99 (2024) s01e03 Episode Script

-[commentator] Time is up now at Wembley.
-[crowd cheering]
The final whistle goes!
-The end of the Cup Final of 1999
-[commentator 1] Two down, one to go
[commentator 2] to emulate the boys
of '68 in winning the
[commentator 4] Next it's Bayern Munich,
and the quest for the holy grail.
[radio host] Congratulations
to Manchester United,
the second leg of the Treble
now in the bag.
[fan, on radio] I actually hope
they do do the Treble.
[Charlton] We played well second half.
-[man] Good luck on Wednesday.
-Well, yes, we'll do our best.
[fan 1] I thought we absolutely
bossed the game today.
[fan 2] Not kept Nicky Butt in cotton
wool, bearing in mind he is gonna
[man] He knows Nicky Butt is essential
for Wednesday.
[fan] Turn around! Beckham! Beckham!
David!
[pundit] Teddy Sheringham,
you've gotta hand it to the guy.
He wasn't first choice today,
and he's the man of the match.
Should he be given a run out on Wednesday?
[pundit 1] Oh, isn't it a shame
that Roy Keane isn't gonna make the final?
But he should've thought about that
before he did the tackle.
[pundit 2] I think Alex Ferguson wants
to be known as a manager
who built a great team,
and I think that won't be said about him
until United can conquer Europe.
[Ferguson] That night,
we had a celebration.
But you could see
there was a conscious aspect of it.
A lot of them were going to bed early.
You know, they weren't staying up
all night,
like they normally were doing
if winning a cup final.
I was sitting watching that
and I was saying,
'Yeah, they know
what's happening', you know?
[Beckham] A lot had happened that season.
A lot of emotion, seeing all of these
players that I'd grown up with
trying to win the biggest trophy you can
in club football.
[Yorke] I'm buzzing.
I'm like a bee.
This is doable.
I wanna make history.
[Schmeichel] This would be my last game
for Man United.
My last chance to win
the Champions League.
You can't be sentimental about that.
My job was to help the team win this game.
[Scholes] It was my fault,
I'd made that tackle
that I shouldn't have done.
And it was my fault that I was gonna miss
the biggest part of the Treble.
Everyone tries to make you feel
part of it, but you're not.
[Solskjær] I'm an optimist.
Think positive, always.
But this was more than
just hoping, thinking.
This was a feeling
that this is gonna happen.
[cheering]
I think everybody was delighted
that Matt Busby was around
when we won
the first Premier League title in '93.
But when you're a club of the history
and tradition of Manchester United,
Europe obviously was the next step.
[Butt] It's massively important
to the manager.
His vision was always,
'Right, we need to win the European Cup,
like Sir Matt, that's my legacy'.
Yeah, get in.
I don't know, but yeah, you could see that
that was weighing on him.
In Old Trafford, when we was apprentices
and we'd see Sir Matt's office,
and we'd see him in there,
it'd be like walking past God.
So, it was always there.
What happened to them players,
all these young people dying
at the pinnacle of their life,
and we felt like it was our responsibility
to go and win it.
[Edwards] The European Cup
was first held in 1955.
Matt Busby was very, very keen
that United should enter.
[interviewer] Matt, what does this club
of yours mean to you?
It means practically my whole being.
I want Manchester United
to be the best team in Europe,
and the only way
they can be the best team in Europe
is by winning the European Cup.
[Edwards] And it was on the way back
from a European title in 1958
that the Munich air crash happened.
Seven players died immediately.
We lost ten of the first-team squad.
The club was absolutely decimated.
Busby took personal responsibility,
because he'd pushed so hard.
He was also seeking a Treble,
and if United hadn't been playing
in Europe,
those lads wouldn't have been killed.
[Edwards] His wife persuaded him
and said, you know,
'The players would want you to carry on'.
So, that European Cup
then became his main objective.
[commentator] So too is Aston.
[Edwards] So, in '68,
exactly ten years later
[commentator] Indeed, it's all over.
Manchester United have done it!
[Walsh] Completing that journey in '68
was very much about those lads who died.
But it was also about everybody
who cared about Man United,
and really, anybody
who cared about football.
And that's never gonna be forgotten.
[cheering, singing] Champions, champions,
ole, ole, ole
Champions, champions,
ole, ole, ole
[indistinct chatter]
It's a pleasure to be at a club
where it's got great tradition
and people like Sir Matt Busby
worked here.
People get daunted
by the last person's success.
For me, it's I enjoy that.
