1999 UEFA Champions League final
The 1999 UEFA Champions League final was an association football match between Manchester United of England and Bayern Munich of Germany, played at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, on 26 May 1999, to determine the winner of the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League. Injury time goals from Manchester United's Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær cancelled out Mario Basler's early goal for Bayern to give Manchester United a 2–1 win and their first European Cup title since 1968, their second overall. Referee Pierluigi Collina has cited this match as one of the most memorable of his career, and described the noise from the crowd at the end of the game as being like a "lion's roar".
The two sides had played each other earlier in the competition, having both been drawn in Group D in the group stage; Bayern won the group, while Manchester United qualified for the knockout phase as one of the two best runners-up across all six groups. After beating Inter Milan in the quarter-finals, Manchester United beat another Italian side, Juventus, in the semis to reach the final; meanwhile, Bayern beat fellow Germans 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the quarter-finals, before overcoming Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv in the semis. The victory completed a treble-winning season for Manchester United, having already secured the Premier League and FA Cup titles in the preceding 10 days. Bayern were also playing for a treble, having won the Bundesliga and reached the DFB-Pokal final, although they went on to lose that match as well to Werder Bremen on penalties. It has been widely regarded as one of the greatest finals in the history of the tournament.
Background
and Bayern Munich had only met twice in competitive matches before the final, both meetings coming earlier in the 1998–99 season and both finished as draws. Manchester United's only other German opponents in their history were Borussia Dortmund, against whom they had an overall winning record, with three wins, two defeats and a draw in their six matches, including a 10–1 aggregate win in the second round of the 1964–65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a 2–0 aggregate defeat in the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League semi-finals. Bayern Munich had an equally narrow advantage in their 22 matches against English opposition, with seven wins, nine draws and six defeats, including a win over Leeds United in the 1975 European Cup final and a defeat to Aston Villa in the 1982 final.Including the victory over Leeds in 1975, Bayern Munich had won the European Cup on three occasions going into the 1999 final. With three victories in a row from 1974 to 1976, they became only the third team to achieve such a feat after Real Madrid and Ajax. They had also finished as runners-up twice: in 1982 against Aston Villa and 1987 against Porto. Although Bayern had been waiting 23 years for a European Cup title, Manchester United had had to wait even longer, as their only victory had come in 1968 against Benfica at Wembley in extra time. Their manager then was Matt Busby, who had been seriously injured 10 years earlier in the Munich air disaster, which killed eight of his players on the way back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade, before rebuilding the team to become European Cup winners. Busby died in 1994; the day of the 1999 Champions League final would have been his 90th birthday.
Although it was the second Champions League season to feature clubs that had not won their national leagues the year before, Manchester United and Bayern Munich were the first such clubs to reach the final of the competition. Nevertheless, both went into the match as champions, having won their domestic leagues in 1998–99; Bayern Munich claimed the Bundesliga title with a 1–1 draw against Hertha BSC on 9 May with three games to go, while Manchester United left it until the last day of the season, when they came back from 1–0 down against Tottenham Hotspur to win 2–1 and beat Arsenal to the title by a point. Both teams were also playing for the treble; in addition to their league win, Manchester United had beaten Newcastle United in the 1999 FA Cup Final on 22 May to claim the Double, while Bayern were due to play Werder Bremen in the 1999 DFB-Pokal Final on 12 June.
Route to the final
Qualifying round
Since neither Manchester United nor Bayern Munich had won their respective leagues in 1997–98, both sides faced a qualifier to enter the 1998–99 Champions League. Manchester United were drawn against Polish champions ŁKS Łódź and won 2–0 on aggregate, goals from Ryan Giggs and Andy Cole in the first leg at Old Trafford giving them the victory. Bayern Munich had an easier time against Yugoslavian champions Obilić, winning 4–0 in the first leg at the Olympiastadion with goals from Stefan Effenberg, Giovane Élber, Alexander Zickler and Thorsten Fink, all scored in the space of 17 second-half minutes. In the second leg, played at Partizan's ground in Belgrade, an 88th-minute goal from Lothar Matthäus rescued a 1–1 draw to give Bayern a 5–1 win on aggregate.Group stage
In the draw for the group stage, Bayern Munich were placed in Pot 2 and Manchester United in Pot 3 as Germany was higher than England in the UEFA association club coefficient rankings. They were drawn together in Group D, along with Spanish champions Barcelona and Danish champions Brøndby, in what became known as the "group of death". United and Bayern found themselves bottom of the group after the first round of matches, in which Bayern lost 2–1 away to Brøndby after surrendering a 1–0 lead in the last three minutes; United, meanwhile, played out a 3–3 draw at home to Barcelona after twice giving up the lead. The first group stage meeting between United and Bayern took place at the Olympiastadion on matchday 2 and finished in a 2–2 draw; Élber opened the scoring for Bayern before goals from Dwight Yorke and Paul Scholes gave United the lead, only for a Teddy Sheringham own goal – brought about by an error by Peter Schmeichel – to level the scores in the 89th minute.Matchdays 3 and 4 saw double-headers, with Manchester United taking on Brøndby and Bayern Munich playing Barcelona. Manchester United beat Brøndby 6–2 in their first match at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, then 5–0 at Old Trafford two weeks later. Bayern also recorded a pair of victories over Barcelona, winning 1–0 at the Olympiastadion and 2–1 at the Camp Nou. On matchday 5, United played their second match against Barcelona – their first trip of the season to the Camp Nou – and again the two sides played out a 3–3 draw. With Bayern beating Brøndby 2–0 at home, the German side moved onto 10 points and took top spot in the group going into the final round of matches, one point ahead of United. Qualification for the quarter-finals was only guaranteed for the group winners, meaning that both United and Bayern had to play for victory in their final match against each other at Old Trafford. United took the lead just before half-time through a Roy Keane strike from just outside the penalty area; however, Hasan Salihamidžić equalised for Bayern in the 55th minute and the game finished as a 1–1 draw. The result meant that Bayern finished as group winners, but United's 10 points from their six matches was enough to see them go through as one of the two group runners-up with the best record.
