Football Memories: Real Madrid V Manchester United 2003

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

How it Played Out

From the onset, it was clear both teams were advocates of an attacking football policy in keeping with their tradition, popularity and class.

But it was Manchester United who found out for the first time in a long time what it was like to be outclassed purely on football terms during long portions of the first leg. Twenty-five year old Raul was lethal in front of goal, bagging a brace.

Alex Ferguson's answer to Real's creativity in midfield was to field both Butt (whom Pele famously called the player of the 2002 world cup) and Roy Keane as holding midfielders.

Figo chipped over Barthez (...oh how we laughed at Barthez over the yers) in a moment of sheer audacity. Wes Brown had a panic attack seeing Ronaldo come at him, full speed, in his prime. A penalty could easily have made the second tie redundant.

Van Nistelrooy who went on to attain a club record of 44/52 matches that season kept United in the tie but in truth it was Paul Scholes and the substitution of Mikael Silvestre for John O'Shea that kept United in the tie. You have to believe me when I say O'Shea was a world-class attacking left-back in his debut season and so he proved over both legs, memorably (for me as an Irishman) nutmegging Figo.

Scholes, typical of the temper of the man, was to mss the all important second leg through suspension.

The first leg was brilliant. The second leg reinvented the wheel. It is said Roman Abramovich watched this match and made up his mind to ruin football by buying a football club having been so impressed.

The match had everything.

Ronaldo put in arguably one of his defining performances scoring a hat trick at Old Trafford. He left to a standing ovation from the home crowd. David Beckham was dropped for Solskjaer who played a blinder himself and was unfortunate not to be on the scoresheet.

By halftime I distinctly remember the late George Best looking crushed in studio. United now needed three goals to go through and provided Ronaldo, Zidane and co. couldn't fashion another goalscoring opportunity-which barring a sudden bout of typhus in the away dressing room didn't seem likely.

But United, in a testament to the never-say-die attitude of that team (which helped them somehow claw back Arsenal in the PL race that year), kept going. David Beckham's cameo off the bench was in my opinion the best I've seen him play since and it was all in anger at his manager too.

Everytime Madrid threatened to pull away United replied with a goal and in Helguera's, case an own goal. It was end to end stuff as Ronaldo's opener had forced Fergie to throw the kitchen sink at Madrid. 

With United's fourth goal, Madrid were on the ropes having also taken off Ronaldo and the strangely impressive ex-Liverpool favourite Steve McManaman for Solari and Portillo.

Unfortunately, as a United supporter at the time (Roy Keane's, best Irish player of his generation-go figure) it was not to be. Madrid progressed but the 180 minutes we had witnessed were a gift from the gods.

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