#10 Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal 28/08/2011
Arsenal came to Old Trafford in confident mood and fancied their chances against an inexperienced United side who’s average age was 23. After United had took the lead through local boy Danny Welbeck, United’s under fire keeper David De Gea saved a Van Persie Penalty. United were 3-1 up at half time with spectacular goals from Rooney and Young. The second half saw Rooney complete his hat trick with Young, Park and Nani adding further goals as United went on the rampage. It was Arsenals heaviest defeat in the Premier League and the first time United had scored eight goals at Old Trafford since they put nine past Ipswich in 1995. Free-kicks, Penalty saves, Red cards, spectacular goals, this game prevailed as one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatest ever matches.
#9 Manchester United 7-1 Roma 10/04/2007
After the Reds were beaten 2-1 in the first leg in Rome, Sir Alex Ferguson appeared surprisingly optimistic coming into this game as Rooney’s away goal, despite having ten men, meant that United had gave themselves a lifeline. As it turned out, United could have lost by six in the first game as they plundered seven goals past a shell-shocked Roma side. The Reds were 4-0 up at half time and Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first two Champions league goals in a United jersey. This together with goals from Smith, Rooney, Evra and a brace from Michael Carrick meant that United had won by the biggest margin in the knock-out stages of the Champions League and to Fergie’s own admission, this was the finest European night ever to be staged at Old Trafford.
#8 Tottenham 3-5 Manchester United 29/09/2002
United’s poor start to the 2001/02 season continued at White Hart Lane when the Reds conceded three first half goals against a rampant Tottenham side who had title ambitions of their own. Fergie’s man had already shipped in 10 goals in their opening five games and United fans started to fear the worst as a heavy defeat was on the cards. However comebacks have been synonymous with the Sir Alex Ferguson years and when Andy Cole pulled one back right after the restart the champions started to kick into gear. Just before the hour a Laurent Blanc header cut the deficit to one and then two goals in six minutes by Ruud Van Nistelrooy and SebastianVeron put the Reds In front. They had risen from the dead in biblical fashion, the term ‘a game of two halves’ had a new meaning and Sir Alex Ferguson knew his team was capable of coming back from anything. David Beckham then made it 5-3 to United and what started to look like a big win for Spurs ended up with United show-boating in the final few minutes.
#7 Manchester United 4-3 Manchester City 20/09/2007
In the most hyped up Manchester Derby for years City came to Old Trafford with host of new signings which included ex-United striker Carlos Tevez. The game lived up to its billing as an electric first half saw Rooney put United in front only for Gareth Barry to equalise after capitalising on a mistake by Ben Foster. In the second half, two Darren Fletcher headers either side of a Bellamy long-ranger put united 3-2 in the lead. With the game entering the 90th minute, Bellamy intercepted a lazy Ferdinand pass to equalise for the visitors. As the game appeared to be heading for a draw four minutes of added time was held up by the fourth official. However due to City’s long celebration and a tactical substitute by Sir Alex Ferguson, the game drifted into the sixth minute of injury time. As United started to throw everything forward and the game set into a panic, Ryan Giggs kept his head to produce a pinpoint pass to Michael Owen in the box. City fans had ridiculed United with billboards for replacing Tevez with a freebie and so it became all the more sweeter when Owen stroked home the winner to give United a 4-3 win and silence the noisy neighbours.
#6 Barcelona 1-2 Manchester United 15/05/1991
Sir Alex Ferguson once described Mark Hughes as his best ‘big game player’. In terms of big games, this was the biggest that Fergie had been involved in to date and so inevitably Sparky didn’t disappoint in what turned out to be a memorable night in Rotterdam. With the European powerhouse of Barcelona already winning the league that year, the Spanish champions went into this game as firm favourites with players such as Koeman, Bakero and Laudrup looking to take the limelight once again. United raised their game to a new level however, and after Hughes claimed the first goal in the second half after a Steve Bruce header from a free kick, Sparky broke free to round their keeper and from a seemingly impossible angle he smashed the ball into the Barca net. The Spanish champions pulled one back, but the Reds hung on in one of their greatest nights of football. As the crowd sang “Always look on the bright side of life” in the pouring rain, Ferguson claimed that his team were now ready to win the league – and he was right.
#5 Manchester United 1-2 Sheffield Wednesday 10/04/1993
After 26 long years United seemed destined to fall short in the league once again. After going behind midway through the second half, time started to run out on United’s title challenge so not for the first time Fergie sent Steve Bruce up the field as a make shift centre forward. The gamble paid of as Bruce equalised with a header just before the ninety minutes were up. Despite this late revival a draw would have still been two points dropped under the circumstances and so the Reds continued to pile forward. In the days before the fourth official held the number of added minutes up, United fans remained in the dark about how long they had left to save their season. The game seemed to go on and on with United applying all the pressure, until finally after seven minutes of injury time Steve Bruce scored the winner with another header to send Old Trafford into raptures, and send Bryan Kidd and Sir Alex Ferguson onto the pitch in celebration. The title dream was back on and the term ‘Fergie time’ entered the English dictionary.
