The victory completed a treble-winning season for Manchester United, having already secured the Premier League and FA Cup titles in the preceding 10 days.

Manchester United and Bayern Munich had only met twice in competitive matches before the final, both meetings coming earlier in the 1998–99 season and both finished as draws.

Manchester United were drawn against Polish champions ŁKS Łódź and won 2–0 on aggregate, goals from Ryan Giggs and Andy Cole in the first leg at Old Trafford giving them the victory.

[16][17] Bayern Munich had an easier time against Yugoslavian champions Obilić, winning 4–0 in the first leg at the Olympiastadion with goals from Stefan Effenberg, Giovane Élber, Alexander Zickler and Thorsten Fink, all scored in the space of 17 second-half minutes.

[18] In the second leg, played at Partizan's ground in Belgrade, an 88th-minute goal from Lothar Matthäus rescued a 1–1 draw to give Bayern a 5–1 win on aggregate.

United took the lead just before half-time through a Roy Keane strike from just outside the penalty area; however, Hasan Salihamidžić equalised for Bayern in the 55th minute and the game finished as a 1–1 draw.

[41] The Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, was selected as the venue for the final at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Lisbon, Portugal, on 6 October 1998.

[42] The selection process had begun more than four months earlier, in May 1998, when FC Barcelona submitted the Camp Nou as a contender to host the match in recognition of the club's centenary year.

[46] Due to UEFA regulations regarding standing at football matches, the Camp Nou's terraced sections were closed for the 1999 Champions League final, reducing the capacity to approximately 92,000.

[62] Captain Roy Keane and midfielder Paul Scholes both missed out on the final due to suspension; manager Alex Ferguson had originally considered selecting Giggs to join Nicky Butt in central midfield, but ultimately picked David Beckham as a player who could help the team control possession in the middle of the pitch,[52] with Giggs on the right wing and Jesper Blomqvist starting on the left.

[70] As Manchester United's top two goalscorers throughout the season, Cole and Yorke started up front, leaving Sheringham – who had played a part in both goals in the FA Cup Final a few days earlier – on the bench.

Also on the bench were fellow striker Ole Gunnar Solskjær, back-up goalkeeper Raimond van der Gouw, defenders David May, Phil Neville and Wes Brown, and midfielder Jonathan Greening.

[75] Six minutes into the match, Johnsen fouled Bayern striker Jancker just outside the area,[76] and Basler placed a low free kick around the United wall to score the first goal, as Schmeichel was caught flat-footed.

[76] As Bayern began to look increasingly dangerous on the counter-attack than their opponents did in possession, Jancker repeatedly tested the United back four with a number of clever runs, some of which were flagged offside.

As half-time approached, United winger Giggs, playing out of position on the right, sent a weak header towards Kahn from a Cole cross, but that was as close as they were to come to a goal in the first half.

[76] Basler was proving to be Bayern's most dangerous player, first firing a 30-yard shot towards goal and then setting up a header for Babbel, who missed the ball entirely.

United put together an attack when, after a healthy period of possession, Giggs crossed towards Blomqvist, who could only knock the ball over the bar after a desperate stretch.

United won a corner when Effenberg deflected Gary Neville's cross over the Bayern goal line just as the fourth official indicated three minutes of injury time.

His right-footed snap-shot was weak and poorly struck, but it went straight to Sheringham, who swiped at the shot with his right foot, and nestled the ball in the bottom corner of the net.

Less than 30 seconds after the subsequent kick-off, United forced another corner when Kuffour deflected Solskjær's cross over the Bayern goal line, but Schmeichel stayed in his penalty area this time, under instruction from Ferguson.

Solskjær reacted fastest, stuck out a foot and poked the ball into the roof of the Bayern goal for United to take the lead with just 43 seconds of the three minutes of injury time to play.

[82] The game restarted, but many Bayern players were overwhelmed with despair, virtually unable to continue and needed the assistance of referee Collina to drag themselves off the ground.

[83] They were stunned to have lost a game they had thought won just minutes before; several celebratory flares had already been ignited by the Bayern fans moments before United equalised, and ribbons in the club's colours had already been secured to the trophy itself in preparation for the presentation ceremony.

[84] United held onto their lead to record their second European Cup title,[85] and at the final whistle, referee Collina described the cheers from the fans as being like a "lion's roar".

The game's ending was so unexpected that UEFA President Lennart Johansson had left his seat in the stands before Sheringham's equaliser to make his way down to the pitch to present the European Cup trophy, which was already decorated with Bayern ribbons.

[96] Staying true to his word from earlier in the season, the match was Schmeichel's last in a Manchester United shirt, and a month later he signed for Portuguese club Sporting CP.

After playing in all four matches of the club's pre-season tour of Australia and China in July 1999, he suffered a succession of knee injuries that ruled him out of competitive action for the next two seasons.

He made two more appearances for the first team during the 2000–01 pre-season campaign, as well as three matches for the reserves in September and October 2001, before a free transfer to Everton in November that year.

[109] It was such a significant achievement for an English football club that Prime Minister Tony Blair took the time to watch part of the match and congratulate Manchester United from the opening of the new National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff.

[126] The Bayern squad featured six players who appeared in the 1999 final – Babbel, Kuffour, Effenberg, Matthäus, Jancker and Fink – as well as striker Élber, who missed the original match through injury.