The manager is one of the strongest-minded
people I've ever met.
But he's also a human being.
He's up against someone
like Sir Matt, who's already won it,
he's been at the club for so long,
he's been criticised for so many things,
and, of course,
Europe hasn't happened for him.
So much was riding on this for him.
[pilot] speed is Mach 1.39. 39%.
Right now, we're travelling
over a thousand miles an hour
-[Yorke] Concord.
-twice the speed of sound.
[Yorke] Iconic flight.
It was amazing, honestly.
You guys, this is like fantasy stuff.
That was crazy, mate.
That was a whole different level.
It was like, "Here we go.
The final destination".
[Beckham] Turning up in Barcelona
in our Versace suit,
we are playing in the biggest game
of our lives, the Nou Camp,
in the Champions League final,
against Bayern Munich.
I don't think it gets much bigger
than that.
We had a job to do,
but there was a sadness
that Scholesy and Keaney
weren't gonna play in the final.
We had achieved so much with them
both in the team.
Deep down, I had that fear
of not having them with us.
[journalist] One question, please.
-I'm not Roy Keane.
-[journalist] Ah, no! Sorry.
[cheering]
[journalist 1] How do you think
you can help the team here?
Not really sure.
Nah, again, I've played against Munich
twice this year,
so, you know, we're all in it together,
you know, even myself and Scholesy.
So, hopefully we just back the lads up.
Our two best players
couldn't play that night,
the engine room of the team,
which is why there was a lot of talk
of who's gonna play where,
and what's the manager gonna do.
[journalist 2] Could Sheringham
start the game?
I've not picked my team,
I'm picking Wednesday morning.
[journalist 2] Thank you very much.
Oh, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy,
Teddy Sheringham!
I think to myself, "Blimey,
I've got a chance of playing
in the Champions League final,
haven't I? Surely".
Rooming with David May, and we're like,
'What do you think?
What's the team gonna be'?
You go over it.
We have a bit of lunch,
go back to the room, talking about it,
go and have a bit of dinner.
We must've had about 15
different permutations between us.
Every permutation had me
and Maysie in it. [laughs]
[Solskjær] I'm 99.999% sure, well,
you'll be on the bench for the final.
He's never, ever gonna split up
Coley and Yorkie.
We've all got feelings, there's passion,
that kills you within,
'cos you wanna be there with your team
and you feel that you're ready.
I wanna play.
[Stam] Normally we always went for
the Champions League game a day before,
now we went an extra day.
That makes it more stressful,
because you're sitting in the hotel
waiting for that game.
Then the tension's been built up.
[man] There's the first glimpse
of the ground.
On the outside, looks a bit like
the Arndale car park.
On the inside, it doesn't.
[reporter] The United players will leave
their retreat on the coast
to train tonight
under the Nou Camp floodlights,
well aware they're now just hours away
from what could be an historic Treble.
On the eve of the game, I remember being
up in the stands at the Nou Camp
watching United train, and Ferguson,
in this, sort of, '68 retro shirt.
I was thinking, it's almost like
he's clinging to anything that might,
sort of, tilt the odds,
because of all that we'd seen before.
Hey!
[Gary Neville] All the accusations
against us were true,
because of what had happened
in the previous five, six years.
We fell short many times.
[fans chanting]
The thing was about our European journey,
we'd lived through it.
We were still kids.
I was there, "Welcome to Hell".
Galatasaray was [exhales]
[commentator] Welcome to Istanbul.
I've never known anything
quite like here today.
[commentator] And time has run out
for Manchester United.
They are out of the European Cup.
[Butt] You've got the hostility
of Galatasaray.
A year later,
you've got the genius of Barcelona,
which was a totally different experience,
but equally as shocking.
It was a real eye-opener.
[commentator 2] Stoichkov has put
Barcelona ahead!
-[commentator 3] Romario.
-[commentator 2] It's another one!
Outwitted, outsmarted
out-thought.
[commentator 4] And Barcelona have just
about destroyed Manchester United
here in the Nou Camp,
in front of 120,000 fans.
You know, these were games that defined
our early years in Europe.
[Ferguson] I think we have a great,
great chance tomorrow.
It's what I've worked for.
I think that what I've achieved
stands for itself.
So, why should I
look upon the failure
to win a European Cup as a tragedy for me,
and a failure of me as a manager?
[commentator] Nilsson gets it away nicely
to Blomqvist.
Here's Rehn, coming forward again!
Onside! Blomqvist now,
a great chance for Gothenburg,
problems for Manchester United!
