Bastürk: ‘It was great fun that day’

Yildiray, what comes to mind first when you think about the 2-2 draw at Manchester United?
Oh, there’s loads of images that still come to me. First, there’s the exceptional stadium. And I remember incidents in the game like it was yesterday. It was a fantastic match with both teams having lots of chances. Man United were a bit better in the first half but we moved up a gear in the second half and absolutely deserved to get a point in Manchester. Crikey, the Man United line-up was incredible: Barthez, Blanc, Scholes, Veron, Giggs, it was full of world starts. And one of the biggest of their’s was definitely the striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Michael Ballack once said he had goose bumps when he went onto the pitch at Old Trafford. What was the atmosphere like for you back then?
It was truly breathtaking. We’d played Arsenal at Highbury and Liverpool at Anfield before that. And the atmosphere was incredible there too. But at Old Trafford, Michael was right, it was even more intense. That made a real impression on you as a player.

You were the Kicker Man of the Match, and they gave top marks. Did you think you’d done that well?
(He laughs) Well, I was involved in lots of good moves going forward. I did a lot of dribbles at pace and was involved in both goals. The equaliser at 2-2 from Olli Neuville came from a deflected shot on goal from me. It was a lot of fun that day! I think you could see that in the way I played.

But you were very committed in challenges…
That’s right. I was a midfielder who worked back a lot. And particularly in this game it was necessary to be aggressive in challenges. Above all in the first half, we really had to stand and be counted and get stuck in. I wanted to lead the way.

Where does this game rank in your top ten games ever?
Definitely in the top three - it really means a lot to me to be man of the match in that game. Even Sir Alex Ferguson singled me out after the game. And our coach Klaus Toppmöller too. It was a really successful night for me.  

Your impressive performance was even applauded by the Man United fans. You don’t experience gestures like that every day.
It was really top drawer! It’s typical for England to get applause from the opponents if you play well and fairly. They appreciate that in England. And we were on equal terms with that top team on the night. We didn’t have to sit back because we had lots and lots of great players in our squad. And the Manchester United fans knew we’d knocked out some great teams along the way.

In spite of the great performance and the good situation, it got really tight in the return game with the 1-1 scoreline.
Oh yes, that was a very hard-fought game. The spectators at the BayArena didn’t see the good football from the first leg. It was much more tactical. But the match was at a really high level in terms of commitment.

Roy Keane put Manchester United ahead on 28 minutes then you saw Olli Neuville on the edge of the box in added time at the end of the first half.
I played a short pass to him, Olli controlled the ball, turned and hit a shot from a standing position under the bar. A really great goal. We just wanted to hold on to the scoreline in the second half.

Which would almost have gone wrong just before the shot…
(He laughs) Yes, but we had Diego Placente who headed the ball off the line from Forlan’s shot. I wasn’t on the pitch at that point and I watched the incident from the bench. Of course, the final minutes were really nervy as Man United were throwing everything at us. But we held on and were through to the final. We players and the fans went crazy. But there was one real blow: Jens Nowotny tore his cruciate in the opening stages of the game. We really missed our captain in the final games.

Lets take another look at the other games in the magical season of 2001/02. There were countless highlights in the Champions League. Which games do you particularly remember?
Definitely the 2-1 win at home to Barcelona in the group stage after we were 1-0 down. The first leg of the quarter-final at Anfield where we played really well but ended up losing 1-0. And then, of course, the second leg against thee Reds, our 4-2 win were we produced a truly brilliant performance.

Was there a key match in the Champions League? A game where you though we can go a long way?
Perhaps it was the 2-1 win against Barcelona. That was our first win against a really big team. We were able to compete with Xavi, Kluivert and co when we played with discipline. Then we were able to do the same against the other top clubs.

You had some great players in your team. But was special about you as a team back then besides the quality of players?
So, if I look at our team back then then it was really the case that our first twelve or thirteen players were amongst the best players in Europe. And the lads also got on really well together. All of them had their feet on the ground, everybody helped out and nobody was above doing the hard work on the pitch. That was singled us out.

You had a really close relationship with the coach Klaus Toppmöller, didn’t you?
Yes, absolutely, he was my mentor. He showed his confidence in me as an 18-year-old from Bochum and he took good care of me. Toppi just knew how to handle me. I’ve got so much to thank him for! 

You were runners-up three times that season. Which second place was most painful to you?
Obviously missing out on the league title. We were top of the table, five points ahead of Dortmund with three games to play and we’d just beaten BVB 4-0 at home. Nothing could go wrong. But it didn’t happen. And that was so disappointing!

That season was followed by the World Cup where you finished third with Turkey. A wonderful finish to a fantastic season.
Yes, that’s right. I joined the Turkey squad at the training camp straight after the Champions League. The World Cup was a great success for Turkey. I was able to repeat my form from the season in Japan/South Korea and I was ninth in the vote for World Player of the Year (Ballon d’Or, ed.) - no other Turkish player managed that after me. I’m proud of that too.

What do the three years at Leverkusen mean to you?
It was a great time. Of course, my first season was the most successful of my career. I was sidelined for a long time due to injuries in my second year. We battled to avoid relegation and made it at the last moment. Overall, the years at Leverkusen were definitely amongst the best in my career.

What job do you do now?
I’m the director of a property company in the Rhine-Ruhr area.

Do you still follow Bayer 04?
Yes, but not as intensively as back in the early years. But I’m still very interested although I rarely go to the BayArena. But I did see the 2-1 win against Atletico Madrid this season. And I keep in contact with Carsten Ramelow and Jens Nowotny by phone.

Personal details for Yildiray Bastürk:
Date of birth: 24.12.1978
At Bayer 04: from 2001 to 2004
Appearances for Bayer 04: 114
Goals for Bayer 04: 9
Assists: 22
Other clubs: Sportfreunde Wanne-Eickel, SG Wattenscheid 09, VfL Bochum, Hertha BSC, VfB Stuttgart, Blackburn Rovers
International appearances: 49 caps (two goals) for Turkey
Honours: Champions League finalist, Bundesliga runner-up and DFB Cup finalist with Bayer 04 2002, World Cup third place with Turkey 2002