By Philip Meese
Its 57 years to the day that the Munich Air Disaster cruelly took the lives of 23 people, including eight Manchester United players. In coming years, Ultimate United plans to do a lot more to mark each anniversary of the tragedy, however, this year we have decided to add an article to our Classic Matches section.
Ordinarily, you wouldn’t expect a United defeat to feature in such a section, but these were not ordinary circumstances. This match marked the 50th anniversary of what happened at Munich, and the fact that it happened to be against our local rivals Manchester City, who were among many clubs who came to Red Devil’s aid in their hour of need following it, seemed fitting as it was a tragedy that shocked the world of football, but, in particular, Manchester as a city.
BACKGROUND
For those that don’t know (I can only imagine those that don’t follow United, or football in general, fall into this category), the Munich Air Disaster occurred on the 6th of February 1958. Manchester United, having knocked out Red Star Belgrade to secure a place in the European Cup Semi Final, were travelling back from Yugoslavia and stopped in Munich to refuel. The runway was thick with snow and ice, and two previous attempts to take off had failed.
United were anxious to return to England, as they had a fixture on the Saturday to fulfil, and a third attempt at take-off was to have the worst possible consequences. As the plane crashed down into the Munich snow, seven players died instantly, with Duncan Edwards dying in hospital of his injuries 15 days later.
The Manchester Derby at Old Trafford in February 2008 occurred on the weekend that marked the 50th anniversary of this tragedy. At the time Manchester United were the reigning Premier League champions, and the best team in Europe, which they would prove later that season. Manchester City were midway through the sole season that the former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra owned the club, with former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson in charge of the Blues.
In build up to the game, the big concern as far as the media were concerned was whether the visiting City fans would respect the minutes silence before kick-off.
THE MATCH
It had been pre-arranged between the two clubs that both teams would wear specially made shirts the occasion, bearing no sponsor names on them, in a tribute to how football was back then. Red & white bar scarves were placed on each seat inside Old Trafford, except in the away section where the away fans were each presented with blue & white scarves.
The players were led onto the pitch by a piper, playing a bagpipe version of a song Manchester United fans will recognise, truly fitting the occasion. The United players were accompanied by mascots who were all kitted out in that seasons home shirt, each wearing the name of one of the players who had perished in Munich. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and City boss Sven Goran Eriksson both laid wreaths in their clubs respective colours on the pitch, before the stadium announcer asked all fans to observe a minutes’ silence, out of respect to those who lost their lives in the tragedy.
The referee, Howard Webb, blew his whistle and almost in tandem, both sets of supporters thrust their scarves above their heads, but in complete silence. During that sixty second period, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of a cannon firing, which had been arranged by the club. If anyone had had any worries at all about the silence being disrespected, those fears were allayed by the impeccable behaviour of both sets of fans. Not a single sound was made by anyone inside the ground.
When Howard Webb blew his whistle a second time, the cheer from both sets of supporters almost blew the roof off Old Trafford. Now, for the next 90 minutes, it was business as usual – at least, it should have been, but what transpired during the rest of that afternoon was not actually in the script.
Although United started the match brightly, with Carlos Tevez (at that point, very much an Old Trafford favourite) setting up Ryan Giggs, whose shot was smartly tipped over by Joe Hart (whose City career was, at that point, in its infancy). Tevez also went close shortly after that, seeing a shot blocked by Richard Dunne. But City, clearly not affected by the occasion, were determined to show that the 1 – 0 win over United earlier in the season was no fluke.
Midway through the first half, the impressive Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov led a City counter attack, and slid a lovely pass through the United defence to Stephen Ireland, who couldn’t get a decent connection on the ball and saw his shot smothered by Edwin Van Der Sar. The rebound fell to Darius Vassell, who smashed home his second attempt, after Van Der Sar had blocked his first.
