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Bitter loss in Barcelona

Tearful disbelief at Bayern Munich's 2-1 loss

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Posted: Sunday May 30, 1999 06:01 PM

Referee Pierluigi Collina consoles a dejected Bayern Munich player after after watching a Champions League title slip away. Ben Radford/Allsport

FRANKFURT, Germany (CNN/SI) -- In the aftermath of Bayern Munich's unbelievable collapse in stoppage time of the Champions League final, German newspapers tried to cope with the reality of the loss.

The headline in Germany's mass circulation Bild newspaper Thursday after Bayern's 2-1 loss to Manchester United was short and to the point --"Oh No!"

"That was bitter! Just unbelievable!" the Hamburg-based Bild screamed.

The report carried a front-page photo of Munich team captain Stefan Effenberg dejectedly sitting on the ground with his arms around his knees, his head bowed, glaring at the ground.

"Ninety minutes party: and then the tears poured," the headline in one of Munich's daily tabloids said.

"It's a catastrophe. I have never seen such stupidity in my whole life," the tabloid quoted actor Peter Bond as saying. "How can a top team let two goals in at the end?"

Another Munich fan, Uschi Daemmrich, told the tabloid: "It was the game of the century. A criminal thriller -- How one can have the game in the bag and then lose it? I'm a nervous wreck and my son is crying."

Bayern had taken the lead on a sixth-minute goal from a free kick by Mario Basler and appeared in control most of the game until a late Manchester surge that left Bayern players devastated on the field.

Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer fired in Manchester's goals in the last 120 seconds of play, for their first triumph in Europe's most prestigious club competition since 1968.

According to RTL television, an average of 13.59 million people in Germany watched the entire game late Wednesday, a 48.4 percent share of the viewer market.

The station said that it was the second largest TV audience to watch an event, topped only by the Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Juventus Turin on May 28, 1997, when an average of 15.28 million, or 51.5 percent of the market watched.

 

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.