Former Manchester United striker Teddy Sheringham has opened up on the ecstasy of leading the team to Champions League glory in 1999.
Not only was Sheringham a part of the famous treble-winning United side, but he came off the bench to score the equaliser and bag the assist for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's injury-time winner. Not bad.
Sheringham actually joined Solskjaer on the bench to start the game, with Sir Alex Ferguson favouring the iconic duo of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, but the two starters were powerless to find a way through Bayern, who took an early lead through Mario Basler.
"Sir Alex came to me at half-time and we were losing 1-0 and he said 'just to let you know son, if we’re still losing 1-0 after 15 minutes, you're going to be going on so make sure you're ready'," Sheringham recalled to UEFA. "So, I sat there for the next 15 minutes thinking 'please don’t score, someone please don't score'.
"Man Utd supporters might not understand that or like the sound of it, but I wanted to be part of this game, so I sat there every time someone attacked, 'please don't score'. When he gave me the nod that I was going on... I remember standing on the side of the pitch and he whispered to me 'just go out there and change the game for us, you've done it a few times this season. Go out there and do your best to change the game'."
Sheringham entered in the 67th minute, but like Cole and Yorke before him, he struggled to get through Bayern's stubborn defence, and all hope appeared lost when the clock ticked over into the 91st minute.
United won themselves a corner. Up came goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel to try and save the day, but that job was left to Sheringham. The striker was in the right place at the right time to meet a shot from Ryan Giggs and convert the ball into the back of the net to set up a famous finale.
"I tried to hit it as hard as I could, but it scuffed off my sock, off my ankle and scuffed past the goalkeeper," he continued. "I knew I was onside but as I turned away to go and celebrate I just had to look over my shoulder to make sure the linesman didn’t put his flag up. I saw him with his hands down, and it was like 'wow I'm off, I’m going to celebrate right in front of the Manchester United fans up against the fence there'.
"They were going absolutely nuts, everyone jumped on us and it's like, 'right we’re back in this game, we have got a chance of winning this now and this is going to extra time'. Little did we know, 20 seconds later, Ole got the ball up on the left wing, tried to take the defender on, tried to cross it took a deflection went out for another corner."
The fans roared as David Beckham went across to take the corner, and Sheringham wanted a second goal.
"I get in the box and now I'm feeling ten feet tall," he said. "I'm thinking to Becks, 'we've done this on so many occasions, you put it exactly where I like it, I'm going to head it and I'm going to score'.
"As he put the ball in, I got across my man. I rose up to head it, but I instinctively knew that I had jumped a little too early. If I headed it for goal, it would go over the bar. I thought all I could do was head it into an area at the far post and hope that one of my mates was there.
"I was off balance, but I saw Ole put it into the roof of the net. The ecstasy from everyone... it just exploded. The Bayern end went completely dead, the players were lying on the floor, and we were just... how do you explain that? These things don't happen.
"Ole went off over to the same part of the fence that I'd celebrated at. The subs came running on, it was just mayhem. We waked back to the centre circle about two minutes after the goal. 20 seconds after that, the final whistle went and it was pure ecstasy. People ask 'is scoring a goal better than sex?', and I think, that night, it was."
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Source : 90min