THE
STORY OF
MAn UTD
“ WE’D HARDLY HAD TIME TO DRAW
BREATH WHEN THERE WAS
ANOTHER GOAL”
The Geordies never appeared capable of causing an upset. Even
captain Roy Keane going off after a couple of minutes didn’t ruffle
United’s composure – they simply brought on Teddy Sheringham and
on 11 minutes the England striker put his team ahead. When Scholes
got the second, from a lovely lay-off by Sheringham, on 53 minutes,
the game was well and truly over. Even the genius of manager Ruud
Gullit couldn’t inspire Newcastle to respond. No manager had ever led
his team to two English league and cup doubles before; Ferguson had
now done this on three separate occasions, making him the most
successful manager of all time.
And so to Europe. Inter Milan were up first in the quarter-final first
leg at Old Trafford, and United produced a strong performance, with
Beckham in particular causing havoc down the right flank and laying
on two first-half goals for Yorke. The second leg saw a solid defensive
effort in which United conceded only a 63rd-minute goal and suffered
few other alarms. A late close-range equaliser from Scholes meant
it was 1-1 on the night and 3-1 to United on aggregate.
But that wasn’t the end of the Italian threat. The epic semi-final
matches against Juventus (see page 85) were only just navigated to
set up a third meeting of the season with Bayern Munich. All of a
sudden Schmeichel and Yorke’s jokey exchange had become deadly
serious. “At no stage until after the FA Cup final did we really think we
could win all three trophies,” said Cole. “There was talk about it
among the lads but it was strictly banter.
I don’t think any of us really believed it until we got to Barcelona.”
The final turned out to be a disappointing match, all told. It was
scrappy throughout and very stop-start. “We just couldn’t get into
the game,” said Yorke. “It was so patchy and for some reason we just
never got three or four passes together.”
A fifth-minute free kick from Mario Basler gave the Germans the
lead, and United had few clear-cut opportunities to get back into the
game. In the second half it was Bayern who had the better chances,