English football was celebrating its biggest triumph since the World Cup success of 1966, after Manchester United produced an improbable finish to beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in the final of the European champions' league in Barcelona last night.
Goals in the last three minutes by Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, neither of whom started the game, gave them a victory which often looked out of reach after Mario Basler had put the German team in front in the fourth minute.
Alfred Hitchcock could scarcely have devised a better ending to an absorbing plot as United, almost out on their feet, summoned the energy for their late, decisive charge.
"This has to be the best night of my career" said manager Alex Ferguson. "After dominating the game for so long, I began to despair when we still hadn't scored approaching the final minutes. But fortune favours the brave and I'm delighted for the club".
Some 25,000 Manchester United supporters, among them many Irish people, had converged on Barcelona in the hope of watching the team complete an unprecedented treble of European, FA Cup and premiership successes.
Thousands more had to settle for watching the game on television in local hostelries after the going rate for tickets on the black market touched £650 in the hour before the kick-off. Ticket touts have seldom had a more rewarding evening, but for one, an Englishman, who arrived in Spain at the weekend, it was a mission he is unlikely to forget. After being arrested by police, he was fined 7 million pesetas (£33,133) and dispatched with some haste out of the country.
Fears that the traditional rivalry between English and German supporters would flare into open violence did not materialise in the approach to the game. Thousands of Spanish riot police had been drafted in, turning the Nou Camp Stadium into a ring of steel.
While the German fans retreated in disillusionment, their Manchester counterparts remained in the stadium to watch Peter Schmeichel, captaining the team in the absence of the injured Roy Keane, accept the trophy in his last appearance before retiring.
In Britain bookmakers William Hill predicted the team's feat would cost the betting industry £10 million.
One United fan of 30 years' standing from Lichfield, Staffordshire, was celebrating a win of £157,000 from a stake of just £2.50 after the European cup victory completed a 14-event accumulator at odds of 62,800/1.
Meanwhile, William Hill is quoting Manchester united at 66/1 to complete the treble again next season.