The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 290: Champions League defeat in Türkiye

"Everything is difficult at the beginning, and the same is true for Ferguson's campaign in the Champions League. But the difficulty Ferguson encountered at the beginning of Manchester United's campaign was even twice as difficult as usual, and it was directly raised to the level of hell."

--Inscription

Ferguson led the Red Devils to the European Cup as the Premier League champions this season, marking the beginning of their campaign in the Champions League.

Ferguson and the Red Devils were both newcomers in the Champions League, so they naturally encountered a series of difficulties. Ferguson encountered the most unfriendly away environment and the most incredible black whistle.

Compared with the English FA Cup, the history of the European Cup is as young as a baby. The event was first held in the 1955-1956 season. However, the European Cup brings together the champions of various European leagues and has been the highest level of club competition in European football since its inception. This influence is unmatched by other cup competitions.

The European Cup was reformed in the 1992-1993 season and officially called the European Champions League. The competition system also changed from a pure elimination system to a compound elimination system, with three elimination rounds of matches, and the remaining 8 teams advanced. Then the 8 teams were divided into two groups, with 4 teams in each group playing home and away round-robin matches. The first place in the two groups entered the final and directly decided the champion. In the 1993-1994 season, the Champions League was changed to the top two teams in the two group matches advancing to the semi-finals, and the final team was decided through two rounds of semi-finals.

The Red Devils won the 1968 championship during Busby's coaching era, but they did not have the opportunity to participate in the Champions League until Ferguson's coaching era. The 24-year gap is really regrettable.

In the 93-94 UEFA Champions League, the Red Devils faced the Hungarian champion Budapest Patriots in the first round of the knockout round. The strength of Budapest Patriots was far from enough to compete with the Red Devils. The Red Devils first defeated their opponents 3-2 away from home and took the initiative to qualify. In the home game, more than 4 Red Devils fans witnessed a bloody scene: Captain Bruce broke his nose while fighting with his opponent, and his face was covered with blood, but he still insisted on playing with the injury. Not only that, Bruce suddenly showed his power in the second half, scoring two goals in 9 minutes, helping the team to win a big victory over the opponent. Before the end of the game, Ferguson deliberately replaced Bruce in advance, allowing him to enjoy the applause of the fans alone.

The Red Devils' opponent in the second round of the knockout match was Galatasaray, the champion of the Turkish League. The two sides had never played against each other before. The Red Devils played at home first and then away. The Red Devils played smoothly at home and soon scored two goals in 13 minutes. But after taking the lead, the Red Devils played too casually, giving the opponent an opportunity. The Turkish team launched a fierce offensive. Swiss international Türk Yilmaz and Turkish striker Arif helped the team score 3 goals in a row, and reversed the lead with 3-2. The Red Devils did not wake up until they fell behind in the score. They stepped up their offensive in the final stage of the game. Cantona scored a key goal at the last moment to equalize the score.

On November 1993, 11, the second round of the match between the two teams was moved to the Ali Samiyan Stadium in Istanbul. This was the first time in the history of the Red Devils to go to Turkey. Galatasaray's home stadium has always been nicknamed "Hell", and the madness of the fans is famous all over the world. From the moment the Red Devils arrived at Ataturk Airport, Galatasaray fans began to "intimidate" and "provoke" the Red Devils players. They pulled up banners at the airport that read "Welcome to Hell" and "Galatasaray Kill the Red Devils", shouting "Hey, this is your last 3 hours!", "You will be fucked to numbness!"... Following the team bus all the way to the hotel, they constantly besieged and harassed the Red Devils.

On the day of the match, the Ali Samiyan Stadium was packed with people and the fans used fire and loud voices to intimidate their opponents. Huge banners such as "Welcome to Hell" and "Welcome to the End of the World" were very eye-catching. Before the match started, the entire stadium was ablaze and filled with smoke, which really looked like hell.

Giggs was only 19 at the time and was a little terrified by the scene. Giggs later recalled, "I will never forget that crazy situation. Our bus was attacked by people throwing things, fans were shouting outside our hotel all night, making it hard for us to sleep, and some people even called our room. The craziest thing was that there were fans pretending to be waiters and knocking on our door in the middle of the night to harass us. The coach told us to stay calm, but I really couldn't do it. Galatasaray fans filled the huge stadium, there were flames everywhere, and the noise was deafening. The stadium was covered with smoke, they burned a lot of things, we were like a battlefield filled with smoke."

"Galatasaray coach Reiner Holman warned us, 'You're going to be in trouble,' and he was absolutely right," Erwin said. "Wherever we were, hundreds of Galatasaray fans were around us, chanting at us, some even getting in our faces."

"We were intimidated by the fans, who surrounded us, yelled at us like machine guns, and some threw eggs and tomatoes at us," Pallister said.

Ferguson also felt that his horizons were broadened. "One of the main reasons why Turkish teams are difficult to deal with is their fans and the atmosphere on the field. No matter which team comes here, it will be like this. They will have an experience like falling into hell. The fans seem to be engaged in a war. They have gone crazy."

The game started in such an atmosphere. The Red Devils were tied 3-3 at home, so they had to win or score more than 3 goals to qualify, so they launched an attack at the beginning of the game. However, the Red Devils players soon found that the game was very troublesome. The opponent was very rough and cunning, and all kinds of fouls were committed. The referee's penalty was obviously biased, always biased towards the home team. The Galatasaray players were rough and unbridled, committing frequent and extremely fierce fouls, delaying time when they were passive, pretending to be injured to delay the game... All of these were condoned by the referee. The referee seemed to allow them to commit all fouls, but Ferguson's team was always punished for scrambling.