And he scores!
[Blomqvist] I'd had one of my best games
in my whole career,
and we beat them three-one.
I know that was the first time
that the Gaffer saw me
and realised, 'This could be a player
for Manchester United'.
When I moved to Manchester,
it was a huge change in mentality,
because there you really had
to hit yourself on the chest
and say, 'I'm the best',
and then they will, you know, respect you.
And they want to see,
"Who is this tiny Swedish player"?
I remember Roy pinging a ball at him,
and it came off his shin,
and Roy turned to the rest of them,
'What the fucking hell,
have we spent five-million quid on here'?
Jesper went into his shell, it was like,
"Oh, no, we don't need this",
and it took Jesper a little while
to get his head round that,
that other players would criticise him.
[Blomqvist] When Keano
got his yellow card,
I was the one giving a pass to him,
and he was obviously really upset with me.
Then, of course, that's gonna affect you.
The manager told me quite early
that I was gonna play,
because I wasn't in the FA Cup
or the last game of the Premier League.
[McClaren] He said,
"I told Jesper he's playing on the left".
How do we shuffle that then?
Where's Giggs gonna play?
"Well, we can put Giggs on the right,
Beckham in the middle, with Butty".
Okay
Could we not change that around
and put Beckham on the right
and Giggs on the left,
and we'd have to tell Jesper that
because of the suspension,
things have changed?
"Jesper plays,
'cos I told him he's playing".
And that's what he gave to players,
that trust.
[Blomqvist] It gave me energy to work
and be on my toes,
but it also made me a little bit,
you know, nervous.
It was the biggest game of my career.
[Sheringham] You're playing
in a Champions League final,
you wanna be part of it.
Pulled me and said,
"Look, well done again for Saturday,
fantastic, but I'm not starting you
in the game".
Teddy thought he'd have been playing,
I thought I'd have been playing.
That was a tough one to take.
Got back to the room, and Maysie
had his tap on the shoulder as well.
I can't say it was the best sleep
we've ever had.
[Schmeichel] Around the hotel,
there was a lot of whistling,
a lot of fake easiness.
Having been a player for so many years
working with him,
you kind of recognise
that he probably
wasn't as comfortable
as he let on to be.
But he's a human being, isn't he?
-[fans chanting] Oh, Manchester
-Oh, Manchester
-is wonderful!
-is wonderful!
[fan] It's really important that we know
that quite a number of the players
have had their cocoa
and their goodnight story from Alex.
Well, it's a safe bet, innit?
The Nevilles are in bed,
and so is Jaap Stam.
-Beckham's probably in bed.
-[fan] Yeah, dreaming of Spice.
[fan 1] Yorke and Cole
could be in bed, but
-[fan] Steady on.
-[fan 1] that's what
-you're worried about.
-[laughter]
I found it hard to sleep the night before.
I'm remembering sitting
on my desk in the hotel room
writing, "I can do it. I'm fast.
I'm feeling light.
I've done this before".
I'm trying to project
those positive images
and just having a great game,
but it wasn't too easy.
It was the other thoughts
from not having a good game
and not being able to play well
was also there,
so it was a fight between those two.
[presenter] Well, tonight's the night
when Manchester United
could write themselves
into the history books.
[presenter 1] There's been a tendency to
forget that there's the small matter
of actually beating
a very good Bayern Munich side.
The Bayern team that will take the field
at the Nou Camp tonight
is itself on the Treble trail.
[presenter 2] say they can't wait.
The big match is now
less than eight hours away.
You know the build-up seemed like forever.
The razzmatazz, the TV's on,
the phone is going off.
Where have you come from
to watch this match?
Punjab, India.
[journalist] All the way from India.
Everything is on radio and TV,
it's all about you.
Alex Ferguson booked his players
into a seaside resort.
And as you can see,
they're getting very excited out here.
You've gotta keep your cool
and prepare yourself and ready to play.
You know, it's a lot.
[Phil Neville] Can it be done?
People told us so many times,
you read it so many times,
it was on every TV station,
no team in English sport
has ever won the Treble.
[Schmeichel] We already put
two trophies on the board,
and this is gonna define us
as legends forever.
I wanna lift that trophy,
this is my dream now.
How many chances do we need in Europe?
[Gary Neville] The manager, he got
more serious about European games.
He'd do more tactical work,
he'd watch more videos.
You could just tell he was more into it.
There was an obsession to do it.
That's it, get some rhythm!
