Which is the greatest UCL comeback? Man Utd's 1999 final or Barca's 6-1?

[Chip]

If you look at it isolated, Barca's comeback was against worse odds than United in '99, as they needed 3 goals in the last few minutes, and therefore 'greater'.

But they were given a penalty which shouldn't have been called(among other dubious decisions), which tarnishes the performance quite a bit. Also, they were playing against a completely broken bunch of spineless mercenaries. Not to mention the fact that this was the first knockout round, and not the final.

Taking that into consideration, I'll have to go with United in '99 as the greatest.

 

[Invictus]

 

[Wooly Red]

haha of course, I notice how you didn't dispute anything i said though :P

Don't have to, bitter bollocks falls apart on its own, don't need to say anything. :P

 

[SirAF]

1999.

United had two minutes to score two goals.

 

[Ixion]

Which one had a trophy on the line?

 

[RedTillI'mDead]

Not sure you can call it a come back when it's over two legs, plenty of time! Not saying it's not a good turnaround, but they created their own problem and did well to bring it back against a team who were probably too laid back about the result.

United's goals were late and dramatic and Bayern didn't have time to recover or the players, they had subbed the more attacking minded players.

Liverpool was as much a case of Milan having a shite second half looking entirely like they were already at the trophy parade. Impressive by Liverpool anyway, but Milan had switched off and took the 6 minutes of Liverpool goals to regain focus by which point the game just turned stale. I remember being unimpressed because they were so shite first half and secondly because they needed penalties to win.

Thus for me on balance and almost certainly impacted by bias I would choose United. It was a tough tight game and United pushed till the end and made a breakthrough. In the other cases making up for being entirely shite is not so great. Although there is the 3-5 Spurs game and damn that was good!

 

[RedTillI'mDead]

It has to be the finals. Other games are just... Remember that one game.

I think United wins over Liverpool because the goals were scored when not only the game but the first ever real treble was lost.

And I'm not diminishing Liverpool. At 3-0 diem I called my dad who's a Liverpool fan and when he answered the phone I just laughed and hung up.
After you won my cell rang, and rang and rang. Finally I picked up to hear Hahahahaha

Damn it Blaggs, its your fault, massive jinx.

 

[Billy Blaggs]

Damn it Blaggs, its your fault, massive jinx.

Lol

 

[Sassy Colin]

United, I don't care about the other 2.

 

[Trizy]

Well considering PSG were completely shite and it was only the second round vs United getting battered in the final and nicking 2 late goals I'd say 99.

 

[Red_Aaron]

I may be in the minority, but I think Neymar's penalty was a dive also. The ball moved out for a goal kick and he moved inwards, so he effecively ran away from the trajectory of the ball to run into the player.

I'm with you, both clear dives
That so many fans nowadays are prepared to make excuses for such acts and try to justify them is a sad reflection of the modern game, but that's been the case for a long while tbf not just last night

 

[Oaencha]

Not a huge fan of Barca by any means, but what they did yesterday was pretty impressive, even though there were some decisions gone their way. It not being a final counts against them though. United were down 3-0 to Tottenham, I believe, and won 5-3 (could have been Newcastle) in one match, so...

That was indeed against Spurs in the league. 3-0 down at half time and won 5-3 thanks to a RVN hat-trick.

 

[Zoo]

Diving was a very important factor in the comebacks of Liverpool 2005 and yesterday so they are tainted a bit.

Oh and Mascherano has admitted that he fouled Di Maria yet there wasn't even a replay of the incident shown. PSG can feel very hard done-by, we all know what Drogba would say.

 

[Rossa]

That was indeed against Spurs in the league. 3-0 down at half time and won 5-3 thanks to a RVN hat-trick.

It was an amazing comeback. I believe we had a similar one against Newcastle, but that was 2-0 down if I recall correctly. The Tottenham win was really something though. I miss the old Tottenham matches - they were entertaining.

 

[Rossa]

Diving was a very important factor in the comebacks of Liverpool 2005 and yesterday so they are tainted a bit.

Oh and Mascherano has admitted that he fouled Di Maria yet there wasn't even a replay of the incident shown. PSG can feel very hard done-by, we all know what Drogba would say.

That was shocking actually!

 

[Ixion]

The United-Bayern game had no dodgy 5 minutes injury time, blatant dives and penalties. Just a good game no bullshit and 3 minutes to win it.

