The Reds had already secured the Premier League title and FA Cup ahead of travelling to Barcelona on Concorde, with Bayern chasing their own Treble after coming out on top domestically in Germany.
The bigger picture was the fact United had not won the European Cup since the days of Sir Matt Busby in 1968 and had only reached the semi-finals in the competition's present format as the Champions League.
Much to his chagrin, Alex Ferguson's team had so far come up short on the continent, despite dominating at home by winning the Double for the first time in our history in 1994 and repeating the feat in 1996.