Middlesbrough had done it the hard way, but they'd beaten Steaua Bucharest in the semi-final of the Uefa Cup. Their story was a remarkable one; two cup final defeats in 1997 were followed by relegation from the Premier League, but this time, Boro were looking up. The final would be the culmination of a two-season journey in the Uefa Cup; the result of all of McClaren's hard work. We had an unbelievable front line of Maccarone, Viduka, Hasselbaink and Yakubu and full-backs of Downing and (Stuart) Parnaby. "Everything was decided before [the final]," McClaren recalls.

Source: BBC May 10, 2021 11:03 UTC