[Schmeichel] Just couldn't
make it work in Europe.
We'd progressed and progressed,
and, of course, that semi-final in '97.
And you know you are the best team.
[Cantona] It's important
that we start to win.
It's important for the confidence,
and especially in the Champions League.
[presenter] If United are bold enough,
and good enough,
a place in the European Champions
League final is there for the taking.
That's a real blow
for Manchester United.
And it's Borussia Dortmund
who go into the Champions League final
in Munich,
and Manchester United are just
so shattered at the end of it all.
[Ferguson] The question
I've gotta ask myself,
and everyone will be asking tomorrow,
"Are we good enough'"?
I have to just be honest and said
at some point,
I was starting to doubt that.
When you play for Manchester United,
we claim to be the biggest club
in the world.
You don't win with the big boys.
[Irwin] The players were
desperate for success.
I think that's what made Eric
pack football in.
It was a big blow. Huge blow.
[Schmeichel] Eric was leaving.
There was another big club
very, very interested in me.
I went to see the manager.
I said, 'I've been very, very tempted',
and I explained,
you know, the reason
that I didn't dismiss it was,
I don't feel
that we can win in Europe.
The manager said, 'You can't leave now.
You can't leave now.
We will win. We will win'.
The bus was pretty quiet.
Tension. You could feel it.
"Oh, my God,
we're in the Champions League final".
I remember turning this corner,
and the fans
Glory, glory Man United,
and the reds go marching ♪
I've never seen anything like it.
It was terrifying,
but so beautiful at the same time.
[Solskjær]
Coming from the west coast in Norway,
I'd always dreamt
about winning the European Cup.
Everything's at stake.
Special, special game.
[fans cheering]
"Baby-faced Assassin",
or whatever they called me.
From when I was a kid,
I had to be strong mentally,
because I was not in puberty
as early as everyone else.
Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole! ♪
I think that's part of me as well.
I'm quietly confident within.
I'm shaped by the rocks and the waves
from the Atlantic Ocean.
[presenter] Hello, good evening
from the Nou Camp.
What a match we have in prospect tonight.
United team news first, David Beckham fit,
but not in his usual wide position.
[Venables] This time he's moved Giggs
over to the right, Blomqvist comes in,
new move,
and also Beckham has changed.
But the main thing,
as long as they win, it'll be all right.
[Irwin] I would've never called that team.
Never called that team.
It was a bit of a surprise.
[announcer] Now make some noise
for the boys on the pitch, come on!
[May] I honestly thought he'd have played
Ronnie in midfield alongside Butty.
Becks on the right, Giggsy on the left.
But he didn't. [laughs]
[Schmeichel] Just felt that it was
a little bit unbalanced.
When you take Becks away
from the right-hand side,
you then lose a lot of quality
that we have in our team.
[Giggs] I'd obviously played right wing,
but it's not a position
that I enjoyed playing, at all.
[May] Giggsy was in his pomp,
terrorising full-backs,
and yet he's playing
on the right-hand side,
Jesper's on the left,
Becks is in the middle,
but you'd want Becks to supply
those crosses for Coley and Yorkie,
that they've lived off for that season.
I'd like to think it was a huge statement
for the manager of how much he trusted me.
I always wanted the opportunity
to play in central midfield.
[May] You know, what was he thinking?
I had a few things I would love
to have said,
but I couldn't, and I wouldn't,
because of the respect I had for him.
[commentator] Do you believe in this sort
of thing, that it's written in the stars?
[commentator 1] No, I don't.
I think Bayern are too good a side
to think that.
I'm not all that happy
with Manchester United's line-up.
I think it's likely to be smothered
in midfield.
Boy, that line-up suggests
they are really missing Roy Keane.
Butt will have to play the game
of his life.
[Butt] I did feel a bit of extra
responsibility. I felt a sick feeling.
I'd never felt that before.
Your mind's racing,
and then you start thinking,
'Fucking hell, it's a big game.
Don't fuck up, don't make a mistake'.
[presenter] Welcome to the big match,
from a very tense Old Trafford.
[Butt] By '98, it's like
'They're never gonna do it',
that's all we used to ever hear.
If we fail, it will all get threw back
in our face again.
It's now becoming our Achilles' heel.
But that night was just a disaster really.
[commentator] Butt here again.
What an important member
he's gonna be in that midfield tonight.
[Butt] I got a ball off Denis
come into me,
and I think I flicked it round a corner.
I think it was Trezeguet, I think it was.
Top bin goal.