Being treated so unfairly, the Red Devils players were quickly angered.

Red Devils striker Cantona smiled at the fans who were shouting at the top of their lungs when he entered the stadium. He later emphasized, "I know they are afraid of us. This kind of shouting is a manifestation of their being threatened, so they keep provoking. This is part of the game and I enjoy this atmosphere."

But the game soon made Cantona unhappy. The Frenchman began to find that his opponent was endlessly aggressing against him, and all kinds of dirty tricks were emerging one after another. When Cantona found that the referee was useless, he decided to speak with strength. Especially when he was pushed down hard and the referee ran by, when this did not happen, Cantona decided to fight back.

Cantona first knocked the referee down while running - it's hard to say whether he did it on purpose. When he was fighting with the Turkish players, Cantona used his physical strength to the extreme, not even caring where the ball flew. Once Cantona got up after being pushed down, and when the game continued, he also made a flying tackle on the opponent. The opponent's players hurriedly asked the referee to "seek justice", and the referee really gave Cantona a warning. Cantona was really disgusted with these weak chickens. In the 75th minute, the ball rolled out of the sideline. When Cantona went to the sidelines to pick up the ball, he kicked the ball directly to the Galatasaray bench. The Galatasaray bench immediately exploded, and the players rushed out with a clamor. Cantona stared at the opponent very calmly, showing no weakness. This time, the group fight that was about to break out was pulled apart by the staff of both sides, and the game was able to continue.

"The game was still ugly," Cantona said later. "I was angry at everything about the opponent. They really showed me what kind of bottom line there is." After being violated repeatedly, Galatasaray succeeded in angering Cantona. The French striker was completely furious when he was violated again. He cursed at his opponent in French, pushed his opponent away with his hand, and then greeted the referee who condoned his opponent.

The Swiss referee Kurt Roethlisberger gave the player a red card without hesitation, "Fuck, I used to be a French teacher!"

Cantona was sent off, and Mark Hughes could not hold back his anger. The gentleman Hughes was entangled in the dirty fouls of his opponent. Finally, he could not help but explode. He turned around and punched the bastard who pinched his genitals when he got the ball. Such self-defense actually received a yellow card, while the scumbag Turk was not hurt at all. Robson was also violated. He endured various flying tackles, elbows, overt and covert kicks, and various violent collisions from his opponent. In the second half of the game, Robson was injured by an extremely fierce flying tackle from his opponent, and a long bloody wound opened on his arm, and blood flowed out.

The game became increasingly rough and violent, with the referee shamelessly playing a role as an accomplice. After Cantona received the red card, he roared at the referee like an enraged lion. He angrily said, "Anyone can see what kind of game this is!"

The referee understood Cantona's greeting and immediately reported it. "He made an indecent gesture to me and insulted me."

Cantona was so angry that he refused to leave the field, but was persuaded to leave by Robson, Bruce and other big brothers. When he left the field, he kicked the kettle on the sidelines and it flew directly to the Galatasaray bench, causing another uproar and scolding.

The game ended awkwardly, and the Red Devils were eliminated. Hughes and other players were extremely angry and had a physical conflict with the opposing players. Just when the fight was about to break out, the police, who were ready to deal with the situation, quickly intervened and controlled the situation.

At the end of the game, Cantona blocked the referee team in the tunnel. The guilty referee called the police. The Turkish police waved batons and beat him without asking any questions. Cantona, who showed no weakness, fought with two policemen and was later separated. When Cantona later received an apology from the police department, he said, "I was beaten by the police after I left the stadium. It was a huge scandal. I didn't go to argue for the red card, but told the referee that he was a fool."

The Red Devils did not perform well in this game, mainly because they did not expect to encounter such a referee and such a scumbag opponent. The Red Devils were very passive on the field and could only swallow the bitter fruit of 0-0 in the end - the total score of the two rounds was 3-3, and the Red Devils were eliminated because of fewer away goals.

After the game, Turkish enthusiasts continued to provoke and even attack Manchester United fans. Manchester United fans were not to be outdone and fought back. Conflicts broke out in many places in the stadium, but the opposing club staff did not manage security and the Turkish police did not stop it quickly, which eventually led to a large-scale conflict.

The Turkish police department later turned the tables, accusing the Red Devils fans of deliberately attacking local fans, which led to the riots. Andy Thomas, a long-time Red Devils fan with more than 40 years of experience, was furious. He wrote a long article to testify and provided relevant videos, pointing out that the Turkish police initially stood by and watched, even encouraged Turkish fans to vent their anger, and then treated the Red Devils fans harshly after the riots, which was unfair and unjust.

Ferguson did not say much in the post-match press conference. He expressed his opinion after returning to the UK: "We were eliminated, this is a fact. This game is a very good lesson that teaches us how to win. Everyone has seen what happened on and off the court. We don't need to disclose more inside information."

Only on the training ground did Ferguson look serious. "No matter what, we didn't play well enough, that's the fact. We should have won the first game easily, or even by a large margin, otherwise there would be no story afterwards. We were trapped in that bad environment, anything could happen, so we had to make all preparations to nip all kinds of bad possibilities in the bud."

Ferguson said: "The chaos of the game is not what I care about. I hope everyone will be prepared for this in the future. What we have to do is to control the ball well in extremely harsh environments, create opportunities and kill the opponent!"

After the game, UEFA severely punished the Red Devils and Cantona was suspended for 4 games.

After the Red Devils bid farewell to Europe, the Champions League final this season was finally held between AC Milan and Barcelona. The god of fate continued to favor the old giants AC Milan, who easily won the championship with a score of 4-0 against Barcelona, ​​continuing the myth of the Rossoneri dynasty.