'I broke the cardinal rule of commentary by saying "And Solskjaer has won it" - if Manchester United hadn't won, there would have been an effigy hanging of me in the Arndale Centre!': Clive Tyldesley relives his most famous moment
The former ITV commentator relives Manchester United's famous night in Barcelona when Sir Alex Ferguson's side became European champions
Yorke races to celebrate with match-winner Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Clive Tyldesley will forever be associated with Manchester United's dramatic 1999 Champions League Final triumph over Bayern Munich – but the commentator admits he wasn't really supposed to say his most famous line.
The 1998/99 campaign was Tyldesley's first as the lead commentator at ITV, following Brian Moore's retirement, and the season culminated at Barcelona's Camp Nou, with Manchester United's first appearance in the final of the rebranded Champions League.
For a long time, Bayern Munich led 1-0 thanks to a Mario Basler goal, and Tyldesley could not see a Manchester United victory coming.
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"Absolutely not, no – Bayern Munich hit the woodwork twice in the last 10 minutes," the 69-year-old tells FourFourTwo.
"With 89 minutes played, there’d been one goal and I’d got it wrong – 'Basler, deflected and in'. It wasn’t deflected, every time I see Peter Schmeichel I say ‘I thought you were the greatest goalkeeper in the world, you never moved so I assumed it had been deflected!'"
Then, everything changed, in the most incredible fashion. First Teddy Sheringham equalised in the 91st minute, then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer flicked home from David Beckham's corner to win it in the third minute of stoppage time.
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Clive Tyldesley (Image credit: Getty Images)
Tyldesley's commentary captured the moment perfectly and is remembered fondly, even if the man himself admits he probably shouldn't have worded it exactly how he did.
"I’m pleased it’s stood the test of time, but ‘And Solskjaer has won it’ does break the cardinal rule of commentary, waving the winner across the line before they’d reached it," he said.
"If Bayern had equalised, then won, there’d have been an effigy of me hanging from a lamp post in the Arndale Centre that night. It would have been my fault!"
Tyldesley admits that night was a huge moment for him. "The 1999 final was the most important night of my career," he said. "The audience was maybe 25 million, if I’d f***ed up, ITV would have asked if this rookie was good enough to handle the Champions League contract, and gone and got John Motson or somebody.
"Those two or three minutes that I managed to somehow negotiate and come up with some words, which have become a tiny part of people’s recollections of it, that was my breakthrough."
Tyldesley's podcast with Martin O'Neill, The Football Authorities, is available to listen to now on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts, with new episodes available weekly
Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from 20 countries, in places as varied as Jerusalem and the Arctic Circle. He's interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it's a long story), as well as covering the World Cup, Euro 2020 and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.
