Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

What did Ole do the night before the final?

Friday 24 May 2019 10:45

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could not sleep on the night before Manchester United faced Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final - but it was not down to pre-match nerves.

The Scandinavian striker was sharing a room with Jaap Stam and the big Dutch defender's snoring was keeping Ole awake!

It led to him making a call to a friend and predicting something special would happen at the end of the game.

Video
Watch the manager relive his famous Nou Camp goal with MUTV's Mark Sullivan.

Solskjaer, of course, came off the bench to help spark one of the dramatic conclusions ever in a European final as the German champions were beaten 2-1 in Barcelona.

Ole sat down with MUTV's Mark Sullivan for a special feature as he reviewed some of the key moments from the epic campaign, and the full 18-minute video is now exclusively available in our Official App.

"There are a couple of things that come to mind, including the flight we took from Manchester to Barcelona with Concorde," he recalled to MUTV.

"That made me feel sick, so I didn’t enjoy that one at all. When we got to Barcelona we stayed in a nice place just outside there. I stayed in a room with Jaap Stam, who was snoring all the time when we were sleeping, but just the excitement of being in a Champions League final was fantastic.

“My best friend, he’s a nurse, I rang him because Jaap was snoring and I couldn’t sleep, so I went out to the balcony. I rang him and asked if he was going to watch the game and he said he had to leave before the full-time whistle because he had a night shift. I told him that you’ve got to make sure you finish watching the game, because I feel that something special is going to happen.”

Every United fan has seen the winning goal hundreds, if not thousands of times, as Ole prodded the ball into the roof of Oliver Kahn's net, after Teddy Sheringham headed on David Beckham's corner.

"I can’t really remember what I was thinking [before my goal], but, of course, we had just scored [with Sheringham's equaliser] so we had the momentum. I think we all believed that we could get the winner, just as we already had done so many times that season.

“It’s one of those moments when you come outside of your body really because you follow the ball. I’m tightly marked by the Bayern Munich defender and, as the ball is floated in, it’s not going to reach me or the area we’re in.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer enjoys the historic moment at the Nou Camp, as he completed the Treble for United.

"So I think the defender lost his concentration and I think he maybe followed the ball and was watching the ball more than watching me, so he let go of me.

“As a striker, I'm always the optimist. You have to hope that the ball lands in your area. It did and then it was just about getting my toe to it.”

The full, fascinating interview with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer about the Treble season is now showing exclusively in our Official App. Download the app here.

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