Here’s Michael Walker’s report on an historic night in Turin. Thanks for your company, see you in Barcelona!

Even Terry Venables, in the ITV studio, can’t contain his excitement: he rubs his hands together with unbridled glee, and looks like he’s about to belt out a few bars of “Glory Glory Man United”. It’s infectious stuff, and even though United have been the team everyone hates in the last five years, I suspect the manner of this victory will generate enormous goodwill around the country. (Except in Leeds, Liverpool, etc.)

Alex Ferguson is being interviewed on ITV

You can hear the players shouting in the background: “We’re fucking THERE! YES!”

Ferguson is normally so considered in post-match interviews. He’s all over the show here, completely naked emotionally and with a huge smile on his face. I’ve never seen him like this, not even when they won the league for the first time. He is buzzing.

“It’s a proud, proud moment for me. My players were absolutely fantastic, absolutely magnificent. I thought the first 45 minutes was the best in my time as a manager… [You said this team would score, but to score three…] Well, we gave them a start, didn’t we?! But we recovered well, the players kept their composure, and I think they deserve to be there.

“It’s a tragedy for [Keane and Scholes to miss the final], I don’t know whether we can appeal or what, but it would be tragic for them to miss the final. I feel for them… It’s a fantastic night for me. This is the level we want to play at.”

United will play… Bayern Munich in the final. It has finished in Munich, with Bayern beating Dynamo Kiev 1-0 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate. The two teams met in the group stage, as you doubtless remember: 2-2 in Munich, 1-1 at Old Trafford. Two of the players who scored against Bayern, Scholes and Keane, will be suspended for the final.

90 min Two minutes of added time. Two minutes before Manchester United can celebrate reaching their first European Cup final for 31 years, and the first for any English team since readmission in 1990.

90 min “I’m totally absorbed in this game, which is a good job as I’m currently stuck in Maryland, on an exchange year,” says Chris Goater. “Americans just don’t get Soccarball. I have tried to get my mates Heather, Mike and Josh interested but their more interested in making a crappy documentary about local folklore. I keep telling them the real drama’s here, man!”

89 min Stam provides one last reminder of his excellence, jockeying Amoruso away from goal before blocking his shot.

88 min: Just wide from Beckham! What a goal that would have been. Irwin, who has quietly had a great game, beats Fonseca, Deschamps and Conte on the left before crossing towards Beckham on the edge of the area. He ignores the flying challenge of Davids and bullets a volley that bounces a couple of yards wide. As he runs back upfield, Beckham looks across at Davids and says simply, “Fucking wanker”. Davids had a lot to say before the game, not so much now.

87 min Juventus need to score twice in the space of three or four minutes. Normally I’d say there’s a very slight chance, but they look completely shot, mentally and physically. United have broken their will. Their new coach Carlo Ancelotti is chewing a piece of gum like he wants to crunch it into a million pieces.

86 min Zidane is very lucky not to be booked for a karate kick on Beckham. He was going for the ball, I think, but he ended up studding Beckham in the back as they challenged for Yorke’s crossfield pass.

83 min United waste the best part of a minute with a good spell of possession. Eventually Neville and Yorke combine nicely to find Cole, whose shot from the edge of the area is comfortably saved by the tumbling Peruzzi. Cole had Butt in so much space to his left but didn’t see him.

82 min: Yet another sniff for Inzaghi! Zidane, on the left, eased a pass into the area for Fonseca, whose cutback somehow escaped Inzaghi in the six-yard box. He lunged at the ball at the near post, under pressure from Stam and Schmeichel, and it beat the lot of them before running safely to Irwin. Eight minutes to go. This is almost too much to bear.

81 min Fonseca’s dangerous cross from the right is headed behind for a corner by Johnsen, a superb bit of defending. United break three-on-three from the corner before Keane is fouled by Montero. At least I thought he was; the referee disagreed.

80 min: Fonseca clears off the line with his first touch! Beckham’s deep corner was headed back towards goal by Yorke, and the substitute Fonseca hacked it behind for another corner.

80 min The tireless Beckham gives United a bit of a breather by winning a couple of corners down the right. Juventus make their final change, bringing on another forward, Daniel Fonseca, for the makeshift right-back Di Livio.

78 min The pressure is starting to mount. United have 12 minutes to survive. I swear the clock hasn’t moved for the last five minutes.

76 min: Now Scholes is out of the final! Manchester United will be without two of their best midfielders if they reach the final. Beckham made a vital, desperate interception in his own area to deny Conte a clear chance, but Juve kept the pressure on until Scholes won the ball off Davids.

