21st of April 1999: the night Roy Keane put in one of the finest displays of his career.
Manchester United travelled to Turin to face a star-studded Juventus side that included Edgar Davids, Zinedine Zidane, Filippo Inzaghi and Alessandro Del Piero in the Champions League semifinal.
After a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, it was all to play for.
2-0 down in the second leg of the Champions semifinal, Manchester United looked down and out, the treble dream looked over.
Up stepped Roy Keane. The influential captain stepped up to rejuvenate Alex Ferguson’s side and start the comeback with a brilliant header from a corner.
This was arguably his greatest performance, with goals from Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole completing a memorable comeback for Manchester United.
Keane, of course, would play no part of their final triumph, after a somewhat harsh yellow card for a tackle on Zidane ruled him out of the final.
The yellow card seemed to spur Keane on to greater heights. Alex Ferguson would wax poetic about the performance. He would say:
Pounding over every blade of grass, competing as if he would rather die of exhaustion than lose; he inspired all around him. I felt it was an honour to be associated with such a player.
However, Keane did not forget the reason why he got the yellow either. The clumsy tackle on Zidane happened after a pass from Swede Jesper Blomqvist.
Keane would blame Blomqvist for the suspension.
Was Roy Keane reaction to Juventus yellow card justified?
He let him know about it in the changing room of the Stadio delle Alpi. According to Andy Mitten, Keane did not speak to Blomqvist again for the rest of the season.
Afterwards, Denis Irwin would say:
“Roy had a word with him on the field at the time, but I think Jesper thought more would come. A lot of the lads were wary of Roy and didn’t want to upset him, so poor Jesper probably feared what was coming to him.”
Last year, Blomqvist spoke in more detail about the pass.
“It wasn’t the best ball in the world, but he had a bad first touch which lost possession.
It’s to his credit that he then had one of the greatest games of his career, but he was shouting at me in the dressing room after. He was so angry, “It’s your fucking fault that I’m going to miss the final.
I thought he was mad at me for a long time.”
The Swede might be right. Watch the incident again. Blomqvist's pass lacks conviction but Keane's first touch is poor.
Yellow card for Roy Keane!
The United captain will now miss the final after this foul on Zidane!#UCLComebacks | #UCL | #VMSport pic.twitter.com/IduU7vhLUC— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) May 16, 2020
Despite the anger the Irish midfielder had towards Jasper Blomqvist, he understood how the Manchester United captain operated.
I thought he was mad and annoying. I couldn’t understand him and thought he was being egotistical. He shouted a lot, especially at players like Phil Neville, but I realised that Roy was always putting the team first.
Alex Ferguson knew that, so let him continue. Roy also stood up for the players, whether it was on the pitch or off it with commercial decisions.
After the treble winning season of 1999, the Swedish midfielders' career was disrupted with injuries, joining Everton and Charlton before returning home to Sweden.
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