They were all holding placards that we’re gonna die

Manchester United’s players had been on the ground in Istanbul for a matter of minutes when they got their first taste of what awaited them in November 1993. As Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad made their way into the arrivals hall at the city’s airport, they were greeted by a deafening din from a few thousand Galatasaray fans keen to greet them. “Welcome to Hell”, said the banners as Ferguson, Eric Cantona, Bryan Robson, Peter Schmeichel and co put their passports away.

After the two sides had drawn 3-3 in an Old Trafford classic in the first leg of this second-round tie in the Champions League, Galatasaray manager Reiner Hollmann had told United: “They will be waiting for you at the airport”. He wasn’t exaggerating.

United had needed a late Cantona goal to level the tie at Old Trafford and two weeks later they knew they were in for a wild ride on the banks of the Bosphorus. Ferguson’s side had just won the league title for the first time in 26 years but they were still finding their feet back at Europe’s top table. The Ali Sami Yen Stadium wasn’t a place to visit with your L plates still on.

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The squad arrived in Istanbul on November 2, 1993, and as Mike Phelan recalled, the sense of intimidation was palpable as soon as they touched down.

“We arrived and they allowed everybody into the airport. There was a fair few there,” said Phelan. “I think they blocked it off with some glass, Perspex, something like that.

“There was a lot of police there but they were just all shouting, jeering and holding these placards that we’re gonna die over there. An unusual welcome, put it that way. But there was a lot of intimidation really in the atmosphere at the airport.”

Ferguson’s squad escaped the madness at the airport for what they hoped was the tranquil serenity of their hotel, a grand former palace close to the river. Staff ferried bags from the coach into the hotel’s foyer, but Gary Pallister soon got a reminder that nowhere was free from attempts at intimidation in Istanbul.

“I was picking up my bag from underneath the coach,” recounts Pallister. “I was walking through by myself and I mean, beautiful place, stunning hotel, and I’ve walked through, most of the lads are maybe 20 to 30 yards ahead of me, walking past this bellboy, he’s pushing one of the trolley things that you hang your suit on and carries suitcases.

“As I’m walking past him, I just went ‘afternoon’ or whatever and he just [did the throat slit gesture] and I just carried on walking. I was like ‘wow, this is a bit different’.”

As the players tried to sleep that evening the phones in their rooms rang almost constantly, disrupting any attempt at a peaceful night for the players, while Brian McClair was disturbed by noises coming from above his room.

“I think Choccy said he had banging on his ceiling, so him and Jim McGregor, our physio, went upstairs and found like a cleaner just sat there banging on the ceiling, but he just looked at them and walked off,” said Pallister.

Ferguson would later recall that this trip exposed those on it “to as much hostility and harassment as I have ever known on a football expedition.”

A warm welcome was never on the menu at Galatasaray, but United were strong favourites for this tie. They already had an 11-point lead after 13 games in the Premier League and had knocked Honved out in the first round of the Champions League.

Victory would have sent them through to the quarter-finals and there was an expectation they would get the job done, one which was only slightly dulled by sharing six goals in the first leg. Pallister missed the game through injury and sat in the stands with Mark Hughes, who was the player left out due to the rules on the number of foreigners you could select for a European tie in that era.

“We certainly felt intimidated there as well. We were right in the midst of it. I’ve never seen an atmosphere quite like that,” he said. “Two hours before the game it was chocca. You don’t see anything like that here. Two hours beforehand this place was absolutely bouncing.”

“It was relatively new for us to be back in Europe,” added Phelan. “I would say that atmosphere was unexpected because we’d not been involved in it other than the Cup Winners’ Cup. It was completely alien to us.”

In a stop-start game that ended goalless and saw United knocked out of the competition, Cantona was sent-off near the end. When the final whistle blew and the players headed for the tunnel, there was more drama in store.

