Legendary performance by the Great Dane that had pretty much secured Manchester United’s Premier League title in 1995/96.
By 20 January 1996, Newcastle had opened up an astonishing 12-point gap over Manchester United, the Premier League trophy looking destined for the northeast. However, when Manchester United visited St James’ Park on 4 March, Alex Ferguson’s relentless juggernaut had cranked up the pressure, cutting the lead to just four points in a little over six weeks.
Eric Cantona’s winning strike, and Manchester United’s subsequent three points that night, broke Newcastle’s hearts and, from then on in, there was only one winner in the title race. The Red Devils wrapped up the campaign and finished four points ahead of the Magpies, who once again finished runner-up in 1996/97, this time by a wider seven-point-margin.
“We played out of our skins but you could have chucked a handful of rice at Peter Schmeichel that night and he would have kept out every grain,” says Keegan. “It was the greatest goalkeeping performance I had ever witnessed.”
“Peter was unbelievable as he thwarted Newcastle time and again,” writes Ferguson. “Our first concerted attack did not come until just before the interval. It was a relief to gather in the dressing room and take stock of our position.”
“Really, it should have been the same score as the 5-0. It has to go down as one of the outstanding goalkeeping performances of the era. ‘You know what I’m like,’ Pete said. ‘I just like to spread myself and I was making contact with everything. You could have played until midnight and you wouldn’t have scored — I was just having one of those games’.”
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Your having a laugh , " Greatest Performance Ever " Aye right
You should do David Marshall Barca v Celtic 2004 at the Nou Camp and Fraser Forster Celtic v Barca 2012 at Celtic Park bud 👍🏼
Soccer players used to look so much more cool
Aside from the fact that Schmeichel pulled off multiple outstanding (and later iconic) saves at critical moments during this match, most people are too young to remember the context of the match:
Newcastle we’re 6-7points clear at the top of the league, and on a great run, looking unbeatable! If United had lost that match (which they would’ve done with any other goalkeeper playing that night!), they would’ve surely gone on to win the league.
Instead, Schmeichel’s wonder saves and Cantona’s goal became the catalyst for Newcastle’s demise and United’s eventual title win that season!
That context, along with the stunning saves to keep a clean sheet, is why this is considered the “Best goalkeeping performance”!!
I, for one definitely agree with the tile 👏👏👏
Other than those three or so saves in the first ten minutes, most of the rest was straight forward stuff that you would have expected him to make. But nevertheless, his awareness and positioning was excellent, knowing what to collect and what to leave because the ball was going out of play etc.
Brian Clough once said that Peter Shilton was worth twelve to fifteen points a season to Nottingham Forest. I can see why a knowing manager would say that about a top goalkeeper. Schmeichel certainly got United out of a few jams when he was there.
Without Peter newcastle would have a premier league title
best performance for sure , be alot less trophies in old trafford only for schmeichel