Sheringham: I named my house after that night!
No matter how many times Manchester United play at the Nou Camp - and this Thursday's game will be the seventh occasion - our appearance there in May 1999 is unlikely to ever be topped in terms of spine-tingling drama and emotion.
One of the protagonists in that incredible Treble-clinching game, Teddy Sheringham, is this week's very special guest on the UTD Podcast and he takes great pleasure in recalling how Sir Alex Ferguson's Reds scored twice in injury time to beat Bayern Munich 2-1 and win the Champions League final.
Even if, as the former striker says in the episode, "I think I've told this story 15,000 times. People want to tell me where they were when they were watching it. Whether they smashed the lights out in their bedroom. Or they were watching in a bar in South Africa with a load of Germans. They want to hear my story and they want to tell me theirs.
"You think then, 'I hope I do this in a cup final at some stage. I hope I do it in a Champions League final. I've watched all these other players do it and one day that might be me.' And I've done it, I was there and now we can pass on the excitement and the buzz of what it felt like.
"[People say] 'Go on, tell me how it felt Ted.' This is how it felt."
Sheringham almost becomes a match commentator in the episode as he recalls vividly the action leading up to his equaliser, which he scored in the 91st minute when Bayern had looked home and hosed at 1-0.
"Becks puts the corner into the box, it goes to the far post and Yorkie tries to head it back into the box," says Teddy, beginning the tale with the first of two deadly David Beckham set pieces.
"[Peter] Schmeichel's up there so you know we're running out of time. [Stefan] Effenberg tries to hit it out as hard as he can but he shanks it and it's fallen to Giggsy on his right foot, and I thought, 'This could go anywhere.' I bet he [Ryan Giggs] was thinking that too! Luckily for us, he scuffed it along the floor, I had a swing at it, it came off about here - off the sock - and screwed into the bottom corner.
"I was on a half-turn from where Giggsy was, and there was a fella on the line. As Giggsy shot, he [the defender] was jogging up so by the time the ball got to me, the linesman could have made a bad decision and thought that I was offside. As I've scuffed it in, I've thought to myself, 'Please don't put your flag up, linesman.'
"As I wheeled away to celebrate, I just had a quick look over my shoulder and saw that his flag was still down. And it was like 'Wow, let's go nuts!'"
Teddy Sheringham – “This is the pinnacle”
podcastTreble hero Teddy Sheringham tells all about his footballing journey that led to him emerging as a key figure at the climax of the unforgettable 1998/99 season. The striker discusses his time at Millwall, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham and United, and his decision to leave his beloved Spurs in order to win trophies. When his father informed him of United’s interest, he didn’t hesitate and he was taken aback by a ‘proper football club’. Ironically, his Treble campaign was far from his best, until the final three games and those 11 mad days, as he had to compete for a place with Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Teddy reveals the talks with Sir Alex and the belief the manager had that he would be needed, before his dramatic impact in the FA Cup and Champions League finals. Sheringham recounts the closing stages of the win over Bayern Munich in vivid detail and explains why it has inspired the naming of his house! Check out another unmissable episode of the UTD Podcast! If you'd like to write to the only official Manchester United Podcast then e-mail utdpodcast@manutd.co.uk The best place to catch up on the back-catalogue of our interviews is over on the Manchester United App, where you can listen to - and watch - all of our episodes in full. Here you can get early access to new episodes, published 24 hours before everywhere else. We'd also love it if you could leave us a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcasts.
At that point, it seemed to most onlookers that Sheringham had merely secured extra-time by saving his team from a deflating defeat.
Teddy admits in the UTD Podcast: "Me and Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] actually had a conversation getting back to the halfway line and we said, 'Brilliant! We're going to have another half-hour.'
"He loved playing football as much as I did, so we were just thinking we're going to have another half-hour in the Camp Nou, playing on this stage, in this setting. We were both buzzing about that. We were like a pair of kids excited for our first game of football."
As it transpired, of course, Teddy's goal has actually teed up the greatest grandstand finish of them all, and it was only moments away.
"Little did we know that half a minute later, Ole's gone down the left wing, he's tried to whip a ball in, it hits the defender and goes out for a corner. I can see Becks running across [to take it]. Now I'm obviously feeling ten feet tall, I've just scored the equaliser in the Champions League final. I was thinking, 'Becks, just put it in an area where you know I want to attack the ball and I'll jump above anybody. I'm ready, I'm buzzing.' I'm tingling with the thought of it, I've just scored one, I'm going to score another, go on!
"As he's run up to take it, I take my defender away to make him think I'm going to the far post and then make a hard run towards the near post. 'Put it in there, Becks!' And he's put it in a beautiful area. As I'm running to get up, I've jumped and I want to head it back inside the near post. You talk about the instincts of what goes on in a footballer's mind, and I instinctively thought, if I head it there for that near post, I'm up that slightly too early and it's going to go over the bar. So all I can do is flick it on to the far post and hope that someone's there.
"I didn't want to waste that opportunity and so it was 'bump, head it into that area' and out of the corner of my eye, as I'm falling away, I see Ole poke it into the top corner. It was like 'Oh my God! Let's go!' And he ran to the same place that I ran to. All the players came over, all the subs came over, in front of the Man United fans and it was like 'can you believe what we've just done?"
Classic Match: United 2-1 Bayern Munich
The Reds came from behind to beat Bayern Munich, win the Champions League and seal an unprecedented Treble in 1999...
As well as giving Teddy his third winner's medal, at the end of only his second season at United, that incredible match also left him with memories to treasure and stories to share for a lifetime.
And it also inspired him to commemorate the momentous evening in a special way, as he revealed to UTD Podcast hosts Sam Homewood, Helen Evans and David May, the latter being a team-mate of his in that unprecedented season of success in 1998/99.
"I had a house built in 2005 and at the end, when it was finished, it was the perfect house, so I called it Camp Nou after that fantastic night."
The full UTD Podcast featuring Teddy Sheringham is available now on ManUtd.com and the United App. Fans will also be able to find it on other streaming services from 17:00 GMT on Tuesday.