On This Day: Keegan's 'I will love it!' meltdown and Maradona leads Napoli to Scudetto

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

Content writer covering football, formula 1 and movies

One of the most famous moments in Premier League history took place on this day 30 years ago, while there were also special days for Diego Maradona and Paul Scholes on 29 April in football history.

Kevin Keegan's rant

The Premier League title race between Newcastle and Manchester United in the 1995/96 season was one of the most fiery of all time, both on the pitch and off it.

Things were so tight that Sir Alex Ferguson started some psychological warfare to try and give his team an edge. He suggested that Leeds and Nottingham Forest would try much harder when playing Man Utd than they would against Newcastle.

Forest were due to play Newcastle in Stuart Pearce's testimonial.

Remarkably, when Man Utd took on Leeds, Lucas Radebe had to go in goals for the majority of the game as goalkeeper Mark Beeney was previously sent off and he actually performed superbly before the Red Devils won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Roy Keane.

Keegan, having just guided the Magpies to a 1-0 victory against Leeds, took umbrage at those comments and gave us probably the greatest post-match interview of all time:

"No, no... when you do that with footballers, like he said about Leeds, and when you do things like that about a man like Stuart Pearce, I've kept really quiet, but I'll tell you something, he went down in my estimation when he said that.

"We have not resorted to that, but I'll tell you, you can tell him now if you're watching it, we're still fighting for this title, and he's got to go to Middlesbrough and get something, and... and... I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it!"

In April 2003, it was named as Quote of the Decade in the Premier League 10 Seasons Awards and also appeared in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.

United would go on to win the league by four points as Ferguson undoubtedly won the psychological battle with King Kev.

Maradona's Napoli glory

Diego Maradona had already become a god in the eyes of the Napoli fans when he took them to their first ever Scudetto in 1987 before then winning the UEFA Cup in 1989.

The Partenopei took their fine form from that UEFA Cup win into the 1989/90 season as they once again won Serie A.

They would eventually win the league by two points but were given a hugely controversial helping hand in the latter stages of the campaign, awarded a 2-0 win against Atalanta despite drawing 0-0.

They were given the win and all three points after a coin struck midfielder Alemao.

Scholes' Screamer

Barcelona would prove to be United's nemesis in Europe when Pep Guardiola was in charge as the Blaugrana defeated the Red Devils in two Champions League finals in 2009 and 2011.

Prior to that, though, Sir Alex Ferguson was building one of his greatest teams, led by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.

It would be Paul Scholes who emerged as the hero in the 2007/08 Champions League semi-final against Barca, though, as he scored one of the best goals of his career with a half-volley smashed into the top corner from outside the area.

United won that tie and would go on to win the Champions League - Ferguson's second as manager.

Madrid tear Bayern apart at the Allianz

Guardiola simply couldn't get it done with Bayern in Europe and this will go down as one of his most humiliating losses as a manager.

Real Madrid, led by Carlo Ancelotti, took a 1-0 lead into the second leg of their semi-final clash against the German giants in 2013/14 and proceeded to blow the hosts away at the Allianz Arena, winning 4-0.

Los Blancos were more than happy to sit back and allow Bayern possession but the pace of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Ronaldo on the counter proved too much.

Ronaldo scored two, while Sergio Ramos bagged a couple of headers from set-pieces.

Ancelotti got one over on Guardiola here.