The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 309 Over the Hill

"For Ferguson and the Red Devils, overcoming the Turkish hegemony is like climbing over a hill. It is not a skill worth showing off. There are still towering peaks and vast oceans ahead. But if you don't cross the hill and defeat some special giants, you will never be able to move forward, let alone achieve the final victory."

--Inscription

In December 1994, the Red Devils still had to face challenges on both the Champions League and the league fronts.

The Red Devils first faced Norwich at home in the 17th round of the Premier League. Ferguson's starting lineup had Walsh as goalkeeper, Gary, May, Irwin and Pallister as defenders, main players Bruce, Giggs and Keane all got a rare chance to rest, Kanchelskis, Ings, Davies and McClair as midfielders, Cantona and Hughes as forwards.

The Red Devils took the initiative throughout the game, but Hughes and McClair missed many chances. In the end, Cantona scored a goal and the Red Devils won 1-0. In the second half, when the victory was already decided, Ferguson also replaced two young players, Butt and Gillespie, to give them more game experience.

On December 1994, 12, the Red Devils faced their Champions League opponents, Türkiye's Galatasaray, at home.

This match is the sixth round of the Champions League group stage and also the last match of the group stage. The pain that Galatasaray brought to Manchester United a year ago, the humiliation and harm to Manchester United, Cantona and all the Manchester United players, is still fresh in the memory of the parties involved and Ferguson, and the Manchester United fans are even more impressed by the humiliation they suffered that year.

This meeting is not only another confrontation after the 0-0 draw in the first round of the group stage, but also a thorough settlement of the grudges between the two teams. This match is also related to the fate of the two teams. The Red Devils must win big to have a chance to qualify, and they have to wait for the result of another match between Gothenburg and Barcelona. Although the fate of the Red Devils is no longer under their control, Gothenburg and Barcelona can play a tacit game and "openly" eliminate the Red Devils, but they still have to win the match against Galatasaray.

Ferguson and the Red Devils must use a victory to turn over this dark page of history and end this bitter memory with a victory.

Putting these aside, if the Red Devils want to go further in the Champions League, they must also defeat these teams that often fight in the Champions League. Only by crossing the hills can we see a better sky and a better world.

Ferguson sent out many new faces. The Red Devils started with the following lineup: goalkeeper Walsh, defenders Gary Neville, Irwin, Bruce, Pallister, midfielders Keane, Beckham, McClair, Butt, forwards Cantona and Davis. In this starting lineup, Gary Neville, Beckham, Butt and Davis are all young players from the youth training line.

The commentators who got the starting lineup before the game were surprised and impressed. "Ferguson is so brave and confident that he used as many as four young players from the youth training camp. He is not afraid of the opponent's reputation for roughness and toughness. Ferguson will not give up the opportunity of this game anyway. It is exciting to see how the Red Devils' new lineup will perform. Will they defeat the powerful enemy?"

Cantona was unable to play in the first group match between the Red Devils and Galatasaray. He could not miss this match anyway, so he actively asked Ferguson to play and finally got his promise. Cantona rarely called the whole team to mobilize before the game: "We respect our opponents, and we don't need to teach them how to be human by beating and insulting them. What we need is to play our football and our dominance, so that they will be ashamed in front of real football."

Cantona's words shocked all the Red Devils players. They originally thought that Cantona would retaliate and just start fighting without caring about anything after entering the court. But now they know that Cantona has a higher vision and has long surpassed the hatred at that time.

Keane said: "Cantona's words are too literary. I think everything that happened to us at Galatasaray needs an ending. All the Red Devils need an answer. The result must be victory."

The Red Devils, who played at home, played vigorously at the beginning of the game, quickly suppressed the opponent, and launched a fast and swift offensive. Because it was a Wednesday game, there were few away fans, and the Dream Theater was almost full of the cheers of more than 3 Red Devils fans. The Red Devils were in high spirits and continued to launch offensives. In the third minute, Gary Neville launched an offensive on the right. His 45-degree cross was directly sent into the opponent's penalty area. McClair competed with the opponent's defender at the top of the penalty area. Although he did not head the ball, he effectively interfered with the opponent. Teenager Simon Davis took advantage of the chaos to appear at the back point, met the ball directly with his chest, and unloaded and stopped the ball in front of him. Then he easily adjusted his posture, cleverly broke into the corner of the small penalty area and shot with his left foot. The ball drew a small arc close to the ground and accurately hit the far corner of the goal. 1-0, the Red Devils opened the scoring!

Galatasaray lost a goal before they had even established their position, causing great disarray. The Red Devils took the opportunity to continue their fierce attack, first attacking the opponent's defense from the left, and then transferring the ball to Cantona at the top of the arc. Cantona took the ball and passed it directly to the right, which was an accurate overhead pass. Keane rushed forward in the midfield, got the ball from behind, and then passed it to the goal near the bottom line in the right penalty area. This cross was almost a wonderful lob shot, and the ball hit the beam of the opponent's goal and bounced out. The Red Devils continued to control the situation, and in the 38th minute, they launched another fast attack, and a high ball flew to Galatasaray's backcourt from the backcourt. Cantona chased after the opponent and fought for the ball. In the melee, the Galatasaray defender kicked to clear the ball, but Cantona blocked the ball with his body, causing the ball to fly into the opponent's penalty area. McClair just arrived, he rushed to the penalty area at high speed and tried to pick up the ball, but was tackled by the opponent with the ball. This should be a penalty! Just as the Red Devils fans were clamoring for the referee to award a penalty, Beckham appeared outside the penalty area, ran to meet the ball, swung his foot and shot, this shot was like a sudden cold arrow, the ball flew directly to the lower left corner of the opponent's goal. This shot was full of power, and the opponent's goalkeeper misjudged in a hurry, and could only watch the ball roll past his fingertips and go straight into the goal.

