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| Manchester United get ready for their return to 'hell' | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 19 2012, 05:20 PM (885 Views) | |
| Homer | Nov 19 2012, 05:20 PM Post #1 |
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I am the King
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![]() Whatever happens to Manchester United when they fly out for their Champions League group game with Galatasaray this week, it is unlikely to compare with the horrors they faced 19 years ago on their first trip to Istanbul. Back then, the Turkish side's fanatical supporters were not the only ones to enjoy their shock win over United in the second round of the 1993-94 Champions League. Four days after United had gone out on away goals on a dramatic - and eventually violent - night, they ran out at Maine Road for a derby match against Manchester City to be greeted by hundreds of Turkish Delight bars being thrown on to the pitch and pelted at their fans. ![]() The Galatasaray fans gave United a shocking welcome at the airport, starting with their grammar But United's players and supporters had dealt with a lot more than stray confectionary during their time in Istanbul, and not just when they walked out at Galatasaray's intimidating Ali Sami Yen Stadium. It is a trip remembered for the Galatasaray fans waiting for Sir Alex Ferguson and his team at the airport to welcome them 'to hell', the electric atmosphere before kick-off at the ground, Eric Cantona being sent off at the final whistle and some United players being struck by riot police as they left the field. The actual game, a 0-0 draw in which United created next to nothing, is far less memorable - especially compared to the 3-3 draw at Old Trafford in the first leg where United took a 2-0 lead before, as Ferguson would write in his autobiography, "we replaced controlled aggression with self-indulgence". The Turkish champions hit back when Arif Erdem rifled a shot into the top corner from 25 yards and, after two goals from Kubilay Turkyilmaz, United were on the brink of the first home European defeat in their history until Cantona rescued a draw 10 minutes from time. Arif would go on to play more than 400 games for Galatasaray, win seven league titles and the Uefa Cup and also play 60 times for his country, but on that October evening he says he was just a star-struck 21-year-old. All about Arif Born: Istanbul in January 1972 Clubs: Apart from a six-month spell in Spain with Real Sociedad, he spent his entire 14-year career with Galatasaray. International: Played for Turkey from 1994 to 2003, and was part of the team that reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2000 - where he missed a penalty as they lost to Portugal - and the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup. Now: Managed Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyesi in 2011/12 and now a football pundit on Turkish TV. "It was the biggest game I had ever played in," he told BBC Sport this week. "I knew most of the United team - they were big players and famous names and we thought we had no chance. "But after we went 2-0 down we relaxed as a team and responded well - and then I had my big chance. "To score against Peter Schmeichel, the number one goalkeeper in the world, was amazing. For me it was a magnificent and elegant goal." What happened in Manchester meant none of the Galatasaray players were dazzled by United's line-up by the time the second leg came around a fortnight later. Ferguson's men, meanwhile, were to pay the price for a different sort of naivety to the type they had displayed on the pitch. Yes, their trip to Turkey was a journey into the unknown but that was partly their own fault. Former Leicester City manager Gordon Milne had just finished a successful seven-year stint in charge of Galatasaray's cross-city rivals Besiktas when the tie took place, and feels United did not prepare for the different culture they would experience. "United had sent people out three weeks beforehand, to watch Galatasaray play home and away, so they had their own dossier on their players," Milne told BBC Sport. "But what they did not take on board was the other side of things - the treatment you had to put up with and prepare for before and after the game, which Turkish sides accepted as the norm. "I used to go to Trabzonspor with Besiktas and they would stone our coach going to the stadium and on the way out. There would be fires on the terraces, that sort of thing. Paul Ince takes Galatasaray's hostile welcome at the airport in his stride "That was for Turkish teams in Turkey - for European and international matches they took it up to the next level. What United got was just part of the welcome." That included death threats at the airport but most of United's players appeared unnerved. Certainly, many of them are smiling in pictures taken when they walked through their welcome committee. They did not cope with the facilities, or lack of them, at the 35,000-capacity Ali Sami Yen Stadium quite so well, however. The ground was nicknamed 'hell' - hence the banners displayed by Galatasaray fans - and Milne says that was appropriate, and not just because of its hostile atmosphere. "It was primitive," explained the former Liverpool midfielder, who spent seven years in charge of Besiktas and won three Turkish titles in a row with them from 1990 to 1992. "There were big iron fences around the sides and a little tunnel to the underground dressing room, with a little railing between you and the fans who would be trying to stop you from getting there. A turning point for Turkish football? Galatasaray had reached the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1989, beating Arsene Wenger's Monaco side on their way, but this was arguably the biggest win in their history. Arif Erdem said: "It was the start for us. It was our first time in the Champions League and a huge result for a Turkish team." Gordon Milne added: "It put Turkish football on the radar - until then nobody took them that seriously. Qualifying for the finals of Euro 96 was the next big achievement by the national team and the high point was third place at the 2002 World Cup." "The supporters were always in hours before kick-off too, to ramp things up. It was quite intimidating. I always remember my teams playing there and it was not so much you were individually frightened, more that you could not communicate. "If you were not used to it, it could knock you off your stride." United never looked like finding theirs, with Galatasaray's close man-marking keeping them