The story of Man Utd at the 2000 FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil

Cheered on by the native crowd, the star-studded ‘house’ facet, with an assault spearheaded by Romario and Edmundo, pressured the United defence, inflicting the usually dependable Gary Neville to make two errors within the area of three minutes.

First, an errant backpass was pounced upon by Edmundo, who squared to Romario to complete, then the 1994 World Cup hero was clever to Neville’s tried chest cross, nicking possession and rounding Raimond van der Gouw to attain.

Edmundo added a 3rd earlier than the break, after expertly turning Mikael Silvestre, and a shellshocked United facet shorn of Beckham’s artistic affect couldn’t muster a second-half response, other than Nicky Butt’s comfort purpose.

“If we had come by way of the primary half-hour with the solar I felt we’d have been okay,” Sir Alex stated at full-time.
“Sadly the person who’s normally essentially the most dependable participant within the membership has made two errors which have misplaced it for us.”

United’s match was successfully over with a recreation to play, however, on a weekend the place home golf equipment had been battling the chilly within the FA Cup fourth spherical, the Glaswegian had no regrets.

“It has been incredible right here – what an opportunity for us to come back out and get some solar,” he instructed the BBC.
“Again house we’d have been freezing our toes off. Taking part in within the Maracana stadium – that is an expertise that in all probability 90 per cent of the highest gamers on this planet do not get.

“It has been well-organised, the Brazilian individuals have taken care of us very effectively. On the enjoying facet, we want we had been higher.”

He fielded a much-changed workforce for the ultimate fixture, a digital useless rubber in opposition to South Melbourne, who had been managed by a really younger Ange Postecoglou in his first teaching position.

Quinton Fortune’s quickfire brace settled a tie which even the membership’s official yearbook describes as having ‘an unmistakable aura of anticlimax’ about it, though it was a helpful train for youthful Reds like Jonathan Greening, Danny Higginbotham and Ronnie Wallwork, who understandably had been discovering first-team alternatives onerous to come back by at house.