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I spent the most incredible of nights in seat 08, row 3, block 3 of the Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona - so close to the turf, I could smell it.
Manchester were a goal down, official time was up and injury time was ticking away when the ball came spinning into the crowd in our direction - just yards from the penalty area outside the Bayern Munich goalmouth.
It fell into the hands of a Manchester United fan who, I learned later, was a Hungarian called Birka Tibi, who had made the trek to Barcelona from his native Budapest.
Call me superstitious, but just seconds after he kissed the match football, Manchester United's fortune changed. Dark, tanned and bulky, this young man, wearing a loose green vest, looked like a cross between the Incredible Hulk and the Jolly Green Giant.
Holding the ball aloft, like a holy icon, he bellowed something totally unintelligible - except for the words 'Mencheester Yoo-nited' - and planted his thick lips, in a kiss, on the hallowed leather.
It was like an invocation to the gods. Only the incredulous expression on Ryan Giggs' astonished face broke the spell. Sprinting to the touchline as the deadly seconds ticked by, he yelled: 'Give us the ball,' adding a touch of Anglo-Saxon exasperation to his urgent message.
The throw-in was taken, there was a brief flurry around the goalmouth and - miracle of miracles - Teddy Sheringham deposited the blessed ball into the back of the net. The stadium erupted. Hands and arms went flailing upwards.
Ecstatic, Birka Tibi was on the pitch before being firmly, but good-naturedly, led back to the stand by Spanish police. Barely had the frenzy subsided than the second goal was in. I swear, I saw it all in slow motion.
The Bayern Munich team were horizontal and in despair. What an ending to a balmy Barcelona night. Just minutes before it had seemed so different. Yet I never heard one Manchester fan give up hope.
Behind, a little boy with his mum - his face painted in United's colours - took a picture and gave a thumbs up. Afterwards, I spotted model Yasmin Le Bon, her Duran Duran pop-star husband Simon and newsreader Anna Ford among the celebrating celebrities.
But the night belonged to the masses of redand-white bedecked fans
