NOT YOU LOT AGAIN

Last updated : 23 February 2003 By Editor

"At that time, we thought of ourselves as the best side in Europe," Conte says, remembering the circum- stances of that epic second leg in Turin. "We felt a respect from everybody we played against. We felt strong. Wherever we went in Europe, we managed to dominate.

"I didn’t sleep for a week before the second leg.

"It happens, what — once every 20 or 30 years that a team like Juve is winning 2-0 at home and then gets beaten? It was the most incredible thing.

"They kept playing calmly, never lost their nerve. He (RK) was the heart and soul, the emblem of that team. The strikers, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, tore us to pieces in both legs and complement- ed each other perfectly, but in a team full of champions, Keane was the conductor.

"His goal totally changed the game. It hit us psychologically, frightened us, and that started weighing really heavily on the players.

"We were 11 players in a trance. We just couldn’t get properly into the game, we could not understand what was going on."

Ferguson’s side went on to win the Treble, Juve to a June date in the Intertoto Cup. "I remember it bitterly," shrugs Conte.

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