Champions League 2001: Real Madrid vs Leeds United
Don Revie sometimes felt his Leeds team were cursed in their attempts to emulate Real Madrid, and this rainsoaked Madrid night of 2001 felt eerily familiar, of being a game beyond Leeds United's control.
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2025/26 season marks 25 years since Leeds United were playing in the Champions League, and even if it does feel like yesterday, it's worth going back to check what happened.
Throughout this season I'll be writing about the Champions League campaign game by game, roughly around the anniversary of each match.
Leeds United had fulfilled half of Don Revie's desires by hosting Real Madrid in West Yorkshire before Christmas. Now the Champions League was taking the whites to the home of Los Blancos to fulfil destiny, part two.
It was a big week, although the preceding weekend's Premier League game had more at stake. For the visit of Manchester United, manager David O'Leary had a new first team coach next to him who happened to be Alex Ferguson's old assistant turned foe, Brian Kidd. Leeds were trying to claw into the top three, towards repeating Champions League qualification, against the league leaders. Those leaders were outplayed, but Fabien Barthez saved Ian Harte's penalty after not being sent off for kicking him, and Wes Brown's own goal was ruled out for offside. The match finished 1-1 and Leeds dropped from 5th to 7th.
After all that stress, Leeds were hoping to enjoy themselves in Madrid. Both teams had already qualified from their group, although top spot was likely to go to the winner. Real's Steve McManaman promised a warm reception. "All the Leeds players are heroes with our fans for getting rid of Barcelona," from the first group stage, he said. "They will get a tremendous welcome."
But hopes of placid build-up were disturbed by Alex Ferguson, who was perhaps not pleased about Kidd's new job, or O'Leary's desire to "kick his butt" — metaphorically — or by the Leeds manager's jibes about qualifying for the Champions League last eight before him. "Given Harte's reputation for diving, he didn't deserve to get Barthez sent off," Ferguson declared, after initially agreeing it was a red card offence. "Maybe the great man, at the age of 59, his memory is going," said O'Leary, who suggested this was all "some sort of smokescreen". He went on, "But I am still learning the game. Who am I to compete with the great man?"
The week was supposed to be about Leeds United competing with Real Madrid in the Bernabeu. It had been Revie's dream, when taking over at Elland Road, for Leeds to emulate the five time European champions he'd seen beating Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in the European Cup final in Glasgow in 1960. Revie sometimes felt his Leeds team were cursed in their attempts to emulate that greatness, and this rainsoaked Madrid night of 2001 felt eerily familiar, of being a game beyond Leeds United's control.
What they controlled, for most of the first hour, was the play. Leeds were at their attacking best and that meant defending was easy. After skying one shot McManaman might have been oddly pleased to hear 'Shit scouse bastard' echoing around the Bernabeu. The home fans, a lot of whom had stayed at home, will have been less pleased with the travelling fans 'oléing' every yellow shirt's pass, and there were plenty, around the 25th minute.
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