Scene of the Red Devils’ finest hour in 1999

There is something uniquely special about Manchester United and the European Cup.

United were the first English club to enter the competition in 1956, defying the wishes of the Football League in the process, later also becoming the first English club to win it in 1968 – 10 years after the tragedy that was the Munich air disaster.

When the European Cup was modernised into the Champions League, United were the first English club to win that too. It was the final piece of an historic treble sealed over a magical 10 days in May 1999 that, as yet, still remains unmatched by any other English side.

After reaching the semi-finals of the 1968/69 European Cup, United then didn’t play in the continent’s top competition for more nearly 25 years. Long before the days multiple entrants per country, it was exclusively limited to champions (or the European Cup holders) and United’s domestic title drought that spanned 26 years from 1967 to 1993 kept them out of it.

Leeds, crowned English champions in 1991/92, were actually the first English club to play in the ‘Champions League’. But with United going on to dominate the early Premier League era in the 1990s, they became mainstays of Europe’s elite competitions once more.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though. United struggled in Europe in both 1993/94 and 1994/95, exiting the Champions League at the group stage or earlier. But they had a breakthrough in 1996/97, reaching the semi-finals before losing to eventual champions Borussia Dortmund.

The 1997/98 campaign presented a bit of a setback, dumped out in the last eight by a vibrant young Monaco team. But in 1998/99, a United side with a home-grown core that had by then been developing together for several years felt ready.

There is an old cliché in sport that says if you want to be the best you have to beat the best. No message was truer when the Champions League group stage draw threw out both Barcelona and Bayern Munich. What’s more, the format of the competition in those days meant only one team per group was guaranteed a place in the knockouts and only two more places between six runners-up.

United’s first visit to Camp Nou that season was in the group stage on matchday five. By then, United had already played out an epic 3-3 draw against the Catalans at Old Trafford, with David Beckham scoring a particularly memorable free-kick. A draw with Bayern Munich and back-to-back…