For a club to win any trophy, let alone three in one season, there usually has to be at least one moment of barely-believable, against-the-odds drama.
Manchester United’s 1999 Treble-winning campaign was perhaps the greatest in the club’s illustrious history and had plenty of these sorts of moments.
You may like
Nicky Butt on Manchester United’s comeback in Turin
Nicky Butt plays a pass in the 1999 Champions League final againt Bayern Munich (Image credit: Getty)
After seeing off Inter Milan in the quarter-finals, Sir Alex Ferguson’s side were again handed Italian opposition in the semis, and after drawing 1-1 with Juventus at Old Trafford, they needed to go and beat the Italian champions in their own backyard.
“Everyone talks about the final, but for me, the best feeling was that Juve game in Turin,” former Reds Devils midfielder Nicky Butt tells FourFourTwo. “It’s up there with winning it, because nobody beat Juve away, ever.
Following the win over Juve, Manchester United would claim a dramatic victory over Bayern Munich in the final (Image credit: Getty Images)
“Certainly not after going 2-0 down in 11 minutes like we did.”
Ferguson’s side found themselves down early thanks to a Filippo Inzaghi brace, with an inspired Roy Keane leading the fightback when he netted on 24 minutes before Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole sealed the comeback, which saw them become the first English side to reach the final for 14 years.
The victory also set up a final against Bayern Munich at Camp Nou, which has gone down in history and saw the club lift their first European Cup since 1968.
“We’d finally f**king got there – we’d failed so many times,” Butt continues. “My lad plays now and I say to him that failure is a massive part of it. We failed so many times between 1995 and 1999.
“The pressure of that Treble, I was f**king knackered after. I can remember getting on the bus after the final and went… [Mimes collapsing into his seat].
Butt admits the squad was exhausted after the open top bus parade (Image credit: Getty Images)
“I’ve got a lot of mates who are big City fans that told me, “I’d never say it publicly, but I was buzzing for you.”
“Only because of the way we did it – if we’d won it in normal time or 3-1, then it would have been different.”
The Good, The Bad & The Football with Scholes, Butt and McGuinness is a new weekly video podcast, available on all major podcast platforms and YouTube
Discover more from 6up.net
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.