[commentator] A priceless away goal
for Monaco.
A hammer blow for Manchester United.
[commentator 1]
But the final whistle has gone,
and the dream finally is shattered.
[Butt] So I go into
the changing rooms thinking,
'Pfft, that was a tough game, that'.
The manager, he's gone, his head's gone.
He's lost that chance again
for another year.
He's looking for someone to blame,
anger's coming out,
his veins are pumped up in his neck,
swearing and pointing his finger at me.
Everyone was, 'Calm down, sit down'.
And he's going for me like,
"This is your fault".
He said, "I'm out the European Cup
because of you".
[fans chanting, cheering]
We shall not, we shall not be moved! ♪
[Ferguson] They've come so far
by playing great football,
they've shown they have the ability
and the temperament,
they've deserved their place here,
and I trust them.
And that's what they'll do.
We'll trust them tonight,
'cos they're good enough.
They should go and enjoy themselves.
[Butt] It was a long, long journey
to get to Barcelona.
When you look at all the dynamics.
Sir Matt’s birthday,
playing against Munich.
Imagine getting all this way,
and it comes down to one game
and you don't win it.
[anthem playing]
[fans cheering]
[Blomqvist] Normally for me, it was easy,
I just went out on the pitch
and felt relaxed.
But this was a struggle
and I can't say
when I went onto the pitch either
and listening to the anthem,
that I was really
it was still a little bit fight or flight.
[Sheringham] Every one of us players
on the bench are sitting there
wishing it was me out there.
The sun's out, perfect stadium,
it's like the Royal Albert Hall
but on steroids.
Get me out there.
Please, get me out there.
[Scholes] We hardly spoke to each other,
I think.
It was just so tense and worrying, tense,
every emotion you could think of.
To be sat in the stand with your suit on,
you might as well have been at home.
There's no effect,
you couldn't do anything.
[commentator] And Jeremies tries to play
the ball down the nearside,
gets a lucky deflection.
Stabbed forward brilliantly
by Bayern Munich!
The enormous figure of Jancker's there!
Goes down!
Carsten Jancker. Oh!
I was just gonna run around him,
and he puts his leg out.
Couldn't believe they got the free kick
for that.
Maybe I was a bit clumsy,
but he was going for the free kick.
[commentator] The referee just
pushing back the Manchester United wall.
A Bayern player's
gone into the middle of the wall,
I think it might be Babbel.
And here it's going to be
and Bayern Munich take the lead
here in Barcelona,
after only six minutes!
What a devastating start here
for Manchester United.
Of course, I make a mistake
in letting the ball in there,
but this was probably
the worst we played in that season.
[Butt] We were awful.
After about ten minutes, I thought,
'This is nah'.
If they go up,
you don't beat them.
Typical German machines.
[Yorke] No team has been able to have
a stranglehold of us like they did.
Being in that sort of arena
what is at stake
you're not human if your mind's
not wandering a little bit.
I remember a point where I looked
at Scholesy and Roy
and thought, f
The patterns of play that we normally see,
they weren't happening.
I felt we were almost like struggling
through the game.
Because we had Giggsy on my side,
he didn't normally play with me.
Butty played with Becks in the middle,
probably the first time
they played together for years.
Jesper's on the left-hand side,
not been playing with Denis
as much as obviously Ryan had.
So, all these different little,
sort of, disconnections.
It felt like he had had a difficult job,
but maybe added to the complications
rather than found a solution to them.
It was pretty clear it wasn't working.
[Schmeichel] And this is my feeling
in the game, not going well.
And of course, when things
are not going well, you need a change.
[presenter] Hello again from Barcelona,
where we've been treated to a dramatic
start in this Champions League final.
Put yourself in Alex's role you two now,
what would you do?
-Any changes?
-I already said,
I would put Beckham on the right side
and Giggs on the left side,
get natural width,
and then because Tarnat
is not in the best form,
then you would get crosses
in all the time.
Yeah, I mean that's what I said
at the beginning.
That's been the base
right through the competition,
is Giggs on the left,
Beckham on the right.
[McClaren] This is where
self-belief comes in.
I suggested maybe changing things around
a little bit,
and whatever suggestions were made,
he said, "We're okay".
There was no discussion
there was no nothing.
It was, 'We trust, let's get up,
let's go'".
[commentator] Looking around,
don't think any changes
have been made at half-time.
What on earth will Alex Ferguson
have been saying at half time?
He didn't say much, actually.
You know, we came in
and we were one-nil down,
we weren't playing well.
