The Manchester United squad is on their way to Barcelona for tomorrow night’s quarter-final second leg. Having lost 1-0 at home, we will be up against it, but having overturned a 2-0 deficit in the last round, our fans will still have hope we can do something at the Nou Camp.
For Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, it means returning to the stadium where he scored the injury-time winner against Bayern Munich in 1999 to win us in the Treble. In an interview with ESPN, he has talked about what this will mean to him.
I don’t believe in fate but I do believe that you get what you deserve. Sometimes things are meant to be if you really go it. I’m not the type to think: ‘This makes me proud.’ I will feel the butterflies, I will be excited. I cannot wait to get going because it’s the biggest stage. It’s against the best club of the last 10 or 15 years. Since Guardiola took over they have been absolutely brilliant.
After Teddy Sheringham equalised, Solskjaer believed he had 30 minutes of a Champions League final to look forward to. Instead, he scored the winner!
I was quite focused on what was going to come. My feeling was that I had 30 minutes in a Champions League final and I had to make the most of it. I felt great and I was just looking forward to doing something in extra time. But I went and ruined it.
Solskjaer slid on his knees in celebration and it was rumoured this was the injury that kept him out for over a season years down the line, but our manager reveals that isn’t correct.
That’s not true. I did get injured and I did tweak my medial ligament. It was nothing to do with my injury but I missed two or three weeks and a couple of internationals for Norway but it was worth it. The celebration was worth it.
I’ve seen [the goal] so many times. I cannot remember exactly what I felt because I was so focused on my job. I think it was bigger for everyone else around. I just did my job as a striker, something I’d done so many times before. It was just being in the right position at the right time.
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