Remembering the amazing goal Man Utd nearly scored in a UCL final

Manchester United were famed for their counter-attacking goals under Sir Alex Ferguson – and Carlos Tevez nearly scored one of the very best in the 2008 Champions League final.

United were built to hit teams on the break under Ferguson and could go from one end of the pitch to another in the blink of an eye at their best, scoring more than 100 counter-attack goals during the legendary manager’s time in charge at Old Trafford.

Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo were particularly potent in the art of counter-attacking and combined to score a few iconic goals, including perhaps the best of them all in the 2009 Champions League semi-final against Arsenal.

“Attacking is about combinations too and even though people say our United team had all these great players, in reality our biggest strength was as a pure counterattacking machine,” Rooney told the Sunday Times in May 2020.

“We would sit back in our shape, win the ball and just go. We trained counter-attacking from one goal to the other. In the drill we had eight seconds to score.

“We put a striker on the halfway line and two players on either side of the goalposts. One would play the ball up to the striker and both would sprint to join him. With two defenders against you, you had eight seconds to score.”

13 years ago today, Rooney and Ronaldo scored this devastating counter attack goal vs Bolton

The goal was later voted as the BBC 06/07 goal of the season. #MUFC pic.twitter.com/RZAMZdrKD2

— UnitedReds (@UnitedRedscom) March 17, 2020

Not content with that dynamic duo, Ferguson bolstered his attack further in the summer of 2007 with the signing of Carlos Tevez, completing his last truly great team at Old Trafford.

With a trident of forwards that possessed devastating pace