United's Camp Nou night of glory

Manchester United FC 2-1 FC Bayern München
Camp Nou, Barcelona, 26 May 1999

It took exactly one minute and 48 seconds from the moment David Beckham hit the corner-kick that led to Manchester United FC's equaliser against FC Bayern München until the ball struck by Ole Gunnar Solskjær crossed the goalline for the second and decisive goal ...  

It's 22.30 in Barcelona. The 90 minutes are up. It hasn't been the greatest of finals. The Manchester United supporters are subdued. The Bayern fans are singing. They know their ribbon is on the trophy. They don't know that, with Pierluigi Collina checking his watch during added time, they are about to witness the most dramatic climax ever recorded in a UEFA final.

'Winning and winning'
"I don't really recall the match – just a few minutes of it," Peter Schmeichel remembers. "They were the climax to six incredible months. At no point did we ever believe a game was lost and we were winning and winning and winning. We ended up winning the league, the FA Cup and the Champions League in ten days. People were wearing T-shirts: 'One down two to go; Two down one to go' and Barcelona was the third one so we were reminded about it all the time.

'Our night'
"We went 1-0 down in the first ten minutes. We were putting pressure on Bayern but they were just absorbing it and hitting us on counterattacks. They hit the bar, they hit the post, but at no point in that final did I believe we had lost it. I always felt we were going to win. That day would have been Sir Matt Busby's 90th birthday and I just had a feeling that it was going to be our night. And it was." 

'Simply incredible'
"I remember it because of the three minutes of added time," United's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson recalls. "Even today, I can still see the fourth official hold up his board. I looked at it: three minutes left. I started preparing myself to talk to the players because we had had a great season and I was going to say that to them. But fate took a hand. It was simply incredible."

'Too quickly'
"Some memories stay with you for ever and, in Barcelona, I experienced moments that will stay with me for my whole life," admits David Beckham. "It's hard to recall how I felt when we were still 1-0 down and the game was almost finished. Things happened too quickly. To score two goals in three minutes is an incredible thing but, as soon as we got that first goal, I could see in the players' faces a will to do something in the one minute that was left.

'Special spirit'
"We still had that special spirit that wins games. I think it comes from the English mentality. It's one of our traditional values. But when you have got a manager behind you who is pushing you and always letting you know that even if you are 5-0 or 6-0 down, you can still win, that gives you even greater conviction. That is what he put into me and to the other players. It's one of the manager's great qualities. He was one of the biggest reasons why we won so much at Manchester United because he gave us self-belief, the belief that we could always win."

Solskjær dream
"It was a strange feeling because I didn't play a very big part. I came on ten or 12 minutes before the end," says Ole Gunnar Solskjær, scorer of United's winner. "When Teddy Sheringham scored in the 91st minute, I was really happy because I thought I was going to play another 30 minutes! I think everyone dreams about playing in a final and winning the cup. I was one of those kids. I was always dreaming about scoring in the last minute of a final and I'm one of the very few lucky ones who've had that dream come true. But I was totally focused and trying to score. Even when the ball went in, I didn't really realise that I had scored the winning goal."

'Always a chance'
"I have never seen Sir Alex Ferguson concede a game when it's still going on," added Schmeichel. "I was up for a corner and, when we scored the first goal, he was telling me to get back! I ignored him because I wanted to win and there was still a chance. When there is time there is always a chance. When we scored, it would have been very typical of him to look at his watch and say, 'We still have another minute to win this game without going to extra-time'. It was a very special mentality within the squad. They were all hungry for success. For years and years Sir Alex put that mentality into us: that we were Manchester United; that we could win any game; and that no game is lost until the referee blows the final whistle."

This article first appeared in the UEFA publication Champions of Europe, which was published in 2006 to mark 50 years of European club football.