quiet and Cantona taking his frustration out on referee Kurt Rothlisberger, who sent him off at the final whistle. Cantona was escorted from the field by police and that was when hell really did break loose, with the French striker, Bryan Robson and Paul Parker among those to be punched and hit by policemen's shields. "It happened a lot in Turkey then," Milne said. "Again, United would not have understood or expected it because they were in and out of the country so quickly, but I know the pressure that both parties were under. "It took me a long time to realise how it worked and that the police had a difficult enough job because they went into the crowd and would get hit themselves. Eric Cantona is escorted off the pitch by a policeman at the final whistle "Cantona being a bit hot-headed was dangerous because, if you reacted in the wrong way, then the police would whack you and not give a monkey's if you were a player or not." ![]() In the aftermath, Ferguson vowed never to go back to Istanbul, but he would actually return to Galatasaray the following season - again in unhappy circumstances. United had made the group stage on that occasion but another 0-0 draw was part of the reason they would progress no further. A lot has changed since then. For starters, United are through to the last 16 of this season's Champions League and they will be glad to know that the Ali Sami Yen Stadium is no more - it was demolished when Galatasaray moved to the 52,000-capacity Turk Telekom Arena in 2010. The country has moved on too. Milne, whose son married a Turkish girl, is still a regular visitor and was back at the weekend to watch his old side Besiktas beat Antalyaspor 5-3. "Turkey has developed tremendously in the last two decades," Milne said. "Istanbul is more of an international city than it was in 1993, when things were quite insular. The younger generation are far more modern and United will not get the same hostility this time." |
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| DaG | Nov 19 2012, 05:33 PM Post #2 |
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Top Button Wanker
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Hopefully a few United fans are stabbed. |
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https://twitter.com/mediocentroEN | |
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| Scholes | Nov 19 2012, 06:05 PM Post #3 |
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Nothing's as it seems
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1-1 written all over it. |
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ChrissyG11
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Nov 19 2012, 06:13 PM Post #4 |
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No means Yes.
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On mine it has 3-0 written all over it. |
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| Scholes | Nov 19 2012, 06:18 PM Post #5 |
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Nothing's as it seems
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On your what lmao? When I made that post mate, I straight away imagined the picture in the first post to have a load of I's all over it...I've always thought in that kind of way but since I met you I've ONLY thought in that kind of way. |
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ChrissyG11
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Nov 19 2012, 06:21 PM Post #6 |
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No means Yes.
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Lmao suppose i'm just an influencial character mate
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| Scholes | Nov 19 2012, 06:25 PM Post #7 |
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Nothing's as it seems
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Not quite as influential as Q. |
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| Scholes | Nov 19 2012, 06:25 PM Post #8 |
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Nothing's as it seems
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(because u always follows) |
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| diego | Nov 19 2012, 06:27 PM Post #9 |
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maradona-footballing genius
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not the most experienced squad, a draw would be a great result, but i can see us losing given the squad sent out Squad: Johnstone, Lindegaard; Rafael, Buttner, Jones, Thorpe, Vermijl, Wootton; Carrick, Petrucci, Cole, Cleverley, Fletcher, Anderson, Powell, Young, Tunnicliffe; Hernandez, King, Welbeck, Macheda. |
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| AntMcfc | Nov 19 2012, 07:26 PM Post #10 |
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POTY
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Really hope Wootton gets a game, lad was a walking disaster. |
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| Artrun | Nov 19 2012, 07:31 PM Post #11 |
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Francesco
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Won the group already, the remaining two games are all about seeing some exciting youngsters. |
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| Scholes | Nov 19 2012, 07:40 PM Post #12 |
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Nothing's as it seems
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It would be nice to win 6/6 group games actually and make more history. |
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| diego | Nov 19 2012, 08:31 PM Post #13 |
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maradona-footballing genius
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i hope he plays too, he did well against newcastle and for most part bar the late pen against chelsea, experience will help him no end |
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| Artrun | Nov 19 2012, 08:36 PM Post #14 |
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Francesco
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We'll have to be lucky this week then. Would be great, though there's a reason it's not been done before... United have priorities above creating stats. |
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| Scholes | Nov 19 2012, 08:37 PM Post #15 |
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Nothing's as it seems
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It's been done before btw, just not by us. |
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