Red Star Belgrade were the better team in the first half, but had two attempts cleared off the line by Manchester United players, and missed the goal with their other shots.

[6] After beating Red Star 5–4 on aggregate, the aircraft on which the Manchester United team were travelling home crashed on its third attempt to take off from Munich-Riem Airport.

In total, 23 people were killed in the Munich air disaster, including eight of the United team, three staff members and eight journalists; a further two players never played football again as a result of the injuries they suffered.

[9] Manchester United went into the tie missing two of their regular players; club captain Bryan Robson was suspended, while Paul Parker was injured.

This change allowed him to add his Danish goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel, back into the team, at the expense of 16-year-old English winger Ben Thornley.

"[10] The match was played at Old Trafford, in front of a crowd of 22,110,[13] roughly half the capacity of the ground,[6] and Manchester United's lowest home attendance of the season.

[13] Manchester United had the first chance of the game in the second minute, when they were awarded a penalty by the referee, Mario van der Ende; a free kick from the right wing was hit to the far side of the penalty area by Lee Martin, where the ball was met by Gary Pallister, only for his header back across the box to be blocked by the arm of Red Star centre-back Miodrag Belodedici, who received a yellow card for handball.

Manchester United captain Steve Bruce placed the penalty kick to the right of Red Star goalkeeper Zvonko Milojević, who palmed the ball round the post.

[6] Twice, attacks from Savićević and Pančev beat United's goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel, but were cleared off the line by Gary Pallister and Clayton Blackmore.

[5] It would however be a month later in December, Red Star's team would stay together long enough to complete in the 1991 Intercontinental Cup, winning the match 1–0 over Colo-Colo of Chile and thus becoming official FIFA World Champions.