Also speaking of comebacks, remember Newcastle coming from 0-4 down at half-time to Arsenal to draw 4-4?

 

[Rossa]

I'm with you, both clear dives
That so many fans nowadays are prepared to make excuses for such acts and try to justify them is a sad reflection of the modern game, but that's been the case for a long while tbf not just last night

I hate those excuses - "It's the way it is, so deal with it" is just a lazy excuse to let the world be fed-exed to hell. It is wrong, and it should be retrospectively punished, both games and fined.

 

[2 man midfield]

There's plenty of games where you can point to teams coming back from 3 or 4 nil down to draw, win or whatever. Even the likes of Wolves have done it. Surely it makes a difference when there's a trophy on the line like with United and Liverpool? The biggest one of all, no less.

 

[shaky]

Yesterday's was the best comeback from a hopeless position. Liverpool needed 3 in the 2nd half. Barca still needed 3 with 88 mins on the clock. I'd say ours wasn't the greatest comeback, as we only needed one goal to save the game. The fashion in how we went about equalising, then scoring the winner made ours the most spectacular win though.

 

[legolegs]

Thing about 99 is that United were only down by 1 goal so a single goal was enough to keep the team in the tie and you can always score one. It's obviously special but for me not as much of a comeback as other games.
Anyway yesterday was one of the best comebacks in CL history but I guess that's obvious.

 

[Ixion]

Palace from 0-3 down to 3-3 in the last 10 minutes.

 

[DizeeGorilla20]

Call it petty or a anti-Liverpool bias but I've never really found Istanbul to be *that* great

Firstly there was the matter of the phantom goal, so they should not have been in the final in the first place


Secondly, Gerrard dived for the penalty


Lastly, the fact that they won on penalties kind of detracts from it for me. It kind of feels "incomplete" to me. If they had gone on to make it 4-3 that would have really made it something. But that's just my opinion.


In terms of Barca vs United, Barca's was clearly the greater feat in terms of what they achieved on the pitch but the contentious penalties do take some gloss of.


Our comeback won us the trophy and completed the ,as of then, unprecedented treble whereas theirs got them in the quarter final. So I think ours just about edges it when you look at the significance of the win

 

[legolegs]

Yesterday's was the best comeback from a hopeless position. Liverpool needed 3 in the 2nd half. Barca still needed 3 with 88 mins on the clock. I'd say ours wasn't the greatest comeback, as we only needed one goal to save the game. The fashion in how we went about equalising, then scoring the winner made ours the most spectacular win though.

I'm not really sure about that. I know Barca had only 7-8 minutes left to score 3 but at least they were clearly the better team and dominating PSG. Liverpool were not only down by 3 goals, they were getting dominated by a far better team that fully deserved to be 3 goals up.

 

[shabz]

To score two goals after 90 mins when we had been battered all game was immense and is one of my greatest memories, but one goal was all we needed to keep the game alive. So we always were in with a sniff, and the fact that we won it and got the treble as well makes it even more special. But Istanbul was truly amazing as Liverpool came back from being three goals down against a great AC Milan team. I'd say Liverpool's effort was more unbelievable and United's was much more dramatic.

 

[MiceOnMeth]

To score two goals after 90 mins when we had been battered all game was immense and is one of my greatest memories, but one goal was all we needed to keep the game alive. So we always were in with a sniff, and the fact that we won it and got the treble as well makes it even more special. But Istanbul was truly amazing as Liverpool came back from being three goals down against a great AC Milan team. I'd say Liverpool's effort was more unbelievable and United's was much more dramatic.

Also even after getting it to 3-3 i remember Shevchenko missing a few golden chances hed bury in any other game, unbelievable how they didn't win.

 

[Enigma_87]

Liverpool one I think. First half they were dead and buried. Then United - there was an excellent Bayern side at the other end and we were missing key players. The Deportivo one also comes to mind and not in the UCL but -

 

[Sylar]

United in Turin. 2-0 after 10 minutes against that team in a semi final.

Also agreed, Deportivo not getting as much love as they should.

 

[Vialli_92]

Definitely Barca. Needing 3 goals on 88 minutes and pulling it off is incredible.

