Manchester United plays Barcelona in the Champions League final on Sunday. The game will do well to compare with the dramatic 1999 and 2005 finals. Which of those was greater? Online editor Sean Flaherty and sports editor Hayden Meikle argue their respective cases.
Manchester United 2, Bayern Munich 1
Flaherty's case:
1 Sheer rip-snorting excitement.
There's never been a finish like it. In the 89th minute, Man United was dead and buried. Bayern Munich led 1-0 and had subbed off skipper Lothar Matthaus, who clapped the crowd, sure of his winner's medal. Bayern ribbons had even been attached to the trophy.
Out of nowhere, United equalised 30 seconds into injury time. Two minutes later United scored again with the last kick of the game. The stadium went nuts, and the Bayern players slumped like they had been shot.
2 The last-chance saloon.
Alex Ferguson had rolled the dice, subbing on two strikers - Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - in desperation. Sheringham got the first goal, Solskjaer the second. To prepare well and win feels good. To gamble and win feels so much better.
3 The old enemy.
An English team hadn't won the European Cup since 1984 and England hadn't beaten Germany in a competitive international match since the mid-1960s. I was watching it in the UK with a Derby County fan and an Aston Villa fan - both of whom profess to hate United.
When the winner went in both jumped around like little kids hugging each other and screaming and shouting as if England had won the World Cup.
4 The treble.
This win put the icing on an unprecedented cake with Man United also winning the Premier League and the FA Cup.
5 The old enemy, part two.
Nothing beats beating the Germans.
Hilariously, Matthaus was so gutted he refused to put on his loser's medal. Even funnier, a young Bayern fan told me years later that the Germans, seemingly missing the drama of the whole thing, were instead obsessed with Thorsten Fink's poor clearance which led to the first United goal. "We have analysed this and still we cannot understand why he made this particular error."
Liverpool 3, AC Milan 3 (Liverpool 3-2 on penalties
Meikle's case:
1 Coming back from the dead.
Down 3-0 at halftime. To an Italian team. You don't come back from that, not even in Fifa 11. But special hearts beat inside Liverpool shirts. What followed was arguably the greatest single-game comeback in professional sport.
2 Bang, bang, bang.
Just like that, Liverpool climbed back into the final. And it took, oh, all of SIX minutes. Captain Stevie Gerrard heads in a cross. Vladimir Smicer slots one past the big Brazilian goalie Dida.
Xabi Alonso takes a penalty, Dida SAVES, and Alonso buries the rebound. It's 3-3 and I am screaming like a little girl, much to the disgust of the woman who would become my wife.
3 Old Spaghetti Legs
The final goes to extra time. The teams are tiring but Liverpool keeper Jerzy Dudek makes a great double save from Andriy Shevchenko. Dudek then turns penalty shootout hero, going all wobbly a la Bruce Grobbelaar to distract the Milan kickers, saving two shots and watching another sail over the bar. Didi Hamann, Djibril Cisse and Smicer score to send Liverpudlians delirious.
4 The new gaffer
Rafa Benitez had barely been in the job a year. Istanbul secured his legacy forever.
5 The "Champions" League
Liverpool didn't even make the top four in the Premier League that season.
It actually needed to win the final to be certain of staying in the competition the following year. And with a team including such non-luminaries as Djimi Traore, Milan Baros and a half-fit Harry Kewell, the Reds were heavy underdogs.
The were down 1-0 after 60 seconds, and down 3-0 at halftime. They were dead and buried. But they found a way to win. As (fingers crossed) Barcelona will do on Sunday.
