UEFA Champions League: Ferguson still haunted by Munich memories
The long standing Manchester United manager revealed to “the people” that there are some of Manchester United’s exists from the UEFA Champions League that still haunt him. Ferguson took over at Manchester United in the late 80s and has since then turned the club into a footballing dynasty. The English giants currently stand tall with Liverpool as England’s most successful club.
United have won eighteen English league titles and have won the European Cup which is now known as the UEFA Champions League a total number of three times, something that their manager thinks they should improve on massively.
Manchester United were the first English club side to win the European Cup back in 1968 under Sir Matt Busby, that United side was lead by their talisman Sir Bobby Charlton, who lifted the European Cup after his childhood club side defeated Benfica in the final of the 1968 European Cup.
Under Ferguson, Manchester United have dominated European club cup competitions on various occasions but total dominion as celebrated by the likes of A.C Milan and Real Madrid has never been enjoyed by the red devils. Sir Alex reached his first UEFA Champions League final with Manchester United in 1999, a final that the club’s fans will remember forever. United met Bayern Munich in the final match of the tournament in that club season and won it with two late goals in the injury time.
One of the goals was scored by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer while the other came through Teddy Sherringham. That triumph resulted in a treble win for Ferguson’s men, something that has been touted as his biggest achievement yet at the theatre of dreams. Ferguson reached the final of the UEFA Champions League again in 2008 and this time his side included superstars like Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney along with oldies like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.
2008 UEFA Champions League final was played in Moscow against Chelsea and this time United won the match on penalties after the extra time ended with both the English clubs level on score. Ferguson’s third European final with United came in 2009 when his team was defeated by Barcelona in the pen-ultimate match of the competition by two goals to nil.
In the 2009-2010 season, United went out of the UEFA Champions League at the quarter final stage on away goals after conceding two goals in reply to their three against Bayern Munich at Old Trafford. The Scottish national also said that United were in control of the match until Rafael Da Silva got sent off in the second half of the match. He also mentioned United’s defeat to Dortmund in the 1997 version of the European Cup, a match in which they had numerous goal scoring opportunities.
Ferguson told the media that if his team had gotten past Bayern Munich, they had a very good chance to win the tournament again. Ferguson also spoke about his club’s upcoming mid-week match against Rangers. He said that Rangers have a lot of history and therefore United cannot take them for granted. Sir Alex praised the Scottish champions by saying that they are an organized side that is difficult to beat.
Ranger’s manager Walter Smith was an assistant manager to Sir Alex Ferguson before he took over at Rangers and thus there is a little rivalry there as well. In his childhood, United’s manager used to support Rangers as a football club and also played for them in his short professional footballing career. Fergie also paid tribute to his fellow manager Jose Mourinho, who took over at Real Madrid in the summer.
Ferguson said that Mourinho’s appointment at Madrid gave them a good chance of actually winning the Champions League and he said that, Jose was the first Madrid manager in a long time, who bought players according to a certain plan.
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