shot appeared to hit the outstretched arm of
Rio Ferdinand but the referee waved away
calls for a penalty. Just after the half-hour
mark, United were awarded a penalty of
their own, which Ronaldo deftly converted.
In the second half, Wigan keeper Chris
Kirkland kept United at bay.
As rain began to fall, Sir Alex looked to
shore things up, as well as nick a decisive
second goal. He introduced Hargreaves to
the action, and Ryan Giggs, club captain
standing in for the injured Gary Neville,
came on in the 68th minute to equal Sir
Bobby Charlton’s remarkable record of 758
club appearances.
“As soon as the rain came,” Ferguson
recalled, “I knew I should get Giggsy on
because he loves the soft ground.”
Wigan were tenacious, but Giggs delivered,
slipping the ball past Kirkland after a slide-rule
pass from Rooney. Chelsea’s draw with Bolton
meant that Manchester United secured their
17th Premier League title without the need for
goal difference. It was a close-run thing.
“We had some nervous moments and
then the rain came and anything could have
happened,” said Ferguson afterwards. “We
started to get a grip of it after half-time,
though. I was thinking, ‘Please give me the
second goal.’”
Over the course of the Premier League
season United won 27 games, lost five, and
drew six. Their lightning attack scored 80
goals, with Ronaldo netting 31 in his fifth
season with the Red Devils. The trio of
Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney combined for 57
goals, while the defence proved watertight,
conceding only 22 goals and finishing with
21 clean sheets. While van der Sar led the
way in goal, Scholes and Carrick were
masterful in midfield. Ferguson was also at
his mercurial best, utilising a hybrid 4-4-2/4-
3-3 system that played to his team’s
strengths and kept opponents off balance at
critical moments.
Yet United were not just fighting for glory
on one front. As they blitzed their way to
domestic victory in the league they also
faced a string of tests in Europe that would
ultimately define their season.
On 1 April, United had returned to the
Italian capital for the first leg of the quarter-
finals. Goals from Ronaldo and Rooney gave
them a 2-0 advantage, and the Reds
progressed to the next round eight days
later as Tevez scored in the 70th minute.
In the semi-finals they came up against
Spanish giants Barcelona. A cagey first leg at
the Camp Nou finished 0-0 after Ronaldo
missed a penalty, however, roared on by a
boisterous home crowd in the second leg,
Scholes scored the decisive goal in the 14th
minute to give United their 12th consecutive
Champions League home win and set up the
first all-English final in the competition’s
history against rivals Chelsea.
The epic Champions League final, played
at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on 21 May
2008, remains a classic. United started on the
front foot, with Ronaldo opening the scoring
in the 26th minute with a header from a Wes
Brown cross, his 42nd goal of a remarkable
season that led to the first of his five Ballon
d’Or awards. Just before half-time, van der
Sar slipped and Frank Lampard scored for
Chelsea to even the match. As each team
saw opportunities come and go –
Chelsea twice hitting the woodwork- Didier Drogba was sent off for
slapping Vidić. The advantage
came to nothing, however, with
the game heading for extra time
and then penalties as the rain
steadily fell.
With two penalties scored
a piece, Ronaldo saw his
kick turned away by Blues
keeper Petr Čech. With the
chance to win it, Chelsea
captain John Terry Images
Alamy (Busby Babes),Getty Images, Liewig Christian/Corbis/Getty Images (Rooney/Ronaldo, Roma),Getty Images/John Peters/Manchester United (group training), Henri Szwarc/Icon Sport/Getty Images (Tevez/Terry)stepped up, but as he went to strike the ball
his standing foot slipped and his penalty
crashed against the post.
The irrepressible Giggs, breaking Bobby
Charlton’s appearance record, confidently
slotted in his sudden-death kick, before van
der Sar easily turned aside Nicolas Anelka’s
decisive penalty. Cue wild celebrations.
Manchester United, in a stellar campaign,
had captured their third European Cup and
secured a historic double. Ronaldo observed,
“In my opinion, I played well in the game,
scored a goal, and then missed the penalty.
It would have been the worst day of my life.
We deserved to win as we played better in
the whole game. It means everything
to me. We have won both trophies.
It is the best day in my life.”
It was also arguably a triumph
for Ferguson that stood alongside
the historic treble of 1999, given
the financial might and formidable
pedigree of the Chelsea side his
charges had seen off on two fronts.
To this day United remain the only
side to win the Champions League
and the Premier League in the same
season – a season that no United
fan will ever forget.“ THE IRREPRESSIBLE GIGGS COnFIDEnTLY
SLOTTED In HIS SUDDEn-DEATH KICK”
FourFourTwo.com The Story of Man Utd 105FERGIE’S
DOUBLE
WInnERS