'Best night of my life' - new series looks at Boro's Uefa Cup feats
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"That's the best night of my life. Sometimes I still go to YouTube to watch it, not just for my goal but for the atmosphere. It was a magical night."
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It has been 20 years since Middlesbrough's extraordinary run to the UEFA Cup final.
It took 128 years for Boro to qualify for their first major European competition by virtue of winning the League Cup, the club's first silverware, in 2004.
It launched them to another level.
Boro had a run to the last-16 of the UEFA Cup and a top-seven finish in the Premier League in 2005 and a fairytale journey through the knockout stages to face Sevilla in the showpiece in Eindhoven in May 2006.
Steve McClaren, speaking in a seven-episode series from BBC Radio Tees, looking back at the greatest period in the club's history, said: "Winning a trophy was special, great for the fans and for Steve Gibson, but getting into Europe... I knew it was different.
"European nights are unbelievable. I wanted to bring that to the Riverside, and I loved going away, the Boro supporters, just proud of the fact we're a small town in Europe and we're in it.
"Football is an adventure. How far can you go and what experiences can you give the players, fans, the owners, and yourself and the staff? Let's enjoy the adventure..."
What an adventure it proved to be...
Massimo Maccarone wrote his name into Boro folklore in their 2006 UEFA Cup run [Getty Images]'We'll play European football in two years'
After joining from Aston Villa in 2002, midfielder George Boateng was one of the foundations of McClaren's super-team.
However the former Netherlands international told BBC Radio Tees he 'wasn't so keen' on the Boro project at first and favoured a move to London. It was only after a conversation with Jaap Stam, who worked under McClaren at Manchester United, that he agreed to meet the Boro boss.
"It was the best couple of hours I spent, looking back at my career," Boateng said.
"Steve said if you sign for us, I promise you that we'll get other players that come because of you and in the next two years we will be playing European football.
"He said it in such a convincing manner and tone that I wanted to be a part of this. It was a step back but I wanted to build and invest and play in Europe."
Boateng's Dutch team-mate Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink left Chelsea to join Boro ahead of their European bow in 2004 and said: "I wanted to stay in the Premier League. Middlesbrough was on the right path. It was a really exciting time."
Hasselbaink says he is proud to have scored Boro's first goal in European competition at home to Banik Ostrava and added: "That will never go out of the books. The UEFA Cup games on Teesside were very special.
"It was a good learning curve, the first season. It was a special year. The year after we were much more confident and more equipped mentally and physically, we played some magnificent games."
Mark Viduka scored the other two goals in that 3-0 win over the Czech size, having plenty of European pedigree from his days with Dinamo Zagreb, Celtic and Leeds.
He told BBC Radio Tees: "I knew they were looking to do well in Europe, they had the resources and the will to invest in a good team.
"The first year I had some problems with injuries and I was not as consistent as I wanted to be but I was rapt at the end that we got a new chance at Europe.
"I really enjoyed the team, a good bunch of blokes, some older players, foreign players, our relationship with the youngsters.
"Some of the youngsters really stepped up, Stewart Downing had one of the best left feet I've ever seen."
Steve McClaren embraced Massimo Maccarone after his dramatic header sent Boro to the UEFA Cup final in 2006 [Getty Images]'We didn't want to be a one-season wonder'
The man who brought these players to the Riverside was McClaren, who admitted he had an amazing five years on Teesside after being sold on Steve Gibson's vision.
"The goal was to win a trophy, we'd done that, I just felt the next season I needed more firepower and a bigger squad," McClaren said.
"We wanted to go further into cups, do well in the league and not just make it a one-season wonder."
McClaren said the 2-0 group stage win over Lazio in their first campaign was a key moment, adding: "That was it, that's what being in Europe is all about, it's different to beating the Arsenals or Man Uniteds at the Riverside."
With an abundance of attacking talent at his disposal, McClaren had sent striker Massimo Maccarone out on loan in 2004-05 after the Italian struggled to make an impact after joining from Empoli two years earlier.
McClaren planned to loan him out again in 2005, with Hasselbaink, Viduka and Yakubu all ahead of him in the pecking order, but Maccarone told BBC Radio Tees: "I said I want to stay, I want to try to find my space. I worked hard every day, you have to show the coach and everybody you can play."
Maccarone was limited to just six starts and 16 sub appearances across the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup, scoring twice, but wrote his name into UEFA Cup folklore when he replaced Franck Queudrue 23 minutes from time in the quarter-final second leg against Basel, with the Swiss side leading 3-2 on aggregate.
Hasselbaink scored 11 minutes from time before Maccarone squeezed home the winner in the last seconds, sparking wild celebrations and the iconic removal of his Boro shirt.
"This game changed the opinion of McClaren for me going forwards. You have to be lucky sometimes," Maccarone added.
"This was an important goal, inside me was six or seven months of not playing a lot, it was emotion.
"It's not easy training every day then going to the stands or the bench on a Saturday."
Boro also slipped 3-0 down on aggregate in the semi-final against Steaua Bucharest before Maccarone replaced Gareth Southgate inside half-an-hour and started the comeback with an angled strike.
"I believed it could still be done," Maccarone said.
"The atmosphere was unbelievable, and because of the Basel game we knew it was possible."
Viduka and Chris Riggott levelled the tie then, with a minute remaining, Stewart Downing's cross from the left was powered home by Maccarone's diving header.
He admitted: "It's something you can't describe. It's hard to understand. I just put my head like Superman. You have to believe.
"I haven't never felt anything like that moment since. Against Basel some people left the stadium with 20 minutes to go. Against Steaua nobody left. Everybody believed we could do it, and we did."
Maccarone recalled popping champagne after the game and being told by Hasselbaink he would be loved forever.
"That's the best night of my life," Maccarone said: "I'll never forget it. Sometimes I still go to YouTube to watch it. Not just for my goal but the atmosphere. It was a magical night.
"When I went back to the Riverside last year it was fantastic - the people treated me like a hero. That was very emotional to me."
The magic ran out as Sevilla proved too tough in the final in Eindhoven, but despite the pain of defeat, Maccarone added: "It's football. We played a good team. In the moment you are very disappointed but now you look back, it's a good memory, history for the club."
'The greatest adventure in Boro's history'
Mark Drury, BBC Tees Boro commentator
Over the course of two action-packed seasons Middlesbrough changed beyond all recognition.
They staged some of the most remarkable comebacks the game has ever seen and flew higher than at any time in their history before crashing back to earth after falling at the final hurdle.
It was the greatest adventure in Boro's history and is still the touchstone for a whole generation of the club's fans and players.
A Small Town In Europe, which debuts on 15 June on BBC Sounds, draws on the memories of Steve McClaren, star players including Mark Viduka, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Stewart Downing, youngsters like James Morrison, Andrew Taylor and Tony McMahon as well as staff who had to make the whole thing work, journalists who covered the run, fans who rode the Boro rollercoaster, including a fan of Boro's first foreign opponents Banik Ostrava, who fell in love with them and moved to Teesside as a result.