Football: European Cup winners - `Cocky' Bayern inspired United

Sight of opponents waving to fans as if they were champions hardened Sheringham's resolve

AFTER TWO years of enduring chants about his lack of medals you would think it would take a lot to goad Teddy Sheringham. But the striker who went from taunts to the treble in the space of 11 days said yesterday it was anger which swept Manchester United to the European Cup.

Sheringham, who is expected to be named in Kevin Keegan's England squad today, came off the substitutes' bench to score one injury-time goal and make another. He said it was the sight of Bayern Munich players waving to their supporters with 25 minutes to go that fuelled the resolve for United's frantic finale in Barcelona. "I saw Mario Basler walking over to take a corner waving to his fans," he said. "I wasn't best pleased. I still wasn't on the pitch and he was doing that. That's not good to see. The Germans were getting very flash and a bit cocky and it was only 1-0. It gives you more of an incentive."

Sheringham, who came on in the 66th minute for Sweden's Jesper Blomqvist, added: "The manager just said, `Go out there and get us a goal'. But he kept me waiting for a couple of minutes on the touchline. It was going down from 23 minutes to about 20 so I said, `Come on, get me on now'."

His injury-time equaliser did not come as quickly as in the FA Cup final four days before when he scored within two minutes of replacing Roy Keane, although it arrived soon enough. Ryan Giggs mis-hit a shot from the edge of the area and Sheringham swivelled to guide it past Bayern's goalkeeper, Oliver Kahn. "It came off my ankle more than anything," he said.

He has developed a reputation as a super sub, but it is not a tag he wishes to be permanently attached. "I don't really want to be labelled that," he said. "It's good at the moment but I don't want it to stay. The whole thing has been a roller-coaster really. Hopefully, it can keep rolling for a few more years."

Solskjaer is more content with his substitute's role. "I believe in myself and my abilities and if I can come on in the last 10 minutes, the rest of the players are very tired so I'm more likely to score then," he said. "I'm so happy at Manchester United and it's unbelievable to be a part of this incredible team. You never give up."

He did, however, spare just a small note of sympathy for Bayern Munich. "To lose in that way must be terrible," he said, before adding: "To win it that way is that much better."

For his part, David Beckham insisted that the players owed everything to Ferguson. "This is for him," he said. "He deserves everything he gets. He brought me up and has made my career what it is. So we all owe the manager everything."

Back in Manchester yesterday, the manager himself insisted that winning the European Cup was not an Old Trafford obsession - at least not for him. "After all that we've done this season there would have been no reason to be disappointed, but I was gearing up to facing the question: `Do you think you'll ever win it?' " he said.

"I would have had to address that because I would have refused to have interrupted my way of life for it. I was not going to let it obsess me. The European Cup was always going to be the thing that you strive for but even last night I was so relaxed about it. I was accepting we were going to lose. I was not going to get myself twisted inside about it because I have got a life to live. Now, though, I do feel a sense of fulfilment I did not feel before.

"You look at that Cup and the managers who have lifted it [in the last five years] and the teams that have won it. There was Ajax, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid and, now, Manchester United. You see that Cup and say `that is what it is all about'.

"I don't want to see out the next three years [of his contract] and, at the end, think that I haven't won anything since Barcelona. That would be a waste of myself and the players. We have to keep setting ourselves new challenges."

n An audience of 15.5m watched Manchester United's European Cup win over Bayern Munich, according to television's own estimates. The figures, equivalent to one in four of the population, peaked at 18.8m at 9.30pm - just as Sheringham and Solskjaer scored the winning goals.