It ran loose between Scholes and Deschamps, who both went in two-footed for the 50/50 – but it was Scholes who was penalised and booked by the referee Urs Meier. Scholes turns away in anguish and receives a sympathetic pat on the head from Keane. Scholes definitely took the ball, and he went into the tackle horizontally – unlike Deschamps, who went over the top of the ball.

75 min Cole and Ferrara almost come to blows! Ferrara ushered the ball through to the keeper and was challenged by Cole. The two went head to head and then Ferrara shoved his hand in Cole’s face. He should have been sent off in the first half, and I’m surprised he wasn’t booked for that.

74 min Keane wins a 50/50 ball with Davids on the right. The ball runs loose - so Keane wins another 50/50, this time with Deschamps, before being fouled. That’s a microcosm of the midfield battle in this game. I think Keane has outimmensed even Jaap Stam.

74 min “It’s crazy that the Bayern match is on at the same time as this game!” says Steve Pollard. “In future, Uefa should put the semis on separate days so we can watch both.”

73 min United have been wonderful tonight, yet they are still only one Juventus goal from heartbreak. If they don’t go through, they will be haunted forever by some of their near misses.

72 min Cole does Ferrara with a dummy on the halfway line, only to lose his footing as he tries to run onto the ball. Cole has had a sensational game. If this isn’t proof that he is good enough for international football, then I don’t know what is.

71 min: Irwin hits the post! United come this close to giving themselves a two-goal cushion. They kept the ball for a long time on the right-hand side before moving it all the way across the field to Irwin, 40 yards from goal. He moved forward, away from a half-arsed challenge by Deschamps, and fronted up Di Livio on the edge of the area.

Di Livio invited him to go inside, so Irwin did just that before driving an almost nonchalant low shot that beat Peruzzi and bounced off the inside of the far post. It rebounded all the way back across goal to Irwin, who put the second chance into the side netting from a tight angle.

68 min: Inzaghi almost gets in again! Ferrara drives a very long pass to the edge of the penalty area, where Johnsen and Neville leave the ball to each other. Inzaghi nips between them – but then he miscontrols the ball, and that allows Johnsen to recover and clear the ball off him for a goal-kick. It looks like Inzaghi had been penalised, possibly for handball when he tried to control that pass. Either way, it was another hairy moment for the United defence.

67 min Alex Ferguson makes his first substitution, with Paul Scholes replacing Jesper Blomqvist. He has put in a fair old shift, much of it defensively, and looks knackered. That should give United a bit more protection in the centre of midfield, with Butt now playing from the left.

66 min A reminder of Juventus’s menace. Zidane moves balletically away from Keane, Irwin and Butt before finding Conte. He stabs a through pass towards Amoruso, who controls the ball on the run and is about to shoot when Stam comes round the side to make another brilliant interception. He has been immense.

63 min Tonight’s lottery numbers have just flashed up at the bottom of the screen. Piss off our land! We don’t ask Dale Winton to tell us the score of Colchester v Man City on a Saturday night, do we.

62 min: Inzaghi has a goal disallowed! Jesper Blomqvist is the most relieved man in the entire known universe. After Stam headed the ball out to the edge of the area, Blomqvist dithered and was robbed by Deschamps. Conte picked up the loose ball and dragged a shot across the face of goal, where Inzaghi gleefully ran the ball into the net. He was miles offside and can have no complaints. Okay, should have no complaints. He’s currently giving the linesman an earful. It was a decent chance in the first place for Conte, but he slipped as he tried to shoot and that’s why it went off target.

61 min Beckham’s outswinging corner finds Yorke, whose header is comfortably held by Peruzzi.

60 min A clever reverse pass from Beckham almost puts Keane through on goal. Ferrara strains every sinew to divert the ball behind for a corner, at which point Keane kicks the ball against an advertising board and implores someone – not Beckham – to play the ball first time. I’m starting to get the impression that Roy Keane has quite high standards.

58 min Zidane is jeered by the home fans after driving a pass straight out of play. United have calmed things down after a slightly fraught start to the second half. They’re 32 minutes away from the greatest win of their club careers.

55 min: Cole misses a great chance! Neville drives a long ball towards the halfway line, where Yorke beats two defenders in the air and flicks it on to release Beckham. He gallops into space and coaxes a gorgeous pass around the defence towards Cole, who tries to control the ball on the stretch and watches in horror as it runs away from him and out for a goalkick. He should have belted that first time.