 

[M18CTID]

Not a huge fan of Barca by any means, but what they did yesterday was pretty impressive, even though there were some decisions gone their way. It not being a final counts against them though. United were down 3-0 to Tottenham, I believe, and won 5-3 (could have been Newcastle) in one match, so...

That was a great comeback against Spurs for sure but not totally unexpected given how dominant a team United were at the time. A far worse City team came back from 3-0 down at Spurs in the FA Cup a couple of seasons later to win 4-3. This was done with 10 men after that clown Barton got sent off on the stroke of half-time, Anelka had gone off injured, and we'd only won something like 2 of our previous 18 games IIRC.

Incidentally, there is a common denominator in both those games plus a third match - Dean Richards was playing in defence for Spurs when both United and City came back from 3 goals down to win, and somewhat amusingly was part of Southampton's defence that lost an FA Cup game at Tranmere 4-3 after being 3-0 up

 

[11101]

Ours, and not even close.

Liverpool's was in a final.

Barcelona's was in the dying minutes.

Ours was both.

 

[fcbforever]

Barca. Doesn't matter it wasn't a final, the fact that this first leg happened before that and they still came back...there's a reason it has never been done before. As an archievement, it's Barca. As a moment, it's United.

 

[Ixion]

As an archievement, it's Barca. As a moment, it's United.

It's not really an achievement yet, they haven't won anything. We completed the Treble with ours, Barca as of right now have won nothing.

I mean it's like comparing United's 7-1 against Roma to say the 3-2 over Juve. One is nothing in the history of the club and the other is one of our greatest nights. It's impossible to judge what Barca have done yet.

 

[Oneunited26]

I still disagree. United vs Bayern were two teams at the top of their A game. (going by who we'd beat). It was a toe to toe match and one had won. Then the other team scores two in two minutes. Wins the final.

Of put Liverpool vs Milan in that Match in 05 is more like today.
both at half time were done . Then great come backs.
Today PSG didn't even show up. Barca are so good though you can see why every team is terrified to go to the Nou Camp

Well what we are forgetting is 2 things in that final, Bayern were not really playing every week needing to win a must win game in the final few months of the season, like we were, that last 3 games were physically a demanding few games. The second one always seems to be overlooked, no keane and scholes in the final, so united were going into the final with 2 huge missing pieces in the puzzle, adding the fact fergie tactics wise messed up a majority of the game playing butt and beckham central, has soon as fergie shifted giggs to the middle and becks the the right we actually got a foot hold in the game, fergie defiantly messed up a bit taking away his most creative and assisted midfielder in beckham that season away from the supply line.

 

[Billy Blaggs]

Well what we are forgetting is 2 things in that final, Bayern were not really playing every week needing to win a must win game in the final few months of the season, like we were, that last 3 games were physically a demanding few games. The second one always seems to be overlooked, no keane and scholes in the final, so united were going into the final with 2 huge missing pieces in the puzzle, adding the fact fergie tactics wise messed up a majority of the game playing butt and beckham central, has soon as fergie shifted giggs to the middle and becks the the right we actually got a foot hold in the game, fergie defiantly messed up a bit taking away his most creative and assisted midfielder in beckham that season away from the supply line.

So still United 99
Liverpool 05
Barca 17

Between the the obviously

 

[RedPed]

Easily United against Bayern. It was a final. Plus Barca cheated their way past PSG so I have no respect for that hollow victory.

 

[robinrooney]

Both the Liverpool 05 and Barca yesterday were only possible due to clear dives which resulted in penalties. So therefor, our win in 99 was the best

 

[Seveneric]

Going with United and Liverpool above Barca's, only because there was a trophy directly at stake.

If Barcelona go on to win it all this year, I might re-evaluate.

 

[Sarni]

Barca's comeback last night was the best ever. Not only needing and scoring 3 goals in the final 10 minutes, they overcame a 4-goal deficit against a very good team for the first time in CL history. It was just unbelievable.

 

[dichinero]

Barca, easily

 

[Handsome Devil]

Come on lads, if we want to be highly biased, how about United v Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, European Cup semi final second leg 1968.
Ancient history to some on here I know, but United, 1-0 up from first leg, we're 3-1 down at half time and being taken apart by Real. The fought back to 3-3 to reach the final....the rest is history.
One of the matches which, in the words of David Sadler, helped heal the scars of Munich.