If Zinedine Zidane does ever become the Manchester United manager then there is a gem of a photograph to dust off from the Old Trafford archives. Back when the club’s Megastore was a Superstore and located just in front of the train line, Zidane took advantage of Juventus’ 1996 Champions League group tie to pop in and was photographed paying for a souvenir by an eagle-eyed club snapper.
Zidane had played at Old Trafford earlier that year with France against the Czech Republic in Euro ’96 when Sir Alex Ferguson clapped eyes on him. Ferguson was concerned a second French forward would unsettle Eric Cantona, so the Scot opted for Karel Poborsky. Zidane joined Champions League winners Juve, who beat United 1-0 in their group stage opener that September.
“We lost 1-0 to them in Turin, but it could have been 10-0,” Gary Neville later recalled. “It was the biggest battering I’ve had on a football pitch. They took us to school, boys against men. We didn’t have a proper chance in the whole match. Manchester United played 90 minutes without a shot, without a sniff of a chance. It’s the only time that happened in my 602 games.”
In November, Zidane lined up with Angelo Peruzzi, Alen Boksic, Didier Deschamps, Alessandro del Piero and others as Juve edged a spirited United 1-0 in a closer contest. Marcello Lippi’s Juve side reached three successive Champions League finals that decade and Neville dubbed them United’s ‘benchmark’.
Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid defeated Juve in the 1997 and ’98 finals yet it was their black and white stripes and Sony sponsor shirts that Neville feared. “Juventus have qualified?” he asked ITV’s Gary Newbon after United progressed from the 1998 group stage. Upon learning they had, Neville pulled a face that suggested Liverpool had just won the league.
Juventus and United faced each other six times in those three seasons – four in the group stage and two in the 1999 semi-finals. On one night in Turin, United completed their European education by recovering from 2-0 down to defeat Juventus 3-2 and reach their first European Cup final in 31 years. Ferguson had made them such a force Zidane hovered back onto the radar. He is on it again.