You're going in there thinking
we'll get a real bollocking here.
I mean, he didn't.
He said, 'When you walk back out,
have a look at that trophy.
The way you play,
you are nowhere near winning it,
and you will never get to touch it'.
I thought that speech
was very much about himself,
as much as it was for us.
[Giggs] We didn't really come out
playing any better.
Yeah, it was doubts in your mind.
You're against a very good team,
you're one-nil down.
The demons start going inside your head.
[commentator] At the moment,
it's slipping away from Manchester United.
It's now Blomqvist,
and that's another poor ball by Blomqvist.
[Blomqvist] You want the ball,
but you don't want it.
Almost like you're afraid to get the ball.
I couldn't help the team.
I was struggling myself,
and the team was struggling.
Being on the pitch
with all those people watching,
when you're not feeling confident,
is a terrible feeling.
[commentator] Giggs again. It's Blomqvist!
Manchester United's best chance
of the night so far.
[Blomqvist] I throw myself forward
and hit it over the crossbar,
and I can still recognise
the pulse of the heart beating.
It affects your mind,
affects your whole body,
and you get more tense,
then you can't really do
what you want to do.
[commentator] How long will
Alex Ferguson leave it
before trying something different here?
His team trailing one-nil.
[commentator 1] Their European Cup dream
is evaporating.
[Giggs] I did start thinking,
'Right, how is this gonna feel
after the game'?
Fear of never playing for United again.
It was at the back of your mind.
If we lose that game, mentally, you know,
exhaustion would've just gone.
I don't think you ever get over that.
It always felt that that was our destiny,
to win the European Cup
for Manchester United.
[commentator] It's Basler.
Again he's looking to do Schmeichel,
who stumbles!
What an embarrassment
that might've been for Schmeichel
on his last appearance
for Manchester United.
[Solskjær] He's talking to Teddy,
I can see he's instructing him
and talking about when he comes on
and I'm really pissed off here,
sat and I'm thinking,
"Why not me?
I'm not even considered".
And then all of a sudden, you're there,
after many years of sacrifices
and practice,
standing on the sidelines
of a Champions League final,
getting spoken to,
to go on and change the game.
[commentator] He's changed
the shape of the front,
they'll play three up front.
But he's got Beckham
and Giggs playing sort of narrow.
[Beckham] When Teddy came on,
the formation completely changed,
but we still wasn't that comfortable.
I was still in the middle.
I felt I'd done well in that position,
but we weren't playing well as a team.
But you would never doubt
what the manager does.
"What are we playing now"?
"What are we doing now"?
Everyone relied on him
making the correct call,
and only he knows what he's thinking.
Whether he still had that inner belief
that was draining out of the players,
the staff, the supporters,
minute by minute
I never experienced that before
at Manchester United.
Maybe the boss is not meant to be
in line with Sir Matt.
Maybe the Treble was not meant to be.
No English team had ever done it,
this is why.
I remember very clearly thinking
that this actually
could get a bit embarrassing.
Ferguson had been exposed.
[Solskjær] I'm warming up,
and I'm getting ready.
You do that by your own initiative.
I wanna put pressure on him.
Tell him by your actions that you're ready
and I want to come on.
[commentator] Munich have got ten players
behind the ball
and that's the way it's gonna stay
for the last ten minutes.
Beckham, to Sheringham,
Sheringham to Butt, to Yorke.
Into Nicky Butt, into the penalty area!
It's a chance!
And he crosses the ball
across the face of goal,
and it doesn't find a colleague!
Sheringham was there, so, too, was Babbel,
and it's behind for a corner.
As I run on, in that moment,
this is all or nothing.
[whistle blows]
[commentator] It's Beckham's corner.
Header away is by Kuffour.
Gary Neville is first to the ball.
Teddy Sheringham onside. Neville's cross.
Oh, and the header from Solskjær!
His first touch.
I was writing about how Ferguson's,
gamble had backfired
on the biggest night of his career,
and he had too much pride to admit it.
There was this sense of,
"his is his moment gone".
I did feel and sense that
there was desperation.
He had played his cards.
Was that the right decision
at the beginning?
Was that the right speech before?
Was that too emotional?
Doubters, critics, four-four-two.
Should we have made the changes?
All that work, all that effort
the history.
Europe.
The Treble.
Failure.
[commentator] Again, another corner.
Bayern Munich, they're six minutes away
from winning it.
There's the corner. Basler's there!
And there was almost a free header
inside the penalty area.
There's still a chance!