54 min It’s been a nervous start to the second half for United. Juventus are having much more of the ball than they did in the first half and are getting a lot of joy down their left through a combination of Zidane, Pessotto and Inzaghi.

53 min: Davids is out of the final! Davids, who has faded badly after a flying start, ploughs through Beckham and is booked. It’s his second yellow card of the knockout stages, so he’ll miss the final if Juve get there. Beckham waved an imaginary card to the referee, who was happy to oblige. In fairness, it was a bad tackle and a clear yellow card.

52 min: Fine save by Schmeichel! Zidane, who has been influential since half-time, turns Neville and plays the ball to Pessotto on the left. He curls a fine first-time pass around Beckham and Johnsen to find Inzaghi, whose first-time shot is kicked away at the near post by Schmeichel. I think Inzaghi was offside that time, but the flag didn’t go up so it would have counted.

50 min Zidane floats a cross into the middle, where Juventus have two against one. Thankfully for United, the one is the monumental Jaap Stam and he stops Amoruso’s flick-on reaching Inzaghi. Seconds later, Inzaghi is wrongly flagged offside after running onto Zidane’s excellent through pass. Schmeichel dived at his feet to save anyway.

47 min Butt slices a snap-volley well wide from 25 yards.

47 min Johnsen nicks the ball off Inzaghi and dances forward, beating Davids and Deschamps before laying the ball off. That’s a reflection of United’s sky-high confidence.

46 min Juventus have made two half-time changes: the centre-half Paolo Montero, who wasn’t fit to start, has replaced Mark Iuliano, who wasn’t fit for purpose in the first half. The other change is a striker, Nicola Amoruso, for the right-back Alessandro Birindelli. That means Angelo Di Livio goes to right-back and Zinedine Zidane drops into a diamond midfield.

Alex Ferguson is doing his usual half-time interview with Gary Newbon

“I’ve told the players to keep believing in themselves. The [Juventus] back four is very nervous. Our front players have been marvellous – the whole team has been first class. We’ve given away soft goals, we can’t afford to do it again. I just hope we show good concentration - and keep going for that third goal.”

45+1 min Blomqvist wins the ball with a beautiful, Giggs-like sliding tackle on Birindelli just inside his own half, and off United go again. His angled pass infield is dummied by Yorke and runs to Cole, who waits for Blomqvist to catch up with the play and frees him on the left. Blomqvist tries to complete the one-two-three with a first-time cross towards Cole at the near post, where Iuliano does extremely well to get in front of Cole and poke the ball to safety.

44 min The board goes up to signal one minute of added time. Both teams have certainly earned their half-time wellness juice.

43 min Conte slashes a volley wide from Di Livio’s cross. It wouldn’t have counted anyway as Inzaghi had been flagged offside.

42 min Deschamps takes a quick free-kick to Zidane, who is wrongly flagged offside. He would have been through on goal, although Stam might have got back to him.

40 min This game is already an all-time classic, and it’s not even half-time.

40 min “Breathless stuff this, Rob,” says Chris Wilkerson (10 years, 8 days). “Dad has said I can stay up past bedtime! YORKE! Wow!”

39 min: Yorke hits the post! Neville floats a long pass towards Blomqvist on the edge of the area. Birindelli heads it away but only to Yorke, 25 yards from goal. A brilliant first touch takes him away from Iuliano, then he pushes the ball into the area and drives a ferocious low shot that beats Peruzzi and smacks off the far post!

38 min: Good save by Schmeichel! Inzaghi almost completes a first-half hat-trick to put Juventus back in front. Di Livio, on the left, lofts an angled pass to Inzaghi in the area. He backs into Stam expertly, then wriggles away from him on the edge of the six-yard box and hits a low shot that is excellently blocked by Schmeichel. The ball comes back to Inzaghi, who screws it wide from a tight angle. The first chance was the big one.

38 min In the other semi-final, Mario Basler has given Bayern Munich the lead against Dynamo Kiev. Bayern now lead 4-3 on aggregate, and the away goals rule means that Kiev needs to score at least twice.

38 min Cole and Yorke have been unplayable in the last 20 minutes. The Juventus defenders cannot cope.

37 min United are all over Juventus now. Irwin feeds a pass into Cole, who turns superbly and hammers a snapshot that is held by the tumbling Peruzzi.

36 min “Hi Rob,” says Michael Minihan. “Is there a hint of male pattern baldness creeping in with Zinedine Zidane?”