City seemed to gain in confidence after that, possibly sensing that their hosts were not up for it, and doubled their lead on the stroke of half time. Petrov, a threat all afternoon, again tested United’s defence, this time with a cross from the right. The Bulgarians left footed cross was flicked on delicately by City’s new signing from Portsmouth, Zimbabwean striker Benjani, who was making his debut for the club. The ball sailed past Van Der Sar, almost in slow motion, giving the visitors a 2 – 0 lead, and one that they were good value for.
United went into the tunnel at half time looking shell-shocked. Maybe the players thought that all they had to do was turn up and the three points would be theirs. After all, this was not the star-studded Manchester City of today, packed with players who would get in any squad in world football. A fair bit of money had been spent since Shinawtra’s takeover, which City fans were not really used to at that point, but they still went into this match as massive underdogs. Surely they weren’t going to lose this derby, today of all days? Yes, they were.
The only thing that changed in the second half was that United attacked a little more, and City defended a little more resolutely than they been asked to in the first period. But as the minutes ticked by, it soon became clear that this was not going to be United’s day. Rooney was still an explosive young player back then, and there is no doubt that his suspension didn’t help, but with the talent United had on the pitch – Ronaldo, Tevez, Scholes, to name just a few – you cant use that as an excuse.
United finally got a breakthrough in injury time, substitute Michael Carrick’s smart finish into the bottom corner proving more than scant consolation, as City held on for a fully deserved three points.
AFTERMATH
I would have to say that, whatever the reasons were for United’s lacklustre performance that day, I take nothing away from the City players or fans. We could use a number of reasons why the team who would retain their Premier League title three months later, and become Champions of Europe for the third time after beating Chelsea in Moscow failed to rise to this particular occasion.
Could it be that, as previously mentioned, they thought that, given the difference in class between the two teams back then, all they had to do was turn up and coast to a win? Possibly. I’ve seen a few United teams do that over the years, and bearing in mind that City finished 9th in the Premier League that year, and they considered that a decent season back then, it’s very possible. But I don’t think that’s what happened.
I have always thought that the occasion got to the players, and Sir Alex Ferguson later hinted that might have been it. After all, whenever there is a derby coming up, the teams’ only focus would usually be on how they are going to win the game. This time, there was all of the build up to the tributes to Munich, which no doubt would have been a distraction, but still shouldn’t have got in the way of the job in hand – beating the team in front of them. On the day, they seemed to freeze, and looked completely short of ideas which, when you consider how the rest of that season went, was a bit out of character.
Naturally, at the time the City fans rubbed it in, and why wouldn’t they? This was their first win at Old Trafford in 34 years, unlike these days where it seems to be becoming an annual thing. Like I said I don’t want to take anything away from what was a fully deserved victory for the Blues, but they didn’t honestly win because of how good they were, unlike when they win these days. On that particular day, they didn’t need to be brilliant.
But enough of the excuses, it’s all irrelevant. Nobody could deny that, on the day, the better team won the match, and because of the way the City fans conducted themselves during the silence, I certainly couldn’t begrudge them the win even if I tried – although I might have felt differently if that result had cost us the title.
All jokes aside though they conducted themselves fantastically, but, in truth, I personally never doubted that they would anyway. There aren’t many hard-core City fans that actually make fun of the Munich Air Disaster – most of the time it tends to be done by the glory hunting fans who only started following them since they started becoming successful. The REAL City fans know what it meant to Manchester, because their parents and grandparents would have lived through it, and probably told them how devastated the entire city was. So as much as they might hate our club, most Blues I know have always been respectful of this - which is more than can be said for a certain Yorkshire based club, whose name I won’t mention for fear of spoiling this article.
I never thought that the first time I added a Manchester Derby to the Classic Matches section, I would be writing about a match that United lost, however, despite the result, it’s still a Derby that will live long in the memory. For the right reasons.
“We’ll never die, we’ll never die. We’ll never die, we’ll never die. We’ll keep the Red Flag flying high, ‘cos Man United will never die!”
Ultimate United 2017
Newton Heath LYR Football Club