Coral look back at five of the greatest Champions League comebacks
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Remember these classic encounters?
There have been some memorable comebacks in the history of the Champions League.
Remember Manchester United in 1999? And Liverpool’s against AC Milan in 2005? Roma added their name to that illustrious list with an incredible victory over Barcelona in midweek.
In honour of I Giallorossi, the Coral News Team have looked back at five of the greatest UCL comebacks…
Manchester United 2-1 Bayern Munich, 1999
Manchester United looked dead and buried as injury-time approached in the 1999 Champions League final.
Mario Basler’s goal early in the first-half had given Bayern Munich the lead – an advantage they never looked like relinquishing.
United’s treble hopes were going up in smoke. That was until substitute Teddy Sheringham struck in the first minute of added time to level the tie up at 1-1.
And with extra-time approaching, the Red Devils completed a remarkable turnaround. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer clipped home Sheringham’s header to give Sir Alex Ferguson a maiden UCL triumph.
Deportivo La Coruna 4-0 AC Milan (Agg 5-4), 2003-04
Champions League holders AC Milan were sent crashing out in Spain after being trounced 5-0 by Deportivo.
The Serie A side were 3-0 down inside the opening 43 minutes to leave their hopes of progression in tatters.
Gonzalez Fran added a fourth late in the second-half as the team including Cafu, Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf were dumped out of the competition.
Monaco 3-1 Real Madrid (Agg 5-4), 2003-04
Real Madrid may have avoided a humiliating comeback against Juventus on Wednesday night, but they weren’t so lucky back in 2004.
Los Blancos looked to have the tie wrapped up after a 4-2 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu. Goals from Ivan Helguera, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Ronaldo had given the La Liga side the advantage.
And after Raul struck in the first-half of the second-leg, Monaco looked doomed. A Ludovic Giuly goal before the break gave the hosts a glimmer of hope.
Then, in the second-half, the tie was turned on its head. Fernando Morientes’ looping header made it 2-1 before Giuly rounded things off in the 66th minute.
Monaco would go on to beat Chelsea and then lose to Jose Mourinho’s Porto in the final.
AC Milan 3-3 Liverpool (L’Pool win 3-1 on pens), 2004-2005
It spawned a film, a play and articles like these on the greatest European comebacks.
Liverpool’s recovery from 3-0 down to win the Champions League against AC Milan in 2005 remains the stuff of legend.
A Hernan Crespo double and Paolo Maldini’s strike has seemingly put the game beyond the Reds before the 45-minute mark.
But goals from Steven Gerrard, Vladamir Smicer and Xabi Alonso in a mad five-minute spell after the break gave the Reds parity.
Jerzy Dudek then produced a miracle double stop from Andriy Shevchenko in extra-time to force the game into penalties. The Ukrainian missed the vital spot-kick in the shootout as Liverpool won 3-2 on penalties to write the Miracle of Istanbul into football folklore.
Barcelona 6-1 Paris Saint-Germain (Agg 6-5), 2016-17
How do you recover from a 4-0 first-leg defeat? Win 6-1 in the second-leg, of course.
Barcelona looked dead and buried after their mauling at the Parc des Princes but produced a stunning comeback at the Camp Nou to book their Champions League quarter-final place.
Luis Suarez, a Layvin Kurzawa own goal and a Lionel Messi penalty had put the Catalans 3-0 in front before an Edinson Cavani penalty left them with another mountain to climb.
Barca, however, did not read the script. Neymar curled home a sensation free-kick and followed it up by tucking home a controversial penalty three minutes later.
Sergi Roberto completed the most remarkable of turnarounds in the fifth minute of added time to leave PSG reeling from one of the most incredible results in European football history.
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