The Red Devils lead 2-0!

In the second half, the Red Devils continued to press the opponent and continued to attack in the frontcourt. Galatasaray was defeated and had no intention of counterattacking. The Red Devils started to attack again from the wing. After Cantona pulled to the left to receive the ball, the opponent's central defenders did not dare to come out to defend. Cantona skillfully used a feint to get rid of the opponent's full-back's entanglement, and then used his right foot to pass the ball to the penalty area. Cantona's long pass was also unique. This cross found his teammate McClair with great accuracy. McClair headed the ball at the top of the penalty area, and then passed it to the empty space on the right side of the penalty area. Keane had been lying in ambush here. After he easily controlled the ball, he performed a rare dribbling performance in the penalty area. He dribbled the ball horizontally, and used rhythm changes and subtle feints to pass the two defenders who rushed over to him, and then brought it to the penalty spot. He calmly kicked the ball and kicked a short but slightly curved shot with his left foot, which flew accurately but slowly to the far corner. The opponent's goalkeeper misjudged the shot and couldn't even get to the ground to block it. He could only watch the cold shot slowly and steadily slide into the far corner of the goal, 3-0!

The Red Devils had already won a big victory, but Cantona still had no intention of stopping. Cantona decided to perform an attack himself. He started quickly from the left, cut in without the ball, and then received a pass from McClair in the midfield, and accelerated directly into the opponent's penalty area. Cantona not only surpassed his opponent in speed, but also suppressed his opponent in the confrontation. The Galatasaray full-back even had no way to pull him down. Cantona rushed into the penalty area like a butterfly flying through flowers. When he approached the baseline, he was about to wait for his teammates to meet him in front of the goal, but the opponent's defender was already furious and kicked him down with a tackle. Fortunately, Cantona was prepared and passed the ball with a rub before he was kicked down. The cross fell about 6 yards in front of the goal. The opponent's central defender Kokmaz made a mistake in a hurry. He wanted to clear the ball, but he kicked the ball directly into his own goal.

The Red Devils lead 4-0!

The opponent was furious after falling behind by a large margin and committed a series of extremely bad fouls. But even when he was tackled to the ground, Cantona laughed out loud. This was the best revenge!

At the end of the game, the Red Devils beat Galatasaray by 4 goals. But this victory did not make Ferguson happy, because their fate in the Champions League was completely out of their control.

Ferguson's team lost too many opportunities in the previous group stage. Although the Red Devils avenged their elimination last season, Barcelona and Gothenburg drew 1-1 in another game at the same time.

After taking into account goal difference, number of goals and win-loss record, the Red Devils finished third in the group and were eliminated, while Gothenburg and Barcelona advanced to the quarter-finals.

Even if the Red Devils win a big victory over their opponents, they can only stop in the round of 16 and the group stage!

The Red Devils fans who were so excited about the big win could only sadly accept the team's elimination. Although the Red Devils won with great momentum, Barcelona and Gothenburg obviously played a tacit game on purpose, and Ferguson could only watch the team being eliminated regretfully.

A British reporter who has been following the Red Devils' Champions League journey said: "The final elimination from the Champions League is not surprising. What is sad is that no matter how hard the Red Devils try now, their fate is not in their own hands. This regret should stimulate Ferguson to invest more, and he will definitely have greater motivation and determination."

Another analyst, Carton, said: "The Red Devils won a big victory over Galatasaray, but were then conspired by others to end up in the Champions League. This is not a failure for the Red Devils, but a shame for European football. The Champions League does not go to the best and most outstanding team, nor does it go to the strong team that fights to the end and does not give up, but to the team that exploits the rules in a despicable way. This is a joke in football."

Ferguson was very upset about being eliminated this time. After many years of setbacks in the Champions League, Ferguson certainly could not accept that the Red Devils were just hanging around in the Champions League group stage. The Red Devils' goal must be to catch up with the European giants and hit the Champions League trophy. Now the Red Devils have confidence and advantages in front of a European team as strong as Galatasaray, but Ferguson knows that the team must become stronger.

Ferguson said after the game: "We don't know how Barcelona and Gothenburg will play, but we can only accept the result of being eliminated. The experience of this group stage has taught us a very profound lesson, and we have a lot to summarize. We used to think that we just needed to go all out in the game, and we used to think that hard work would be rewarded, but now we know that the competitive world is extremely complicated. We now know that no matter what group we are in or what score situation we are in, we have to control our own destiny, instead of begging for rewards from others, and we can't expect fairness and justice from others."

"My fate is in my own hands, I have to decide my own destiny!" Ferguson had suffered enough from being eliminated in the Champions League group stage and was determined to seize the initiative, continue to enhance the team's strength and ultimately take his destiny into his own hands.

Although this big win allowed Davis and Beckham to shine and gave Gary Neville a chance to perform in the Champions League, Ferguson knew it was far from enough. A win could not change the outcome of being eliminated in the group stage. The Red Devils' performance in the group stage was not stable enough, not good enough, and they did not seize the opportunities they should have. Ferguson still needed to do more. The first task waiting for Ferguson was to strengthen the squad.

After being unfortunately eliminated from the Champions League, the Red Devils gathered their spirits and returned to the league to continue fighting.