Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson feels that the Red Devils’ dramatic 1999 Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich was not accidental and that his team’s fierce desire to win the prestigious trophy helped them defeat the Bavarians.

Ferguson’s side looked down and out as they headed to full-time 1-0 down against Ottmar Hitzfeld’s side, who were ahead courtesy of a sixth minute strike from Mario Basler. But Manchester United’s substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored in the 91st and 93rd minutes of stoppage time to register an improbable victory over the German outfit.




It was the first Champions League trophy for Ferguson and he believes that his team’s late heroics were no fluke and that his team had shown their intense desire to win throughout the 1998/99 season and their indefatigable attitude pulled them through on the highest stage as well.

“It wasn't an accident”, Ferguson told UEFA.
 


“That team did it so many times that season.

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“They had a fantastic desire to win, they had a great team spirit, a great character about the team and they deserved to [win] simply because they kept doing it.”

Ferguson took the reins of Manchester United in 1986 and remained at the helm of the club for an unprecedented 27 years before he retired from management in 2013. The 1999 Champions League triumph at the Camp Nou was the first European Cup for the Old Trafford-based outfit in 31 years.

And the Scotsman believes that their triumph put a lot of doubts regarding their ability to win the prestigious trophy to rest.

“To win the final in '99, it put everything to bed.

"All my fears, all my inner desires to do it were encapsulated in how we did it that night, to score the two goals in the last three minutes.”

It is not just the victory that pleases the 73-year-old, but also the manner in which it was achieved. Scoring deep into injury time gave Bayern Munich almost no time to stage a comeback and Ferguson feels that there was not any better way to win the trophy than the way his team did.

“You couldn't do it a better way because there was no comeback.

“You know, if you're going to do something special, as late as that is fantastic.”

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