Manchester United 's victory against Johan Cruyff's Barcelona in the 1991 European Cup Winners' Cup final was an integral stepping stone on the path to Champions League glory. That path, though, was rocky not just because of 1993's welcome from Hell in Istanbul.
Cruyff's connection with modern day United is restricted to his strained relationship with Louis van Gaal while his son, Jordi, endured a miserable spell in England's north-west in the late 90s and early 2000s. Still, Jordi 1-0 Gerrard.
Without Cruyff, Alex Ferguson's name might never have been prefixed with 'Sir' and United might not have housed two more European Cups in their trophy cabinet.
It was appropriate Ferguson clutched the Holy Grail that was the European Cup in the same gladiatorial arena where his United side had been butchered four-and-a-half years earlier.
Cruyff's Barcelona Dream Team, which included his son, left United feeling as dizzy as those fans stood in Camp Nou's vertiginous tiers in November 1994. The Barca of Romario, Soichkov, Koeman and Guardiola thrashed United 4-0 on a night that redefined Ferguson's approach in Europe. As recently as 2014, the Barcelona website described the victory as 'one of the finest days in FC Barcelona history'.
Barcelona had been humbled in that year's Champions League final 4-0 by AC Milan. Determined to exorcise the memories of that aberration, they gave United a dosage of the medicine Fabio Capello's Milan administered.
Against Cruyff's Dream Team, Ferguson committed some dire transgressions. Eric Cantona was suspended yet the three foreigner rule convinced him to start Gary Walsh over Peter Schmeichel and Ferguson's friend, Simply Red front man Mick Hucknall, joined United for training in Camp Nou on the eve of the match. If you didn't know Ferguson's tinkering by now, you'd never, never know him.
"I had no real idea I was playing until the morning of the game," Walsh, who later confessed to walking around having nightmares about Stoichkov and Romario, said.
"I'd had an inkling because of the rule about only playing three foreign players, but the manager had been playing Peter Schmeichel in goal until then. I wasn't worried, though. These are the occasions you look forward to as a player. It was the biggest game I played in at United so I guess you could say it was one of the pinnacles of my career.
"They just kept the ball and then picked us off when they could." Teams back in England began greeting United with Freddie Mercury's Barcelona.
Stoichkov and Romario scored before half-time and the Bulgarian playmaker made it three on 52 minutes. Right-back Albert Ferrer rounded off the scoring with two minutes to spare.
"That was a big lesson for me” said Ferguson. “They showed us how important it is to possess the ball. I hadn’t understood it until then. I learned how it important it is to have control of the ball in European matches.”
Although Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes featured in the humbling, Juventus would become the Class of '92's European yardstick. Ferguson phased out the veterans.
"You're a f*****g bottler, Incey!" Ferguson spat at his midfielder in the Camp Nou dressing room at half-time." You cannae handle the stage, can you?"
Ince had won two Premier League titles, two FA Cups, the League Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup with United.
"I sensed Paul no longer wanted to be the anchorman in midfield, where there was none better," Ferguson later wrote.
"He now saw himself as an attacking midfield player, a hopeless misreading of his strengths. He refused to embrace reality. His blurred interpretation of his function did contribute appreciably to our nightmare."
Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis left, along with Ince and Walsh, in 1995. Steve Bruce and Paul Parker departed the following year and Gary Pallister lasted until 1998, when United bought Jaap Stam.
Ince's replacement would come from within. Nicky Butt flourished in the wake of Ince's 1995 £7.5m transfer to Internazionale and, after his own Catalan catastrophe as a 19-year-old, started in the 1999 Champions League final.
Seventeen years later at Wembley, United were left dizzy again by Barcelona's passing carousel. Pep Guardiola, the belated heir to his former mentor Cruyff, had continued the Dutchman's legacy.
“This may be the same kind of stepping stone that we had some years ago when they beat us 4-0,” Ferguson said.
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