Former Leeds United full-back Ian Harte has spoken about one of his greatest feats as a player – reaching the semifinals of the Champions League with the White
(Image credit: PA)
Ian Harte has spoken about Leeds’ tremendous success in the Champions League during the 2000/01 season in an exclusive chat for FourFourTwo.
The Yorkshire side finished in third spot in the Premier League the campaign prior, opening the door to the prestigious European competition.
David O'Leary’s men overcame 1860 Munich in qualifying to gain entry to their first group stage. Despite being pitted against the likes of AC Milan and Barcelona, Leeds managed to progress to the second group stage by finishing in second place.
Ian Harte was known for having a wand of a left-foot
Once there, they somehow managed to reach the knockout stages after finishing in second place once more.
But the side, which featured the likes of Harte, Robbie Keane, Jonathan Woodgate, and Mark Viduka, did not stop there. They beat Deportivo La Coruna in the quarterfinals – with Harte’s free-kick being the difference in their progression.
Looking backat the encounter against the Spanish side, Harte opened up about his cracking set-piece goal.
Jonathan Woodgate was among the Leeds squad members (Image credit: PA Images)
“What naturally stands out from that game is the free-kick I scored. I hit the ball as hard as I could and it flew in off the crossbar. Not only that, we won 3-0 and it was probably one of the best nights in Leeds United history.
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“Whenever I took free-kicks, I imagined lines on a motorway and tried to strike the ball within those. I always used to visualise where I wanted to place my free-kicks, which I’d combine with my technique.
"Though we went on to lose the second leg in Spain 2-0, thankfully that didn’t matter because we’d done enough to progress to the semi-finals against Valencia. Leeds supporters still love reminiscing about that season to this day, and I get goosebumps when I think about beating Deportivo. It was an amazing achievement to go so far.”
Leeds were knocked out in the subsequent round to Valencia, who won 3-0 on aggregate. The La Liga side then faced Bayern Munich in the final at the San Siro, but lost 5-4 on penalties to the Bundesliga giants.
Jacque Talbot is a freelance football journalist who predominantly specialises in transfer stories and exclusives. He began his career in 2016 covering the world-renowned Sandbach United, of North West Counties fame, before earning a spot on the sports desks of national papers, where he bounced between several outlets such as Sportbible, the Express, Mirror, and Daily Star. An NCTJ graduate of the News Associates who swapped investigative journalism in the Costa del Sol for football reporting in Northern England, he first wrote for FourFourTwo in December 2023.
