On 26 May 1999, at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Manchester United and Bayern Munich played the Champions League final in front of 90,245 spectators. On 26 May 2027 it will be 28 years since the most incredible ending to any final. Bayern led until the 90th minute but never lifted the cup.

Two teams chasing the treble

The two sides had already met in the same group, which Bayern won with United second. United had started in the qualifiers against Poland's ŁKS Łódź, and Bayern against Serbia's Obilić. The English then knocked out Inter and Juventus, 4-3 on aggregate, while the Germans beat Kaiserslautern 6-0 and Dynamo Kyiv 4-3.

Alex Ferguson's team had already won the Premier League and the FA Cup. Ottmar Hitzfeld's Bayern were German champions with a cup final still to come. In the group the Germans had collected 11 points and the English 10.

It was a warm evening in Barcelona, 21 degrees Celsius, and the referee was Italy's Pierluigi Collina.

Without Keane and Scholes

United played without the suspended Roy Keane and Paul Scholes. The captain was goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, in his last game for the club, and Beckham moved into the centre alongside Butt.

Bayern were missing the injured Lizarazu and Élber. Their armband was also worn by a goalkeeper, Oliver Kahn, while Lothar Matthäus played as sweeper.

Red against silver

United won the coin toss for colours and wore their European kit: red shirts, white shorts and white socks. Bayern played all in silver with maroon trim.

At the end, ribbons in both teams' colours had already been tied to the trophy. UEFA president Lennart Johansson had left the stand before the finish so as to be ready for the presentation.

Bayern one step from glory

As early as the 6th minute Mario Basler curled a low free kick around the wall for 1-0. Bayern then missed chances to put the final away. A chip by Scholl, after a run by Basler, hit the post and bounced into Schmeichel's arms.

Around the 75th minute Schmeichel kept United in the game by tipping an Effenberg shot over the bar. Hitzfeld, meanwhile, took off Matthäus about ten minutes from time.

Ferguson sent on Teddy Sheringham for Blomqvist and, around the 80th minute, Ole Gunnar Solskjær for Cole. Those two changes wrote history.

In the last ten minutes Kahn saved a Solskjær header, and a minute later an overhead kick by Jancker struck the crossbar. United were still alive.

90+1, 90+3

In the first minute of stoppage time, after a Beckham corner, Giggs mishit a shot and Sheringham swept the ball into the corner for 1-1. Two minutes later, again from a Beckham corner, Sheringham headed it on and Solskjær made it 2-1.

Collina later described the noise of the crowd at the final whistle as a lion's roar. Matthäus took off his runners-up medal at once, and Schmeichel lifted the cup together with Ferguson. The Scottish manager summed up the whole night on television in three words: "Football, bloody hell".

Why it went down in history

United became the first English team to win the league, the FA Cup and the European Cup in the same season. They were also the first English winners since the ban that followed Heysel, and it was the club's first European Cup since 1968.

On 12 June 1999 Ferguson was knighted, becoming Sir Alex, while Schmeichel left for Sporting. Bayern, who also lost the German Cup final to Werder Bremen on penalties, were left with only the league title. For fans, the red shirt of that night is one of the most treasured in the club's history.

See our Champions League club jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: the Manchester United and Bayern Munich teams line up before the 1999 final – Seán Murray, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.