And it's hit the crossbar off Jancker!
[Phil Neville] Everyone was running
everywhere, it came off the bar.
'What's happening? What's happening'?
And then just fucking it changed.
[Gary Neville] The manager knew
he had to change something.
Moving Becks back out
to the right-hand side.
Giggsy went to the left.
All of a sudden,
I felt the rebalancing of the team,
things started to feel normal.
[commentator] Beckham crosses
deep towards Dwight Yorke
who heads it down,
and that's straight through to Kahn.
[Beckham] We started getting
a little bit more rhythm in our play.
We started getting some crosses,
we started getting a bit of pressure.
[Gary Neville] We had our game back.
[commentator] The Germans sense victory,
but the ball's inside their penalty area.
Solskjær, back to Sheringham!
Sheringham shoots,
and Kahn makes the save!
[commentator 1] Well, they're now creating
chances for fun!
[commentator 2] Good control
by David Beckham.
Beckham into Gary Neville,
into the penalty area!
Pulls it back, and it finds Dwight Yorke!
And he miskicks!
[commentator 1]
Their legs have gone, Bayern.
[commentator 2] Giggs crosses,
it's headed on,
and bounces just in front of Oliver Kahn,
who saves once more.
You just wonder whether,
"Is it too late"?
[Butt] Board goes up, three minutes.
And you're thinking, "Right, come on,
someone, someone do something for us".
[Gary Neville] We were all knackered,
but there's something
that drove us forward.
I don't know what it was.
Maybe a spirit, a force.
I even think sometimes,
why was I on the left wing
I got the corner in the last minute.
[fan] Come on! Come on!
That mentality that we will--
we will risk everything.
That came from the manager.
That comes from him.
[commentator] Everybody up,
absolutely everybody.
[commentator 1]
Can Manchester United score?
They always score.
Beckham crosses! Stoppage time!
Schmeichel jumps!
Falls to the far post towards Yorke.
Half clear. Giggs shoots.
Sheringham equalises!
Teddy Sheringham has equalised
in stoppage time for Manchester United!
[Gary Neville] I'm not religious,
I don't pray,
but then sometimes
you've just gotta look up and think,
something's happening
that's from out of this world
and it's destiny.
[fans cheering]
[Sheringham] I'm feeling ten feet tall.
And as we were walking back
to the halfway line,
I remember talking to Ole
and then we're like,
'Yes! We're going to extra time,
we've got another half hour
in this stadium. Brilliant, eh'?
We were like two kids in a sweetshop.
[fan] Come on, lads!
And I'm thinking, brilliant,
we've got a minute to go.
And I said, "What you thinking
about extra-time?
You know, Yorkie on the right,
so we get a four-four-two again"?
He said, "This game ain't over, Steve,
sit down".
[commentator]
As it's laid forward by Irwin,
and Solskjær's after it.
And he's onside.
And Sheringham makes the run
into the penalty area.
Solskjær, just to the left of the box,
tries to pull the cross back,
it hits Kuffour,
and it's a corner to Manchester United.
Surely not a winner in stoppage time.
Beckham crosses from the left,
right-footed, it's a clear header!
And it's into the net!
Solskjær has won the European Cup
for Manchester United!
It's absolutely astonishing!
[Solskjær] In my mind, I'd lived through
that winning goal so, so many times,
but this was on a different scale.
[fan] I don't believe that!
[fans cheering, screaming]
[Beckham] I want that feeling again.
That can I can never have that again.
I'll never have that feeling again.
[interviewer] Alex Ferguson,
they put you through the mill!
Into injury time, almost lost the cup,
and you win it,
the new European champions,
the Treble, the dream come true for you.
Oh, I can't believe it,
I can't believe it.
Football, bloody hell.
But they never give in,
and that's what won it.
Fantastic, I'm so proud of my players.
[interviewer] Well done, Alex,
you'd better get back there and celebrate.
-Fantastic.
-Thanks.
[Beckham] I don't think it will
ever be done the way we did it.
Three minutes to go
in the Champions League final,
to do the Treble.
It was the dream.
[May] A slog of a season,
and then for it to finish the way it did,
Sir Matt's 90th birthday,
in one of the most iconic stadiums,
with your mates
[commentator] Eighty to one to do
the treble at the start of the season.
It was impossible!
Happy birthday to you,
happy birthday, Matt Busby ♪
Happy birthday to you ♪
[loud cheer]
[fan] You, beauties!
[commentator] I think we can almost
unofficially now say Sir Alex Ferguson.
