Manchester United 4 - 3 Real Madrid | 20 Years On

jm99 said:
I don't have an athletic subscription so I can't read through it but I'm really not sold on the idea that a quarter finals in the champions league, no matter how entertaining it was, changed the sport forever :lol:
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I think this is what that alludes to:

Among the crowd that night was a 36-year-old Russian who, as far as anyone can recall, was attending his first Champions League match: Roman Abramovich, who sat alongside the Israeli football agent Pini Zahavi in an executive box.

Nobody else knew who he was. That included former Liverpool captain and then-Blackburn manager Graeme Souness, who had somehow found himself chauffeuring Abramovich to Old Trafford as a favour to Zahavi. A few months later he realised that the guy who had just bought Chelsea was one of the four Russians he had picked up from Manchester Airport along with Zahavi.

Souness spent the journey trying to talk football, only to be given short shrift by Abramovich, who presumed him to be a chauffeur rather than a European Cup-winning captain and reigning manager of a Premier League club.

But by all accounts, Abramovich enjoyed his evening. It went a long way to convincing him, after all the promptings from Zahavi and friends in high places in Russia, that he should add a leading football club to his investment portfolio. As far as Chelsea fans are concerned, the rest is history.

Elsewhere, though, it might be seen as the end of one era and the beginning of another, heralding the arrival of the billionaire-owner model and all the financial upheaval and political entanglements that would come with it.

Call it the end of innocence if you like. But that night in Manchester, Abramovich was left spellbound, like the rest of us, by the splendour of the occasion, the bravado of Beckham and of course, above all, the brilliance of Ronaldo.
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sullydnl said:
I think this is what that alludes to:
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Ah OK fair enough then, yeah abramovich buying Chelsea definitely can be described as changing the sport forever. Thought it was just typical journalism hyperbole
 
20 years on real is still the team to beat while utd has been the laughing stock of the football on several occasions. :(
 
Alex the Red said:
I remember being at this match on the Stretford End. The next day I couldn’t work out why I had bruises across both thighs. It was from standing up and leaning so hard on the seat in front for the whole match! I also remember shouting at Veron for losing the ball and just shaking his head . Also Ronaldo (Brazilian) getting a standing ovation.
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:lol: Veron was the Pogba of that era.

Super talented, world class ability and such a stylish footballer but inconsistent as feck. frustrating
 
This is a terribly overrated tie to look back on because it was never really much of a contest. The tie was pretty much done once Madrid took a 3-0 lead in Spain and then killed the tie by taking the lead early on at OT. The score was always too far out of reach for Utd for this to be deemed a classic match up.
 
HarryP said:
This is a terribly overrated tie to look back on because it was never really much of a contest. The tie was pretty much done once Madrid took a 3-0 lead in Spain and then killed the tie by taking the lead early on at OT. The score was always too far out of reach for Utd for this to be deemed a classic match up.
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It was 3-1 in Spain. Although United never looked like qualifying there was hope every time we scored in the second leg only to be extinguished by Ronaldo’s brilliance every time.
 
Our team wasn’t all that really, on paper I think Real had the better side. Our defence was poor at the time, especially Barthez who I felt should’ve done better with the ronaldo efforts and getting lobbed by Figo in the first leg.

Goalkeeping played a big part in our European exits for about 5 years after big Pete left. Barthez this season, Howard against porto the year after, then Carroll spilling it to crespo in 05. If only we’d picked up Van Der Sar when he left Juve.
 
HarryP said:
This is a terribly overrated tie to look back on because it was never really much of a contest. The tie was pretty much done once Madrid took a 3-0 lead in Spain and then killed the tie by taking the lead early on at OT. The score was always too far out of reach for Utd for this to be deemed a classic match up.
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We had to chase the game too much, which left us open and was really symptomatic of us in Europe around that time. We didn’t really have another game plan apart from trying to out score the other team. A few years later we learned how to soak it up a bit more and hit on the break which is why I rank our 08 side a small bit higher than 99.
 
Was 14 y.o and I don't think any other game generated such a mixture of emotions ever again. Remember crying but also feeling proud AF.
 
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