A hint?! That’s like saying there’s a hint of saturated fat in a full English.

33 min: KEANE IS OUT OF THE FINAL! If United do make it to Barcelona next month, they will be without their best player. Keane has been booked for a foul on Zidane. Blomqvist, just inside the Juventus half, played a slow square pass that Keane miscontrolled on the run. He tried to win it back with a lunging tackle, but Zidane got to the ball first and Keane brought him down. The yellow card was out straight away, and Keane accepted it without complaint.

He saved his tongue for Blomqvist, waving his hands and shouting “Pass the fucking ball!” Blomqvist would be well advised not to point out that pass the ball is precisely what he did. I suppose what Keane meant was ‘pass the effing ball properly’, forward and/or with pace, not slow and sideways.

It wasn’t a great pass, although Keane’s first touch was unusually sloppy as well. He’s had a superb game so far, dominating midfield with faithful lieutenant Nicky Butt, and United will hope it doesn’t affect him as it did Paul Gascoigne on this ground all this years ago. Knowing Keane, I doubt it will.

31 min The TV camera zooms in on Didier Deschamps, who looks absolutely shattered already. He’s carrying plenty of water right now, most of it sweat.

30 min: Stam heads off the line! Zidane meanders down the left, away from Butt, and lobs a cross towards the penalty spot. Schmeichel comes but is beaten to the ball by Conte, whose header goes miles in the air and is about to dip into the net when Stam appears from nowhere to clear with his granite bonce.

29 min There’s a good example: Davids tries to find Inzaghi on the halfway line, Stam bounces him off the ball and United come again. Irwin’s long ball down the left is headed on by Yorke to Cole on the edge of the area. He returns it to Yorke, who drives well wide from 25 yards. It was another good link up from United’s front pair, who look as telepathic as at any point since that blizzard of goals at the start of the year.

28 min According to a graphic on ITV, United have had 62 per cent of possession in this game. I’ve no idea how they work that stuff out but I bet it’s a long time since any team has had that much of the ball away to Juventus. At the start it was a mixed blessing, because their passing was ponderous and Juventus were deadly on the counter. But in the last 10 minutes United have been relentless, with Keane’s progressive passing setting the agenda. I can’t believe I’m typing this but Juventus, the ultimate power team of the last few years, are struggling to live with United’s tempo. They can’t get out of their own half.

25 min This is European football.

24 min United move the ball smoothly from right to left, where Cole wins a corner.

23 min “I’m watching this in The Dickens Inn in Philadelphia, Rob, and the mood is glum right now,” says Justin Kavanagh. “Although Andy from Norn Iron is wearing his “lucky jumper” (a red and black hoop Denis the Menace affair), it certainly isn’t working for United tonight. There we were dreaming of a Treble. Football, eh! It always kills the hope in you.”

22 min: Juventus should be down to 10 men! Ferrara has got away with a blatant professional foul on Yorke. It all stemmed from a Schmeichel goalkick, which was headed on by Butt on the edge of the centre circle. Iuliano misjudged the bounce of the ball, which allowed Yorke to slip past him and through on goal. He then cut across the covering Ferrara in the D, only to be dragged down by the shoulder!

United might still have scored through Beckham, whose shot from the edge of the area was blocked, and then Cole was given offside. Replays confirm it was a clear foul by Ferrara, although it was definitely outside the area. That’s scandalous refereeing.

20 min Beckham is brought down on the right wing by Di Livio; the free-kick is headed away by Deschamps. This is a decent little spell for United, whose passing is quicker and more rhythmic.

19 min That’s a little better from United. Blomqvist plays a clever reverse pass to release Irwin on the left. His low pass infield is dummied by Yorke and runs on to Cole, who lobs it back towards Yorke in the area. He takes it down on the chest but slices a volley high and wide. It was a tight angle and he was off balance. But the build-up play was encouraging.

18 min Davids, who has made another dominant start, yelps with pain after a late tackle from Keane. The referee Urs Meier has a word with Keane, who is one of the many players on a yellow card. If he is booked tonight he will miss the final should United produce a miracle.

17 min Nothing much is happening. United have at least restored a bit of order defensively.

16 min You have to wonder whether Alex Ferguson will ever win the European Cup. United have improved enormously since returning to the competition in 1996, but the final hurdle looks as insurmountable as ever. In fact, it could be a long while before any English team wins it.

15 min Butt plays a ball towards Yorke, who dithers and is robbed contemptuously by Iuliano. As in the first leg, Yorke and Cole are really struggling; the ball isn’t sticking at all.