Andy, Andy Cole, he gets the ball,
he scores the goals, Andy, Andy Cole ♪
[Cole] I'm taking it all in.
I'm taking in every single moment.
You never crack the game.
I've half cracked it.
[laughing]
[Yorke] What a journey.
What an experience.
What a pleasure to play alongside
those players
and to play for that manager.
That's why we play the sport,
for those kind of moments.
[Schmeichel] I feel privileged wearing
that armband in a Champions League final.
I've been a Man United supporter
all my life, since I was a small child.
You know, I think back to it now,
I don't think I made the right decision
to leave.
I just didn't know any better at the time.
[Blomqvist] At that moment,
it was just pure joy
and singing and laughing
and screaming together.
I'm extremely proud to be part of it,
but I knew I didn't play
on my very top level,
and that is still a little bit
nudging my feelings
when I look back at that game.
[fans exclaim]
-Keano!
-Scholesy!
[Scholes] It's always
in the back of my mind now,
that you missed
probably the biggest
and best night this club has ever had.
That was the end of the sentence,
weren't it?
Making history that night.
[all cheering]
When we all walked
into the changing room,
there was a moment
where the boss was just sat there
and he had the trophy between his legs,
and it was just on the floor,
he had this big smile on his face,
and there was
I wouldn't say it was relief.
He was fulfilled.
[reporter] Welcome to the homecoming.
Manchester United,
the new European champions
back on home ground.
Well, you can see
there's a little bit of movement there
and people are getting a bit excited
because I think, very soon,
you should be able to see the bus
coming through.
[Gary Neville] If you took me back
to one point in my life,
it would be as we turned into Deansgate
at the bottom end that day.
Just to see it again.
I remember thinking,
"What the fuck is that"?
Sometimes, you think that everything
comes together in such a way,
it seems more than just winning
a game of football.
I remember saying to Ole,
"You have no idea what you've done".
[Sheringham]
This is what football's all about.
It's not about money,
it's about the memories that you make
and that feeling
that you've dug deep together.
[Solskjær] That group of men, boys,
what we've been through together,
we don't talk about it, of course.
When we meet, it's like we're mates again.
We've experienced something unique.
I know now how much
the manager meant for us
and how much we wanted to do it for him.
You're in this inferno of noise,
it's full of people, and it hits you.
It hits you what you've done.
They're there
because you have done something
which really meant something for them.
I don't think I've ever been prouder
than that.
[announcer] Roy Keane, Peter Schmeichel,
Denis Irwin,
Philip, Gary Neville, Jaap Stam,
David May, Henning Berg, Nicky Butt,
David Beckham, Ryan Giggs,
Ronny Johnsen, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke,
Jesper Blomqvist, Wes Brown,
Teddy Sheringham, Ole Solskjær!
[fans cheering]
I'd accepted that
we were gonna lose the game
and I just needed a miracle,
and of course, we got one.
[announcer] Alex Ferguson!
The greatest manager, with Sir Matt Busby,
in the history of United.
[Ferguson] You can never
forget these nights, ever.
[Yorke] Didn't have a wife or kid
to go home to, so I stayed out.
It was six o'clock the morning,
the next day.
That was such a high
and there was not a single car
in the streets.
By then, I think I'm invincible.
I can walk on water.
We celebrate on the night,
till the early hours,
and we get into the car park
at the end of that day
knackered.
And he pulls me in the car park
and he says
[knocking]
"Tomorrow, Steve, 9:00 at the Cliff.
Be there".
[Schmeichel]
When we talk about the Treble,
thinking about it now, it brings it back.
I think that was probably
the hardest job he had, in my time,
that was picking that team.
I would never, ever say
that he made a mistake,
because I know what happened.
He got it right.
He got it perfectly right.
[director] Tell us about your attitude
towards risk.
I say I'm a gambler.
You know, I just always felt that
if you're losing one-nil,
what's the point?
Do something about it.
As long as you've got that
love of that, it's a love, you know,
and so when I gamble and I lost,
it didn't worry me.
But I knew we tried our best.
But when we do win,
that dressing room is electric.
It was a special team,
there's no question about that.
Winning the Treble, it was unbelievable.
And it's a moment in your life you'd go,
'I wish I could get this every week'.
[laughs]
The reason for being a manager
is to send fans home happy, you know.
I was nearly crying
when I turned into Deansgate.
I think that day I said to myself,
'This is the greatest club in the world'.
That's your job. Send 'em home happy.