"26.5.99 Nou Camp Barcelona, 7.45pm.
Alex Ferguson can deny it no longer: Tomorrow in Barcelona is the challenge of his
lifetime."
Ron Hughes The Times on 25th May 1999
"This is the greatest moment of my life and I'm
struggling to take it all in. I haven't said anything to my players yet. I've just hugged
and kissed them. I've slobbered all over them."
Alex Ferguson United Manager
"I was just starting to adjust to losing the game. I
had reminded myself to keep my dignity and accept that it wasn't going to be our year.
What then happened simply stunned me."
Alex Ferguson United Manager
"It would have been Sir Matt Busby's 90th birthday
today, but I think he was up there doing a lot of kicking."
Alex Ferguson United Manager
"I told them the cup is only six feet away from you at
the end of this day. If you lose, you can't even touch it."
Alex Ferguson United Manager on his half time
team talk
"When I saw Basler waving to the fans it gave me the
hump, I wanted to get out there and show them."
Teddy Sheringham United scorer
"When Teddy scored, I thought, yes! I'm going to play
40 minutes of a Champions League Final. That's going to be unbelievable."
Ole Solskjaer United scorer
"We had to score some goals after the pressure we had.
It's unbelievable and it's very difficult to describe how I feel just now. But if people
still wonder why I stay at United they can see why. The team spirit, it is unbelievable.
Everyone works together and is in this together."
Ole Solskjaer United scorer
"This has been a marvellous season. It's been
marvellous for the fans - the F.A. Cup, the Champions League and in our own Championship,
and the players have been just great.
I'm really proud of them. English football has been in the wilderness for a long time and
now we're back on the world stage."
Sir Bobby Charlton United Director and Legend
"It could take days, even weeks to recover from such a
blow. Losing in such a way is very tragic. It is inconceivable what has happened
tonight."
Ottmar Hitzfeld Bayern Manager
"They could not have won it like a normal team. Not
these men. Not these remarkable, unstoppable, unbeatable men of Manchester."
Martin Samuel Daily Express
"We have new superlatives now when the conversation
turns to extraordinary deeds in sport. We can recall the courage of Ali, the cold-eyed
winning instinct of Lester Piggott and Ian Botham's innings at Headingly. But always we
will come back to the night United beat Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp. It wasn't a
comeback - it swept beyond the limitations of that term. It was a resurrection.
They won so dramatically that the history of this wondrous competition has a new and
permanent asterisk against the line which records United's 2-1 triumph. It must say:
"Won in extraordinary circumstances - possibly divine."
James Lawton Daily Express
"In two astonishing, almost surreal, minutes at the
end of the last European Cup final of the 20th Century, the gilded youth of the most
famous of clubs left excellence behind them and found the greatness they have been
searching for."
Oliver Holt The Times
"Even if you only saw it on TV, you don't much like
football, and can't even stand Manchester United, it was a two minute miracle you will
tell your grandchildren about. The final 120 seconds of the 1999 European Cup Final in
Barcelona were simply the most breathtaking in sporting history. The two minutes
transcended sport. It was an object lesson in life. What those late goal scorers,
Sheringham and Solskjaer and 11 other players achieved in those moments inspired me.
Because of those two minutes, I will always know that if you keep trying, you can
succeed."
Jonathan Margolis Daily Mail
"Yet again in the crucial game the English team has
proven inferior to the German team. Maybe I shouldn't say it, but I promise never to say
it ever again. Football, as Gary Linekar once said, is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball
for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win."
Marcel Reif German TV Commentator
"I'm sorry."
Lennart Johansson UEFA President to Sir Bobby Charlton when passing him
to make his way down to the pitch after 90 minutes
"When I saw Peter Schmeichel running up the pitch for
the corner I knew it was almost over."
Nicky Butt United Midfielder
"Can you fucking believe him!"
Alex Ferguson United Manager to his assistant Steve McClaren on seeing
Schmeichel going up for the first stoppage time corner
"Can Manchester United score. They always
score."
Clive Tyldesley English TV Commentator after 90 minutes 26 seconds
"Sheringham! Name on the
trophy."
Clive Tyldesley English TV Commentator after 90 minutes 36 seconds
"Hang on a second. Something's happening out
there..."
Alex Ferguson United Manager before the second corner is taken in reply
to assistant Steve McClaren's suggestion they revert to 4-4-2
"Is this their moment?"
Clive Tyldesley English TV Commentator after 92 minutes 5 seconds
"And Solskjaer has won it! ...Manchester United
have reached the promised land!"
Clive Tyldesley English TV Commentator after 92 minutes 17 seconds
"Are you crazy?"
Gerhard Aigner UEFA General Secretary inside the stadium having just
finished putting Bayern's ribbons on the trophy when an aide rushes in to tell him to put
Manchester United's colours on
"The lift took a half-minute to arrive, then you had
to go through a long hall, through several rooms and through the dressing room area and
because we were inside we never heard a thing. I then saw out onto the pitch and I was
confused. I thought, it cannot be, the winners are crying and the losers are
dancing."
Lennart Johansson UEFA President post match
"I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Football.
Bloody hell."
Alex Ferguson United Manager post match
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