OLE PROVING NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE
MAYBE it was the sight of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer back in a substitute’s bib 20 years on from that unforgettable night at the Nou Camp.
Something stirred inside these Manchester United players. Something told them that it was possible. Solskjaer has been spreading hope and goodwill since he walked back into Old Trafford in December — but this was on another scale altogether.
When the moment came, when Marcus Rashford positioned himself coolly over the penalty spot, Solskjaer stood alone in the technical area.
The ultimate supersub and scorer of United’s injury-time winner in the 1999 Champions League final was wearing a gold Champions League bib because officials thought his dark outfit would clash with PSG’s kit. Strangely they didn’t think the same of PSG coach Thomas Tuchel or the fourth official.
When Rashford stepped up and despatched the ball beyond Gianluigi Buffon the first thing to go was the game plan, scattered all over the touchline as sheets of paper flew from the United dugout in the ensuing chaos.
Solskjaer crouched down and clenched his fists before he was lost in the melee, buried beneath his back-room team and the young substitutes who filled the bench on a magical night at the Parc des Princes.
Whatever it said on those pieces of paper, surely United hadn’t banked on the horrible back-pass from Thilo Kehrer that gifted Romelu Lukaku a shock early goal, the amazing blunder by Buffon that gifted him a second, or that late, VAR-inspired drama.
When Juan Bernat equalised for PSG and put them 3-1 ahead on aggregate, United drifted to 100-1 with some bookmakers to win the Champions League. But Solskjaer has seen United overcome the odds before and he is instilling the same belief in these players.
‘It’s never mission impossible,’ he said on the eve of this game. ‘There are many examples of teams that can change results like this. We’ll never approach any game as a lost cause. The outside pressure is off and everyone expects us to go out easily, but that doesn’t happen with Manchester United players.’ He even mentioned PSG’s stunning capitulation two years ago this week when they saw a 4-0 firstleg win overturned by Barcelona.
‘Unspeakable’ was the headline in L’Equipe on that occasion, and there is bound to be a similar reaction in Paris this morning. Quite how they lost really is a mystery. In
Le Parisien yesterday, Marco Verratti warned that ‘we have done nothing, won nothing’, but the French champions played with a sloppiness that suggested they thought they were already through to the quarter-finals.
Tuchel had discussed the Solskjaer factor beforehand but he did so with the assured smile of someone who was talking in platitudes about an upset no-one expected to happen.
At the final whistle, PSG’s players wore a look of sheer disbelief as Diogo Dalot charged over to the travelling fans and Solskjaer was engulfed in his technical area. Lukaku, a makeshift centre back in the desperate final seconds, could run no more and collapsed on the edge of the United penalty box.
Close by, Kylian Mbappe stood in stunned silence and tried to comprehend what had just happened. Before going over to join the celebrations with his players and the fans, Solskjaer wandered over to the young Frenchman and offered his sympathies.
He is a class act on every level.