Patrice Evra has referred to Sir Alex Ferguson's team talk before the 2008 Champions League final as the finest he experienced during his career.
Manchester United claimed their third European crown as they beat Chelsea in an all-Premier League final in Moscow. The contest is best remembered for John Terry's slip in the penalty shootout, which kept the Red Devils in it before Edwin Van der Sar saved from Nicolas Anelka.
It was Ferguson's second personal triumph after the victory of 1999 and it was his emotive speech before the clash that Evra believes was a difference maker. The Scot didn't discuss football, instead referencing the life issues his players and their families would've faced.
Evra said: "It was before the 2008 Champions League final, I remember he came and sat, looked at all of us and said 'we've already won, we don't even need to go outside, look at you. So many different nationalities, I've won. To see all these different people in the dressing room. Imagine Patrice Evra's mother, she has to feed 25 kids, she had to suffer.
"'Imagine Carlos Tevez growing up in Buenos Aires in the favelas.' So we started to have this bond - he didn't talk about football. He spoke about our lives and when we got out of the dressing room, we were like warriors - ready to die."
Wes Brown, who played on the opposite flank to Evra, has also referred to Ferguson's speech as the one the left the mark on him. “He went around every player, said a few things about where they’d come from and what they had achieved,” the defender told the Daily Mail.
“The message was about a group all coming from different places, nobody growing up the same, but we were all here now, United. It was very good, inspiring.”
Ferguson has since admitted to only one regret from his 2008 success as he attempted to juggle his squad - which meant someone had to miss out.
"My problem in the 2008 final, maybe I even regret it to this day, was I left Ji-Sung Park out completely in the final," he told MUTV in 2017. "He'd played such a great role and that's the problem when you get to these finals."
United's success in Russia came after they'd also won the Premier League as they completed a memorable double. It also set them on a period in which they reached three Champions League finals in four years, losing the other two to Barcelona.
