charlton and George Best and managed by the late Sir Matt Busby.
Ferguson had made victory in this competition a personal crusade, just as Sir Matt had done after the 1958 Munich air disaster when so many of his first European Cup team – the Busby Babes – died.
Last night Ferguson hailed his players as “incredible human beings” and predicted that their hunger for success would lead to more trophies. “The future is to keep playing with such pride and the players won’t rest on that because they’re young. Tonight they just never gave in. We got off to a bad start but kept at them and got our reward.”
United went behind to a sixth-minute goal from a free kick by Mario Basler but in the last minute of ordinary time, with their dream seemingly over, both Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored.”
#1 The dream comes true for United – THE TIMES
BY ADRIAN LEE IN BARCELONA
AND JOHN GOODBODY
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