Fink tells Basel: Remember 1999
Reuters - Monday 26 September 2011, 19:44
MANCHESTER - FC Basel coach
Thorsten Fink knows better than most just how devastating
Manchester United can be and has told his side to keep their
wits about them until the end of Tuesday's Champions League
game.
The former Bayern Munich midfielder (pictured, right) came on as an
80th-minute substitute in the 1999 Champions League Final when
his team were leading 1-0 before United scored two stoppage-time
goals to snatch the trophy from the German side's grasp.
He is not out for revenge on Tuesday and his charges would
be the first to admit they are underdogs for the Group C game at
Old Trafford.
"If you are not careful playing a team like Manchester
United you end up paying," Fink told a news conference on
Monday.
"It's not a question of getting equal... it was a great
memory although it was defeat. I think you gain strength from
defeat, they say that everything that hurts helps you improve."
Basel striker Alex Frei said the Swiss side were outsiders
and that he was "hoping for a small miracle."
"We are not expecting to make the impossible possible but
why can't we do something here tomorrow? Certainly we'll have
the passion, 100 percent commitment and we'll see what happens
when we come out of the 90 minutes on the pitch," he said.
That final comment set alarm bells ringing for Fink, who
remembers how Bayern would have won that 1999 trophy if the
whistle had blown on 90 minutes and not once Teddy Sheringham
and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had netted in added time.
"Of course in Manchester you have to say 92 minutes," he
reminded Frei to a chorus of laughter around the room.