#4 Juventus 2-3 Manchester United 1999 21/04/1999
Manchester United were 2-0 down to Juventus in Turin after 11 minutes, and after scraping a 1-1 draw in the first leg of this semi-final at Old Trafford, United found themselves with the task of overturning a 3-1 deficit. United captain Roy Keane pulled one back for the Reds with a header midway through the first half to give United hope, but then moments later the Irishman was booked for a foul on Zinedine Zidane. This booking meant that Keane would miss the Champions League final, however where most player’s heads would have dropped, Roy Keane re-wrote the manual on influential midfield play by producing one of the finest performances ever by a man in the famous red shirt. The Captain grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and almost single-handedly dragged the Reds into the Champions League final. The game finished 3-2 and United were going to Barcelona, but sadly for Roy, he wasn’t. United went on to win the Champions League with out him on a historic night against Bayern Munich, but nobody forgot how they got there with one of the greatest performances ever seen by Manchester United in an away European tie.
#3 Arsenal 1-2 Manchester United (aet) 14/04/1999
After the first game finished 0-0, United rung the changes to the dismay of many as Cole and Yorke were left out of the starting line-up and Ryan Giggs was on the bench. However, despite their absences the game itself had everything. United took the lead with a Beckham special and looked in control for most of the game until midway through the second half their quest for the treble imploded and they looked like coming up short. First Arsenal equalised through a deflected Bergkamp effort, then the Gunners had a goal disallowed for offside which took them 30 seconds to realise. Roy Keane was then sent off for a second booking and as united tried to hold on, they conceded a penalty in the last minute of the game. Peter Schmeichel in his last season for United saved Bergkamp’s spot-kick and United lived on into extra-time. United were hanging on for their F.A. Cup lives with their ten men against the reigning Double holders and Schmeichel had to be repeatedly called into action. Soon United were hanging on for a penalty shoot-out but a sloppy pass by Vieira in gave the ball to Ryan Giggs in his own half. With running down the clock being the order of the day, the Welsh wizard looked ahead at what was in front of him, it was the best defence in Europe who just did not concede goals. They were the gate-keepers to United’s chance of a treble and the best hope that Ryan Giggs has was to run the ball down to the corner flag. Giggsy had a different plan though, a plan so unbelievable that it would bring football history to its knees. He turned each member of Arsenals back four inside out then smashed the ball past the England number one to give United the most unlikeliest of leads. The Reds hung on and soon the impossible dream became more probable for Sir Alex Ferguson.
#2 Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea (5-4 on Penalties) 21/05/2008
50 years after the Munich air disaster, United found themselves involved in another historic football match. The Reds dominated most of the first half and should have been three or four goals up, but they had to settle to one from the head of Cristiano Ronaldo. Just before the break the ball broke kindly for Frank Lampard and the game was locked at 1-1. This lifted the Chelsea team and subsequently they looked like the more likely winners as they twice hit the woodwork, however sometimes destiny is a force that cannot be beaten. There was no resolution in extra-time so the game was to be decided on penalties and after Ronaldo missed his spot-kick John Terry, the captain of Chelsea, strutted to the penalty spot one kick away from lifting the Champions League. All of a sudden Sir Alex had to rely on our old friend, fate. As United fans closed their eyes and as their hearts pumped the red of Manchester United around their souls, as the game entered the day that George Best was born, on the day Ryan Giggs broke Bobby Charlton’s appearance record and as Sir Matt and the Busby babes looked down from the gates of football heaven, John Terry miraculously slipped and his shot just seemed to be repelled by Edwin Van der Sar’s goal mouth and ended up going wide. The momentum switched in favour of United and after Ryan Giggs had put them ahead in sudden death, Edwin Van der Sar saved Nicolas Anelka’s penalty to claim Sir Alex Ferguson’s second European Cup as manager of Manchester United.
#1 Manchester United 2-1 Bayern Munich 26/05/1999
In the biggest game of all, United had gone behind to a team so efficiently German that an equaliser seemed like the most unlikely scenario in the 1999 Champions League final at the Nou Camp. The Bayern Munich defenders knew who they marking, when they were marking them and how they should be marked. This was the situation until the Great Dane himself Peter Schmeichel pottered forward into the Bayern box. For the first time in the game the German champions did not know who to mark, and as the ball was cleared, the Bayern defenders were drawn to Schmeichel’s Green jersey like flies to a blue lamp. This confusion allowed substitute Teddy Sheringham to convert a sequence of miss-kicks into the Bayern goal 30 seconds into stoppage time after trailing 1-0 since the 6
th minute from a Mario Basler free kick. United’s late leveller looked to have dramatically forced the game into extra-time, but this was Matt Busby’s 90
th birthday, this was against a team from Munich, so unfortunately the footballing Gods had other ideas. In the third minute of stoppage time, another corner from David Beckham was flicked on by Sheringham and in the greatest comeback of all ‘Solskjaer had won it’. This impossible dream was realised and Sir Alex Ferguson achieved a feat that set him apart from every other manager in the history of the game.
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