Man Utd boss ten Hag details meetings with Fergie

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Today marks 19 years since Benni McCarthy netted a brace for Porto against Manchester United. The South African helped inspire Jose Mourinho’s team to a famous victory over Sir Alex Ferguson’s side. And the Scot was raging in the aftermath of the game, especially after Roy Keane received a red card.

Manchester United met Porto in the Champions League on this day in 2004 hoping to boost their chances of winning the trophy.

However, it ended up being a night to forget for the Red Devils in Portugal.

McCarthy scored twice for Porto to put Ferguson in a bad mood, with the Scot raging at the full-time whistle after Quinton Fortune had put United ahead.

To compound matters, Keane received a red card for appearing to stamp on Porto goalkeeper Victor Baia – who certainly produced the theatrics to trigger the sending off from the referee.

So livid was Ferguson he even snubbed Mourinho when the Portuguese approached him to shake hands.

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And the United legend also proceeded to launch into an angry rant, accusing Baia of over-exaggerating the contact.

“Roy stood on the lad – whether he could get out of the way I don’t know, because it’s not the sort of thing he would do,” said Ferguson.

“It was not malicious and you have to say the goalkeeper made a meal of it.

“Referees should watch videos of teams to prepare them for diving.”

As for McCarthy, the United coach said in 2017 that he was hammered by Mourinho after his brace.

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“I support Man United and always wanted to play for them,” he said.

“I loved players like Mark Hughes, Andy Cole and Ryan Giggs. So I was heartbroken to score twice.

“My dream was to score once at Old Trafford – not to knock United out.

“I got hammered by Jose Mourinho after the game because I wasn’t very happy. He told me that if I didn’t cheer up, I’d never play in his team again.”

United would proceed to be knocked out by Porto after a 1-1 draw in the second leg.

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Paul Scholes’ goal had looked like it would be enough to fire the Red Devils through.

But Costinha capitalised on a mistake from Tim Howard at the death to send shockwaves around world football.

Mourinho then ran down the touchline and, speaking in 2015, he revealed how the incident helped him become more respectful.

“That was when I felt the two faces of such a big man,’ said Mourinho.

“The first face was the competitor, the man that tried everything to win.

“And after that I found the man with principles, with the respect for the opponent, with the fair play – I found these two faces in that period, and that was very important for me.

“In my culture, the Portuguese and the Latin culture, we don’t have that culture of the second face; we are in football to win and when we don’t there is not a second face most of the time.

“But when we beat United in the Champions League I got that beautiful face of a manager which I try to have myself. I try.”

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