Top UEFA Champions League finals: Manchester United, Bayern Munich and more (Part 2)
Following our trip down the memory lane towards the 2005 UEFA Champions League final between http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809 and A.C Milan, it is now time to travel back in time towards the very first UEFA Champions League final between Manchester United
and Bayern Munich.
In the 1998-1999 season, UEFA revamped the European Cup format and thus the UEFA Champions League came into being. In the very first season of the new competition, several exciting encounters were seen but none more so than the
final itself which was held at Nou Camp in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604. So, let’s take a look at how the match played out between Manchester United and Bayern Munich...
Manchester United versus Bayern Munich
After having won the European Cup under Sir Matt Busby’s stewardship in 1968, Manchester United had experienced a barren spell both domestically and in European terms as well until Sir http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alex-c4752 Ferguson was appointed as the club’s
manager in 1986. In 1991, Ferguson’s United won the European Cup winners’ Cup by defeating Barcelona at Wembley before winning the English Premier League in 1992. In the 1998-1998 United won the F.A Cup and the Premier League once again and by the time the
Red Devils’ reached the UEFA Champions League final in Barcelona, they were on course for a historical treble.
Alternatively, Bayern Munich were on a mission of their own. Spurred on by the presence of Lothar Matthäus in their ranks Bayern were a sight to behold with a strong midfield which consisted the likes of Stefan Effenberg and Jens
Jeremies. Up front, Mario Basler and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alexander-Zickler-c4875 made selection easy for their manager, Ottmar Hitzfeld. Bayern Munich started off the match as the much better side as Manchester United found it hard to get their main players into the match.
Roy Keane was missing for the Red Devils due to a suspension that he incurred in the semi-final win against Juventus, thus the English giants were a bit weak in the centre of the park. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Paul-Scholes-c29394 was also missing for Sir Alex
Ferguson’s team. Munich soon struck first blood in the encounter as Basler’s free kick found its way past Peter Schmeichel due to a deflection off Manchester United’s wall. The match was from thereon in a tense affair which was largely dominated by Bayern
Munich.
However it appeared that United were reserving their best for the end of the match when they scored a late equalizer thanks to a http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Beckham-c10432 corner kick. Beckham whipped in a glorious cross towards Teddy Sheringham who made it
1-1.
Then in the final minute of the match, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer pounced on another Beckham corner to make it 2-1 with the last kick of the match. It was an astonishing three minutes for Bayern Munich who had seemingly been robbed of
the UEFA Champions League in front of 90,000 fans at Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona. It was Peter Schmeichel who lifted the trophy for Manchester United as Alex Ferguson guided them to a historic European Cup triumph over Bayern Munich.
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