Manchester U 3 Chelsea 3

David Beckham

Man­chester Uni­ted 3 Chel­sea 3, Old Traf­ford, Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, Septem­ber 23, 2000. Man­chester Uni­ted were held to a draw at ho­me by a de­term­ined Chel­sea te­am. Uni­ted were 3-1 up af­ter 39 min­utes of play, but the West Lon­doners hit back to snatch a 3-3 draw thanks to two goals from Tore An­dre Flo who fou­nd the net either si­de of the interval.

Ag­ainst the odds, FA Cup hold­ers Chel­sea had beaten reign­ing Pre­mier Lea­gue Cham­pi­ons Man­chester Uni­ted by 2-0 at Wemb­ley in the FA Char­ity Shield on the 13th of Au­gust 2000. De­butant Jim­my Floyd Has­sel­baink opened the scor­ing ac­count for Chel­sea mid­way thro­ugh the fir­st frame, whi­le young de­fender Mario Mel­chi­ot net­ted a late sec­ond pe­riod goal for The Blues af­ter Man­chester Uni­ted and Re­pub­lic of Ire­land mid­fielder Roy Ke­ane had be­en red carded for a chal­lenge on Gust­avo Poyet. Itali­an Chel­sea man­ager Gi­an­luca Vi­al­li had be­en re­placed by fel­low coun­try­man Clau­dio Ranieri just five five weeks la­ter, how­ever, af­ter the Stam­ford Bridge out­fit had won on­ly one of their five open­ing fix­tures of the 2000-01 cam­paign. Sir Al­ex Ferguson´s men, for their part, had en­joyed an ex­cel­lent start to the new sea­son and were sit­ting top of the ta­ble. In their pre­vi­ous Pre­mier Lea­gue en­counter, Uni­ted had com­fort­ably de­feated old rivals Ever­ton 3-1 at Good­ison Park cour­tesy of a goal apiece from Nicky Butt, Ry­an Gig­gs, and Ole Gun­nar Sol­skjaer in the 26th, 29th, and 38th min­utes of the tie, where­as Chel­sea had suf­fered a 2-0 loss to Lei­cester City at Stam­ford Bridge.

At Old Traf­ford, Has­sel­baink pro­vided The Pen­sion­eers wi­th the lead fol­low­ing eight min­utes of play when the £15 mil­lion sum­mer sign­ing from At­letico Mad­rid ham­mered a dev­ast­at­ing ef­fort from the edge of the box and in­to the net. Man­chester Uni­ted equal­ised thro­ugh mid­field dy­namo Paul Scho­les who sco­red wi­th a well pla­ced strike in the 14th min­ute of the clash and then went ahead thanks to a clo­se ran­ge fin­ish from Teddy Sher­ing­ham on 37 min­utes. Wi­th six min­utes re­maining of the fir­st ha­lf, a clev­er pass by Sher­ing­ham fou­nd strik­ing part­ner Andy Cole who­se ef­fort bounced back off the left post for Da­vid Beck­ham to put the ball in­to the empty goal. But Chel­sea struck back as Tore An­dre Flo head­ed ho­me a cross from left full­back Graeme Le Saux in the fi­nal min­ute of the fir­st frame, and the Nor­we­gi­an in­ter­na­tion­al fou­nd the net ag­ain when he be­at Man­chester Uni­ted cus­todi­an Rai­mond van der Gouw from in­side the area af­ter 69 min­utes of ac­tion. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Rai­mond van der Gouw, Ga­ry Ne­ville, Mi­kael Sil­vestre, Ronny John­sen, De­nis Ir­win, Roy Ke­ane, Da­vid Beck­ham, Ry­an Gig­gs, Paul Scho­les, Andy Cole, Teddy Sher­ing­ham. Sub­stitutes: Nicky Butt, Wes Bro­wn, Ole Gun­nar Sol­skjaer. Chel­sea Te­am: Carlo Cudicini, Chris­ti­an Pa­nucci, Mar­cel De­sailly, Frank Le­b­oeuf, Jon­athan Har­ley, Graeme Le Saux, Rob­erto Di Mat­teo, Jody Mor­ris, Tore An­dre Flo, Jim­my Floyd Has­sel­baink, Gi­an­franco Zola. Sub­stitutes: Mario Mel­chi­ot, Win­ston Bog­ar­de, Samuele Dalla Bona.

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