Ferguson 'had to break up FIGHT between Man Utd stars before UCL final 2008'

Owen Hargreaves has revealed how Manchester United's players nearly got into a fight with each other on the eve of the 2008 Champions League final, in which they then went on to beat Chelsea.

Such was the fiercely competitive nature of that squad, which contained the likes of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored in the final, that a mere training game was the cause of the bust-up.

Things became so heated that boss Sir Alex Ferguson needed to intervene after a row escalated to the point of a violent bust-up.

This happened while training in the Luzhniki Stadium, the venue for the final in Moscow, much of which took place in front of cameras, although the bust-up was not filmed. Hargreaves did not name the specific players involved in the row.

When asked by beIN Sport how Ferguson fired up the players before that final, Hargreaves explained: 'He didn't need to, he knew the boys were ready.

'I remember we did a training game in the stadium in Moscow the day before and we almost had a fight amongst the two teams because the training game was so intense.

'One team lost and everybody was moaning at each other and Sir Alex had to come in and break it up. That's how it was. Everybody was so competitive about winning.

'Even in a training game, you'd think people didn't want to get injured but that wasn't the case. Everybody was just on it. Everybody was so excited for that game.'

United and Chelsea fought out a 1-1 draw in the final, with Ronaldo heading home the opening goal before Frank Lampard equalised on the stroke of half-time.

Chelsea were probably the better team for much of the game but saw Didier Drogba and Lampard hit the woodwork, and Drogba sent off for slapping Nemanja Vidic, and the trophy had to be won on penalties after 120 minutes of stalemate.

Ronaldo's miss handed Chelsea captain John Terry the opportunity to win it for his team, but he slipped while taking the kick and hit the post. That would prove crucial after Nicolas Anelka later saw his kick saved by Edwin van der Sar, leading to famous images of Terry in tears in the rain.

It sealed Ferguson's second European Cup triumph, and United have failed to conquer Europe since, having been beaten by Barcelona in both the 2009 and 2011 finals. Chelsea went on to finally win the competition in 2012.