15 min “Spare a thought for my brother Andrew,” says Jim Danson, “whose missing this game because he’s on a geography field trip in North Wales.”

14 min On the touchline, Ferguson looks relatively calm, chewing on gum and saying something to his No2 Steve McClaren “If he pulls this one out,” says Ron Atkinson on ITV Sport, “it’ll be the greatest achievement since he’s been at United.”

13 min “Well, that’s it,” said Jeff Black. “I’m going to switch over and watch Brookside.”

The Naked Chef is on BBC2, I’ve heard good things about that.

12 min Juventus have played United like a fiddle: sit deep, wait as long as it takes to win possession and then strike like a cobra.

10 min I suppose Manchester United had to score anyway. The difference is that a 1-1 draw would take the tie to extra-time, whereas a 1-0 win would have put them through.

9 min Birindelli drives a long pass towards Inzaghi, who wrestles with the last man Johnsen and then falls over. The referee isn’t interested. But Juventus look so dangerous on the break.

8 min An immediate response from United. Keane chips a cute ball down the line for the overlapping Neville, who lobs it first time across the penalty area. Cole, 12 yards from goal, connects well with an overhead kick but hits it straight at Peruzzi.

6 min Davids shields the ball from Keane near the halfway line, then suddenly opens United up with a marvellous pass down the inside-left channel. Beckham slides in ahead of Pessotto to concede a corner. This is a strong start from Juventus.

5 min The decidedly uncrowded Zidane has time to drive a long, angled pass over the defence. For a second it looks like Inzaghi is through, but Stam shows good pace to catch him up and put the ball out of play. Moments like that are exactly the reason United bought Stam, who is arguably the best one-v-one defender in the world.

4 min The early signs are that United have no special plan to deal with what Ferguson called “the Zidane thing” in the build-up. He is playing in the hole between the defence and midfield, and it looks like United are planning to crowd him rather than man-mark him.

4 min “I’m just about to finish college, the world is my oyster, everything seems rosy,” says Matt Dony. “Maybe my band will get the record deal we deserve. (Otherwise, I’ll probably end up as a boring, bitter middle-aged grump. Urgh.) The world is full of opportunity. I don’t even mind seeing United do well (although, they stand no chance tonight), because I’ve got a good feeling about Liverpool over the next few seasons. Next year will be our season.”

It’ll be Sean Dundee’s season. You heard it here last.

3 min A frantic start, although United have seen plenty of the ball. Zidane plays a first-time through ball towards Conte, and Schmeichel rushes from his line to claim.

2 min “Great pre-match tune featuring Ian Brown,” says Peter Oh. “Do you reckon that the Stone Roses will ever reform?”

No chance. They’ve got far too much class to go down that desperate road.

1 min Peep peep! United kick off from right to left as displayed by the Independent Television cameras. Drink!

There’s quite a din in Turin. The atmosphere is smoky, primal – and, even on a television screen, pretty damned intimidating. This is it.

Alex Ferguson is radiating calm during his pre-match interview on ITV. He looks excited but relaxed, with a half-smile on his face as he considers the match. “It’s a massive game and I feel good about it. I think we have a very good chance. It’s gonna be a tough game, we’re aware of that. They’ll start 100 miles an hour, they’ll try to finish us off in the first 30 minutes. We’ve got to make sure we’re ready for that, and counter-attack with real purpose. It’s gonna be a great night I hope.”

Pre-match mood music

“Hi Rob,” says Sean Doyle. “I’ve lost a lot of money this week betting on the weather but after Juve’s performance in the first leg I’m confident that my ridiculously large bet on a comfortable home win will turn my luck around.”

Come on: how much, and what odds.

Edgar Davids, Juve’s Dutch pitbull, was in bullish mood earlier in the week.

United are supposed to have the best midfield in the world but we had the better of them at Old Trafford. We were like a steam train, overrunning them. I felt sick to my stomach when Giggs equalised for them. The longer I was out there, looking at opponents who had been described as such big stars, the more I realised what was in it for us. I have no fears any more. I want to get at them again.

Twelve men, some angrier than others, are on a yellow card and will miss the final if they are booked tonight: Irwin, Johnsen, Keane, Scholes, Phil Neville, Conte, Deschamps, Davids, Di Livio, Zidane, Montero and Peruzzi. It was on this ground that Paul Gascoigne started shedding them during and after the Italia 90 semi-final.