Passe Leeds United left-back Ian Harte has seemed back on the segment he played in realizing to be one of the ‘easiest nights’ in the membership’s historic previous.
Harte turned out more than 250 times for Leeds at some stage in the Nineties and 2000s and used to be a key segment of the David O’Leary facet that marauded their technique to the semi-finals of the Champions League in the 2000/01 season.
After progressing via two neighborhood phases that included the likes of Barcelona, AC Milan, Lazio and Proper Madrid, the Whites stumbled on themselves up against Deportivo La Coruna in the quarter-finals, with Harte recalling the dominant Elland Boulevard first-leg.
Harte opened the scoring with a trademark free-kick in the first half, with Alan Smith and Rio Ferdinand sealing a 3-0 gain that the Republic of Eire international still looks back at fondly, nearly 23 years on.
“What naturally stands out from that sport is the free-kick I scored,” Harte told FourFourTwo. “I hit the ball as keen as I would possibly perchance and it flew in off the crossbar. No longer easiest that, we received 3-0 and it used to be potentially realizing to be one of the easiest nights in Leeds United’s historic previous.
“On every occasion I took free-kicks, I imagined traces on a motorway and tried to strike the ball within those. I continually frail to visualise where I wanted to position my free-kicks, which I’d mix with my strategy. Even though we went on to lose the 2d leg in Spain 2-0, happily that didn’t matter in consequence of we’d completed adequate to progress to the semi-finals against Valencia.
“Leeds supporters still esteem reminiscing about that season to at the demonstrate time, and I gather goosebumps when I take into tale beating Deportivo. It used to be an improbable success to flow to this level.”
Leeds would face excessive-flying Valencia in the semi-final, proscribing the 2000 Champions League runners-as much as a goalless attract the first leg at Elland Boulevard before struggling a 3-0 defeat at the Mestalla in the 2d leg.
The Champions League accelerate would demonstrate to be the excessive level for O’Leary’s facet, as their overspending rapidly caught up with them main to financial struggles and relegation from the Premier League in 2004.
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