Manchester United's top 3 knockout matches on Boxing Day

#1 Sheffield Wednesday 3 - Manchester United 3

The beginning of the resurgence!

Hirst (2), Bright (6), Sheridan (62) - McClair (80, 67), Cantona (84)

We go to the year when it all began, particularly for the Premier League love and Manchester United love affair. It was Boxing Day 1992 and an end-to-end barnstormer played at a breakneck speed.

The home side, Sheffield Wednesday, raced to a 3-0 lead with David Hirst opening the scoring. Hirst was Fergie’s transfer target for the previous year and a half but a £3 million offer was rejected by the Owls. United instead bought one Eric Cantona.

With thirty minutes left, in a characteristic Fergie-way, Brian McClair scored twice to write a palimpsest from which the United’s teams to come would take inspiration from. But it was new signing Eric who delivered the leveller in the 85th minute.

Fergie-time would become a feature in the years to come (ask Lothar Matthäus and Bayern Munich) but this unlikeliest of comeback draws provided the United faithful with the hymn-sheet to chant the fabled words of – United never dies! Never quits!

That day, at Hillsborough, United took the road never travelled before and chart an unprecedented chapter in the annals of English football.

The history would script another late comeback against Wednesday in April of that season. The comeback would be complete as Steve Bruce’s two Fergie-time headers would earn United a much-needed victory and ensure the end of a 26-year-old wait for the fallen giant of Manchester.