Lee Sharpe on his best goal

vs Barcelona, Champions League, 1994

Manchester United had never lost a European match at Old Trafford, but with 10 minutes to go in October 1994’s Champions League fixture against Barcelona, that looked set to change.

Goals from Romario and Jose Mari Bakero had put Barcelona on course for a 2-1 group-stage win... until a 23-year-old Lee Sharpe intervened.

The former left-winger’s memories of that night are still vivid today. “I remember Paul Ince winning the ball and slotting it to Roy Keane on the right,” Sharpe explains to FFT. “Keaney put the cross slightly behind me and I thought, ‘It’s on my right foot – I’m going to have to swing at it’.”

United’s midfield surge bypassed Pep Guardiola and Ronald Koeman before the cross from Keane – his incongruous No.9 shirt a symbol of the days before squad numbers in Europe’s top competition – passed through the legs of Miguel Angel Nadal, uncle to the future tennis star, Rafael. Centre-half Abelardo and goalkeeper Carles Busquets – the father of Sergio, Barcelona’s model of a modern-day midfield general – could not prevent Sharpe from flicking the ball home. “The defender slid quite early and he was going to block my right-footed shot, so I just let the ball run through my legs and touched it with a lovely little backheel,” Sharpe says. “I was concerned it might be going wide, but it nestled in the bottom corner. I was absolutely delighted. “It’s probably my favourite goal. To score in a packed stadium against Barça and save Man United’s unbeaten European record was special.” Sharpe couldn’t save United two weeks later, though, as Romario and Hristo Stoichkov ran amok for Johan Cruyff’s men inside the Camp Nou. “I broke my ankle between the two games, so I didn’t play,” he explains. “The lads went out and got beat 4-0. Obviously they missed me!”