It was a game to linger long in the memory. When referee Nieto blew the final whistle, the majority of the 39,732 crowd remained back to salute O'Leary, his brilliant young side and, in particular, King Lucas - whose late goal was the difference between two well matched teams.

As expected, Batty was unable to shake off his achilles injury in time to play, so Eirik Bakke was again asked to deputise. The other doubt, McPhail, was passed fit to play on his 20th birthday.

Both teams looked up to it from the start. United, of course, knew they had to score but, on the other hand, an early Spartak goal might very well be enough to kill the tie completely. Evidence that we were up for a hard battle came within the first five minutes, when Smithy was booked for an over enthusiastic challenge.

We made the better start to the encounter but Spartak still looked dangerous in attack. On 7 minutes Robson, a scorer in the away leg, forced a good save from Martyn, then Boulatov blasted over the bar from outside the area.

Harte then executed a couple of neat free kick moves which, on both occasions, Bridges was unable to convert. Bowyer made great strides down the right, producing a great cross into the area, which smithy was unable to get to. Then with ten minutes remaining, Kewell's rifled shot forced a save from Filimonov.

Two minutes later, the Russian keeper fell awkwardly on his shoulder and was replaced by Smetanin. The newcomer was almost immediately in action when, on the stroke of half time, he dived at the feet of Bridges to claim the ball from the onrushing striker.

In the second half we again started the brighter of the two sides, with Kewell in particular an immediate threat. Firstly, he skewed a shot off target following a good header by Bridges, then saw a great shot slip just inches wide of the post.

We continued to press but failed to really test Spartak's second choice keeper as Ian Harte's free kick wet a yard over the bar. However, he was called into action, spectacularly, when he palmed away a Bridges free kick which looked set to break the back of the net.

With 20 minutes remaining, O'Leary made the usual substitution: Huckerby on for Smith, who had been largely ineffective on the night.. However, within a couple of minutes it could have been 'game over' at the other end - Titov looking set to win the game for Spartak until the excellent Woodgate made a saving tackle.

With just ten minutes remaining, Bowyer had a great chance to put us into the Fourth Round but blasted his effort over the bar. Surely we couldn't afford to keep wasting such good opportunities.

On 83 minutes, though, came a moment of magic. McPhail whipped over a superb corner from the right which found the head of Radebe, who nodded home only his third ever goal for United into the Spartak net. The whole ground erupted, a deafening noise which was to last for the remainder of the game and beyond.

However, still there was time for a scare at the other end. With just a couple of minutes remaining, Baranov's free header hit the underside of the crossbar and was scrambled to safety. Only then did the majority of the Leeds supporters realise that the linesman had already raised his flag for an infringement.

When the final whistle went, the crowd stayed behind to salute a great Leeds performance and a truly heroic display by our own Chief, Lucas Radebe!

United Star Man: Lucas Radebe