Forget the Nou Camp, 'Miracle of Turin' was Man Utd's greatest comeback

Bring up Manchester United's Treble in 1999 and thoughts spring towards the crowning glory of it all with that one Champions League night inside the Nou Camp.

No, not the 3-3 draw with Barcelona in the group stage, but the final itself. More specifically those crazy last few seconds against Bayern Munich that saw Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer turn a heartbreaking defeat into one of the all-time dramatic wins and climaxes to any football match.

But you need to go back to the previous match in the competition to see why United were the greatest team in the world at the time, with what is also arguably their best ever performance in Europe.

Twenty years ago, on April 21 1999, Sir Alex Ferguson's side had their work cut out when they travelled to Juventus for the second leg of their semi-final, having only drawn the Old Trafford clash 1-1 - Ryan Giggs netting in stoppage-time following Antonio Conte's first-half strike.

About the only positive for the Red Devils heading into the game was they were facing a Juventus side who were on course to finish a disastrous seventh in Serie A and record their worst top-flight placing since 1962.

But no-one really took that statistic at face value and it was easy to see why when the Bianconeri, who had featured in the three previous Champions League finals, named a starting line-up featuring Zinedine Zidane, Edgar Davids, Filippo Inzaghi and Conte - all managed by Carlo Ancelotti.

United needed to win - or at least secure a high-scoring draw - to progress but would have to do so without key man Giggs.

The first-leg saviour had picked up a knock in his side's other incredible '99 semi-final a week earlier when the Welsh wizard scored one of the greatest FA Cup goals to dump out Arsenal.

Ferguson made few errors inside the Stadio delle Alpi but one glaring one came in the form of being complacent in dealing with Juventus's main attacking threat, Inzaghi.

The United boss once described the striker as 'born offside' yet the Italian poacher had the hosts 2-0 up inside 11 minutes, showing typically predatory instincts to tap home following a far-post cross, then having a little fortune after seeing a shot deflect off Jaap Stam over Peter Schmeichel.

United suddenly were 3-1 down on aggregate, shown to be struggling defensively and needing two goals against a side who were not afraid to rough up the visitors with a few questionable challenges - even by 1990s standards.

But United ignored being drawn into needless scraps off the ball, kept their composure and soon dominated proceedings.

David Beckham in particular looked to have been identified as a target by the Italian side as a weak link mentally, with this match coming less than a year after his petulance saw him sent off for England against Argentina at the World Cup.

The late challenges on the midfielder went 'unrewarded' for the hosts. The midfielder had gained maturity throughout the campaign and refused to react to the roughhousing as his focus was more on starting United's comeback.

Beckham soon got that going in the 24th minute when his typically pinpoint corner delivery found Roy Keane attacking the near post and glancing a header across goal to make it 2-1 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate.

The dream of a Champions League final was back on for United but soon over for Keane, whose late sliding tackle on Zidane earned him a booking and a suspension for the final.

It was perhaps typical of the Irishman's application that he showed minimal reaction to being ruled out the biggest game of his career and would go on to be United's star man in Turin.

Sheringham and Solskjaer were the heroes in the final but the stand-out partnership in attack during the Treble season was the lethal combination of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole.

Juve could not cope with the duo or their link-up play, so it came as little surprise when Cole's high cross into the box was headed home by his strike partner just 10 minutes after Keane's equaliser.

United, now leading the tie on away goals, still kept on attacking as Cole and Yorke ran rings around the hosts, with the latter hitting the post before half-time.

So rattled was Ancelotti by the hammering his team were taking on home soil, he made two half-time changes, albeit one of them enforced with Mark Iuliano departing injured.

Now it was Juve attacking for much of the second half, but 'Operation Beckham' was still in force judging by a terrible lunge from Davids on the midfielder, which earned him a booking, but one he could have been sent off for.

Substitute Paolo Montero later narrowly escaped a booking for just as reckless a lunge on Beckham. Frustration was growing at both ends of the pitch for the hosts, with Stam marshalling United's defence to deal with Juve's probes for an equaliser.

Keane's booking was evidence that within limits United were still willing to dish out a few bruises and it was perhaps little surprise that in a game with a number of poor challenges, Paul Scholes would come on and get booked for a terrible studs-up tackle on Didier Deschamps.

He too would miss the final and bad blood between the teams was increasing when Ciro Ferrara was incredibly lucky to stay on the pitch when he pushed Cole in the face following a tussle on the ball.

The amount of poor challenges and confrontations would be enough to ruin any match - or at least stunt the flow. Yet incredibly it was all just a background feature to an incredible match of end-to-end attacking.

Inzaghi had a goal disallowed (yes, it was for a blatant offside) while United went close to a third at the other end with Denis Irwin hitting the post.

Time ticked away but United landed the hammer blow with seven minutes left when Yorke broke through on goal before being hauled down by Angelo Peruzzi. It looked a certain penalty but play continued as Cole was on hand to slot in the resulting loose ball to seal a famous victory.

Changing-room footage after the game showed just what it meant to the players, with Dwight Yorke high-fiving all his team-mates - as well as Sir Bobby Charlton. Even a suited and booted Giggs enjoyed the occasion.

Perhaps more noticeably was the visual disappointment from Keane and Scholes. Having played such a crucial role in getting United to the final, not even they could hide a crestfallen look having now had time to digest they would not play the final.

It was not just the impressive nature of United's comeback to win the tie that made this match so memorable - it was the non-stop mix of attacking football, aggression and talent which exploded on the Turin pitch that night.

The late 1990s was a blessed era in football. 'Parking the bus' was yet to drive its way into the football lexicon and it was still just about honest enough to have a few robust challenges that did not lead to the victim rolling around to make the most of it at every opportunity.

It was also starting to breed a generation of many highly-technical footballers who could ride such challenges but also display admirable skill. Some of Zidane's touches in this game had United's defence bamboozled.

The combination led to many attacking games, with a healthy dose of highly-skilled players and aggressive defensive strategies, all helping generate an atmosphere within the crowd which further sparked events on the pitch. Football has never had it so good and this game was the advertisement for it.