Knockout stage
In the quarter-finals, Bayern Munich were drawn against Group F winners and fellow German side 1. FC Kaiserslautern, while Manchester United were paired with Group C winners Inter Milan. Two Yorke goals gave United a 2–0 win in their first leg at Old Trafford, while Bayern beat Kaiserslautern by the same scoreline at the Olympiastadion through goals from Élber and Effenberg. In the second leg, Nicola Ventola pulled a goal back for Inter, but Paul Scholes secured United's passage to the semi-finals with a late away goal. Meanwhile, Bayern won convincingly at Kaiserslautern, as goals from Effenberg, Carsten Jancker, Mario Basler and an own goal from Uwe Rösler gave them a 4–0 win, 6–0 on aggregate.United again came up against Italian opposition in the semi-finals, facing Juventus, who had beaten Greek side Olympiacos in the quarters, and Bayern were drawn against Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv, who beat reigning champions Real Madrid to reach the semis. Both first legs finished as draws; Giggs scored in injury time to secure a 1–1 home draw for Manchester United after Antonio Conte had put Juventus ahead midway through the first half, while Bayern also had to come from behind to draw 3–3 in Kyiv. A single goal from Basler proved the difference between Bayern and Dynamo in the second leg, giving the Germans a 4–3 aggregate win. Manchester United fell behind early in the second leg in Turin, as Filippo Inzaghi scored twice in the first 11 minutes. Goals from Keane and Yorke before half-time levelled the tie but gave United the advantage on away goals, before Cole secured victory with the winning goal seven minutes from the end of the match.
Pre-match
Venue and ticketing
The Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, was selected as the venue for the final at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Lisbon, Portugal, on 6 October 1998. The selection process had begun more than four months earlier, in May 1998, when FC Barcelona submitted the Camp Nou as a contender to host the match in recognition of the club's centenary year. The other venues in contention to host the match were London's Wembley Stadium and Marseille's Stade Vélodrome, but the Camp Nou was considered by UEFA's Stadiums Commission to be the favourite for its superior security, comfort and capacity. The Camp Nou had hosted one previous European Cup final: Italian club Milan's 4–0 victory over Steaua București of Romania in 1989. It had also hosted two Cup Winners' Cup finals, in 1972 and 1982; the latter was won on home turf by Barcelona.The Camp Nou was constructed over three years from 1954 to 1957 as a replacement for Barcelona's previous home, the nearby Camp de Les Corts. The original capacity of the Camp Nou was just over 93,000, but its first major European final, the 1972 Cup Winners' Cup Final, was attended by just 35,000 spectators. 1982 was the stadium's busiest year to date, hosting not only the 1982 Cup Winners' Cup Final, but also five matches at the FIFA World Cup, including the opening match, all three matches in Group A of the second group stage and the semi-final between Poland and Italy. Subsequent renovations meant that by 1999, the stadium's capacity had reached 115,000.
Due to UEFA regulations regarding standing at football matches, the Camp Nou's terraced sections were closed for the 1999 Champions League final, reducing the capacity to approximately 92,000. Of these, around two-thirds were reserved for the two finalist clubs. The remaining third was divided between fans of FC Barcelona, UEFA, and competition sponsors. After an initial announcement that the clubs would only receive 25,000 tickets each, the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association called that figure "ridiculous", claiming it would push black market prices to "astronomical levels"; the group's spokesman, Lee Hodgkiss, suggested a figure closer to 50,000 would be more appropriate, given the stadium's usual capacity of around 115,000. Despite the club receiving only 30,000 tickets, it was estimated that up to 100,000 Manchester United fans travelled to Barcelona for the final, paying around £300 for flights and around £1,000 for match tickets. Many were able to buy tickets from touts, who had paid up to £400 to buy from Barcelona fans who had bought through their club for the equivalent of £28.
As well as reducing the capacity of the stadium, UEFA also mandated that the Camp Nou pitch be narrowed by from to, to match UEFA's 'standard' pitch size.