manchester united played athletic bilbao before the munich air disaster.
manchester united played athletic bilbao before the munich air disaster.
who did manchester united play before the munich air disaster?
athletic bilbao
both sides had a connection to the early history of european football; chelsea were invited to take part in the inaugural european cup in 1955–56 as champions of england, only to be denied entry by the football league, allowing manchester united to become the first english entrants in the competition the following season. in february 1958, eight manchester united players were killed in the munich air disaster, when the aeroplane carrying their team back from a match in belgrade crashed while attempting to take off from a refuelling stop in munich. manager matt busby was seriously injured in the crash and almost died as a result, but he rebuilt the team, and in may 1968, manchester united became the first english winners of the european cup, beating benfica 4–1 in the 1968 european cup final. chelsea won their first european trophy three years later, when they beat real madrid 2–1 in the 1971 european cup winners' cup final replay after a 1–1 draw in the first match. both chelsea and manchester united won that same competition during the 1990s – first manchester united beat barcelona 2–1 in the 1991 final (followed by victory over red star belgrade in the 1991 super cup), and then chelsea beat vfb stuttgart in the 1998 final (followed by victory over real madrid in the 1998 super cup, their most recent european success at the time). manchester united then won their second european cup the following year, beating bayern munich in the 1999 champions league final.
2008 uefa champions league final
gregg has appeared in a number of recent television programmes about manchester united and the munich air disaster, including "munich: end of a dream" – a documentary televised in 1998 to mark the 40th anniversary of the munich tragedy. he was voted best goalkeeper of the tournament in the 1958 fifa world cup according to the fifa documentary "fifa fever". on the 50th anniversary of the air crash he appeared in the documentary "one life: munich air disaster", broadcast 6 february 2008 on the bbc, in which he returned to the scene of the crash and the hospital for the first time and also met the son of mrs lukić, with whom she was pregnant at the time of the disaster. he expressed disappointment at never having been able to meet mr lukić, who had died in 2007. he was portrayed by actor ben peel in a 2011 bbc film, "united", which was centred around the munich air disaster.
harry gregg