Has a player ever received such a standing ovation as?

I was at both of those games, the game in Madrid was the one with one turnstile open and United fans still trying to get in at half-time. Anyway....

You don't think that Fergie's spat with Beckham had anything to do with the result of the two games in 03?

Ruud didn't get any service at all at the Bernabau, worked his nuts off on his own to get the one goal.

Beckham came on as sub at OT and got us back in it.... but just as Beckham said in his book, Fergie went mental when he put a free-kick slightly over, yet just went "ow" when Ole missed an open goal header from a few yards.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Both our ties with Madrid were missed opportunities.

The Madrid side in 2000 especially were very beatable, got a fairly comfortable 0-0 at the Bernabeu but then proceeded to gift them 3 goals with some laughable and naive defending. We missed chance after chance as well, Giggs was murdering them, one of his best ever performances, but the rest of the team made a right hash of it.

2003 was a slightly different story, as usual we looked a little overawed against the big names and the away tie could easily have ended in total humiliation. At 3-0 down and Zidane toying with our midfield it looked bleak. We still has more than enough chances to score 3/4 goals, outshot them in the match.

If you has swapped the keepers over the 2 legs Utd would have went through. Barthez could be questioned on 5 of the 6 goals in the tie, and at OT he killed us with Ronaldo's 1st and third goals. At the other end Casilas was outstanding.

Very good assessment that tbh. I felt pig sick after that 2000 game. Redondo was class but our performance at home was inept.