Cantona had returned to the pitch to remonstrate with Swiss referee Kurt Rothlisberger and Robson tried to escort him to the tunnel. Roy Keane later said “all hell broke loose”, which as it came from Keane gives an indication of what went down away from the cameras.

Ferguson at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium in Istanbul in 1993
(Image: Clive Brunskill/Allsport)

A policeman escorted Robson and Cantona off the pitch, but as Robson wrote in his autobiography, the officer then threw a punch at Cantona. Robson tried to return fire before getting clobbered with a riot shield.

“I can remember at the end of the game, the tunnel was really long – probably the length of the pitch. It went down under the ground and it was all lined with police,” recalls Phelan 30 years on.

“The police were on the pitch and they lined the steps down and through the tunnel. They all had riot shields and batons. I can remember the lights being switched off in the tunnel and it suddenly went dark. It felt like a minute but it was probably shorter than that, a few seconds, and all of a sudden the lights come back on and we walked into the dressing-room.

“I can remember seeing Eric sat in a corner and Robbo with some blood, I think on his eye, he got nicked on his eye or his hand. They were really angry at the time. Robbo was saying he had been hit and Eric was saying somebody had hit him as well.

“It was one of those situations where everybody got really aggressive about it all. Eric, particularly, was really, really angry and Robbo was the same.”

It had been a horrendous experience for the players, but it wasn’t actually much fun for the supporters. More than 160 fans were rounded up from their beds in the middle of the night and taken to police stations around the city. Some were detained until the game had finished and never made it to the Ali Sami Yen.

Phelan said the players had been told after the game there had been disturbances but only realised that some of their fans had been jailed and denied access to the game – for nothing – after they returned to Manchester. As the United players returned to their hotel after the game they had a brick thrown through the coach’s windows. The whole trip had been part of the long learning curve for United and Ferguson that would culminate in the Nou Camp in May 1999.

“That was our first foray in the Champions League and we were expected to go through. It was one of the things that the gaffer used to say ‘in Europe, you have to be careful because you think you are comfortable and then your world caves in’ which is exactly what it was like in that Galatasaray home game,” said Pallister.

“We were cruising at 1-0 up and felt like we could just put this team to bed and before we knew it we were 3-2 down and defending a record of never being beaten at home in Europe. We managed to get into the game but it was a real eye-opener into what life can be like in Champions League football. The hostility is something [to learn from] – I never experienced anything like that in the rest of my career. You look at that and think it can’t get any worse.”

When Erik ten Hag’s United squad land in Istanbul on Tuesday, they are unlikely to get anything like as hostile a reception. European football is more homogeneous these days and while the passion on show in Turkey can still be intense, it isn’t anything like it used to be.

Galatasaray also play at a new stadium, still known as Ali Sami Yen to plenty of supporters, but actually called Rams Park. It will be lively on Wednesday night, but it probably won’t equate to hell.

As Phelan and Pallister ponder how this group of players should approach a game that they also have to win, minds wander to Sir Bobby Charlton and what his message might have been.

“He’d be saying don’t play the occasion, play the game’. I’ll never forget him saying that before the Cup-Winners’ Cup final,” said Pallister.

“There were a few nerves in the dressing room that night, weren’t there? He was there, Bobby, just sitting around, and I think he probably got the feeling a few of the lads were nervous and he was just like ‘Listen lads, it’s just another game, don’t play the occasion, play the game’.

“Simple and straightforward – albeit against Barcelona! But it was a great calming effect, to have someone of his experience and knowledge of massive games to be in that dressing room, just to calm a few frantic nerves.”

Phelan was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s assistant when United won in the Parc des Princes to complete a stunning comeback against Paris St-Germain in 2019 and his advice is simple.

“I think you’ve got to control the game, because you can’t control the atmosphere,” he said. “You might be able to, in a little way, if your retention of the ball is good and you’re not making mistakes, then you control the game, control the ball, and that can silence the crowd – don’t encourage the crowd.”

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