With all the usual talk about "Arsenes and Fergies Kids", everyone seems to have forgot possibly the best young side assembled in recent memory. This Leeds United side was a team which burnt very brightly but not for very long, after it was discovered that the clubs finances were built on foundations of sand but we won't go into that and just enjoy the football for what it was.
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| Subs: Robinson, Woodgate, Radebe, Kelly, Wilcox, McPhail, Bakke, Huckerby, Bridges |
In the league Leeds finished 4th just outside the Champions League places which was below the clubs expectations. Where they really excelled in this season was in the Europe's elite competition. They qualified for the tournament under the stewardship of Irishman David O'Leary by finishing 3rd in the 1999-2000 season ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool, and slightly behind Arsenal and Manchester United respectively.
In the Champions League they were pitted in a group containing Barcelona, AC Milan and Besiktas. No-one expected them to qualify from this "group of death". They kicked off the campaign with a away tie against Barcelona and as expected they were soundly beaten 4-0. It looked like Leeds were at the beginning of a miserable and short time in the tournament.
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| Things get heated during the heavy defeat against Spanish giants Barcelona |
Leeds needed to bounce back after the defeat to Barcelona and they did it in the best possible way by beating AC Milan at Elland Road, with Lee Boywer scoring the winner in the dying minutes. They went on from this confidence boosting win to hammer Turkish side Besiktas 6-0 in a memorable night at Elland Road. Leeds had now truly began their European adventure. Following this they drew 0-0 away at Besiktas, 1-1 with Barcelona at home and finally a very good 1-1 draw at the San Siro with Milan.
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| Memorable image of Dominic Matteo heading Leeds into the lead against Milan (Source www.mightyleeds.co.uk) |
The draw in Milan was enough to help them finish 2nd behind Milan and ahead of 3rd place Barcelona. This was after a disappointing opening game an excellent result...
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| Source: Wikipedia |
These were the days when the Champions League had two group stages and Leeds passed through the first stage...
Again they started with a defeat to a Spanish club this time it was reigning champions Real Madrid who were 2-0 victors at Elland Road with a certain Raul getting on the scoresheet. As in their previous group they responded to a convincing defeat with a brilliant win, this time it was 1-0 away at Italian giants Lazio. They then went to register two victories over Belgian Champions Anderlecht who had defeated Manchester United in the earlier round and topped their group.
They went on to finish second it their group after another defeat to Madrid at the Bernabeu and a exciting 3-3 draw with Lazio at home.
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| Source: Wikipedia |
Leeds surprised everyone by reaching the knock out stages of the Champions in there first attempt. The first team they played? You guessed it, it was a Spanish side and this time it was Deportivo La Coruna. Leeds pulled one out of the bag this time at Elland Road by battering the Spaniards 3-0, with left back Ian Harte opening the scoring with a trademark free kick, Alan Smith and Rio Ferdinand followed by getting on the scoresheet, they had one foot in the semi final...
The second leg in Spain wasn't as simple and Leeds were defeated 2-0 with goals from Djalmina and Diego Tristan making the difference. Ultimately Leeds went through to the Semi-Finals.
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| Rio Ferdinand and Olivier Dacourt celebrate going through to the semi finals of the Champions League |
In the following years due to financial problems this side was dismantled and Leeds spent the following years languishing in the lower tiers of English football. I'll leave you with a video remembering the good times...
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