Manchester United 1998/99 – A historic treble

 

Given Manchester United’s rich history, there are a lot of great moments which will go down long in the memory of football fans all around the world but arguably the Red Devils’ greatest achievement has to be their brilliant 1998/1999 treble triumph.

The legendary Sir Alex Ferguson is a born winner and the trophy less 1997/98 season would have certainly hurt the Scotsman’s pride. Therefore, Ferguson was intent on making amends during the following campaign and he assembled a formidable squad to do so.

The fabled class of ’92 consisting of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Phil Neville – along with established stars such as Roy Keane, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer formed a strong squad and to add to the strength in depth, a lot of cash was splashed to bring in the likes of Jaap Stam, Dwight Yorke and Jesper Blomqvist.

Despite the ridiculously talented group of players, United did not get off to the best of starts and had to wait till mid September to claim their first victory of the season. Then to make matters worse, the Red Devils succumbed to a disappointing 3-0 defeat at the hands of title rivals Arsenal early on.

While United struggled domestically, they were decent in the Champions League after claiming thrilling draws against the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich before thumping past Brondby.

Building on from their good performances in Europe, United were able to translate such form into the league and keep themselves afloat at the top of the table alongside the likes of Aston Villa, Chelsea and Arsenal.

A terrible run of only one win in eight matches during the month of December looked like United’s season was put in jeopardy but it was after their blues in the winter that the Red Devils embarked on a sensational 33 match unbeaten run to conquer all before them.

United raced to the top of the Premier League table by February and were still going strong in the FA Cup as well as the Champions League. Then as the business end of the season approached, there were murmurs that the Red Devils could even achieve the impossible by claiming the treble – with football betting experts and pundits all excited at such a prospect.

However, it was going to be anything but straightforward for United as they were being pursued by Arsenal in the table as well as in the FA Cup while the mighty Juventus laid in wait in the Champions League.

Great teams prove their worth during the big occasions and it was exactly what United did by defeating Arsenal in the FA Cup semi final extra time through a wonder goal by Ryan Giggs, while launched a wonderful comeback victory against Juventus to seal their place in the final of the competition against Bayern Munich.

Despite their wonderful feat throughout the season though, it all came down to the final three games which would decide whether the campaign would end in a dream or tragedy for United.

First of all was a must win Premier League clash against Tottenham Hotspur to decide the fate of the title and in typical United fashion, they went behind early on. Nonetheless, goals from David Beckham and Andy Cole saw the Red Devils claim the victory and in turn, the title.

The FA Cup final against Newcastle United was more of a straightforward victory as Teddy Sheringham and Paul Scholes guided United to a 2-0 result.

However, the same could not be said regarding the Champions League final against Bayern Munich where United came back from the jaws of defeat to claim a victory.

Having been dominated throughout the match, it looked like Bayern would crush United’s treble dream but the Red Devils managed to claim the most sensational comeback victory ever as goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in injury time helped them to a wonderful triumph and an improbable treble.

By: http://www.footballbettingo.com

 

Horse Racing Is Now Available Via Live Streaming

We are all used to watching some racing on the TV. Sitting in our armchair at home, a can of beer in our hand, and plenty of food available to snack on in the kitchen. As with all things, they change over time. It was only a couple of decades ago that the only live horse racing we could watch was in the bookmakers, with the occasional meeting on terrestrial TV. Then came along the racing channels, with the first one appearing in the late nineties. There was a monthly charge for this though, and so it did not really go mainstream. In the early part of this century, we ended up with two racing channels, one was subscription, while the other was free to watch.

The problem with these two channels though, is that you need to be subscribed to either Virgin Media, or Sky in the first place, so even the free racing channel is not actually free. This leaves a lot of people without the means to watch most of the live racing that is available each day. Well, that may have been the case a few years ago, but these days, with internet speeds improving, and the popularity of tablet and smartphones, it is now easy to watch horse racing via live streaming. Sites such as Races-Live.co.uk offer such a service. If you are not sure what live streaming is, then check out this FAQ Page for more details.

One thing is certain, and that is that watching live horse racing can now be done anywhere. Even if you are at work, if you enjoy a bet, then you can sneak away and watch the race on your smartphone. No longer do racing enthusiasts have to put a bet on and wait to find out the result, they can watch it live anywhere they like.

Watch Live Horse Racing

For those people who can remember as far back as the early eighties, they will know what bookmakers used to be like. You would walk in, the windows would be boarded up, and if you were lucky, you might have a few displays with the prices on. Usually though, it was a guy updating the prices on a racecard stuck on the wall. Once the race was off, you got to listen to the commentary. Now and again you could watch the horse racing on TV, but in those days it was only around four showing a week.

Later in the eighties things started to change, and more screens started to appear, with some bookmakers carrying live pictures. On top of that, more and more horse racing started to appear on the TV. Once we reached the nineties, things took a giant leap, and with the appearance of a racing channel, we could watch live horse racing every day of the week. The first racing channel ended up in financial difficulty, and not long after its demise, two new channels were launched, and they have proven to be an amazing success.

Now with technology moving on even further, most punters have access to the internet, and using sites such as WatchRaces.co.uk can be a great help to discover where you can watch horse and greyhound races. Technology has taken another jump recently, as it is now possible to watch sport on a smartphone, but the problem with this is both internet speed, and bandwidth allowance. It will probably take a few years for 4G to go mainstream, and for bandwidth prices to drop considerably before this means of watching live sport becomes the norm.

In the meantime, we can sit at home and watching racing on our TV, or we can do the same on our computers by watching a live feed. Whichever way racing is watched, we have never had it so good.