BY OLIVER HOLT ( The Times )

THEY drew on everything they had learnt in their painful apprenticeships, they dredged everything they could from the depths of passion that beats in English teams. When they had finished, when they had vanquished Juventus, the side that had denied them so often before, Manchester United set their sights at last on a place in the European Cup final and a date with their destiny.

Even in their dreams, they could hardly have imagined it this way; could hardly have dared to hope that they might recover from a two-goal deficit against the team that for so long has been Europe's best, to hand them the rarest of defeats in the Stadio delle Alpi and record their first win on Italian soil in the process.

Two early goals from Filippo Inzaghi seemed to have ended their chances of finally dulling the pain from their quest to emulate Matt Busby's European Cup-winning side of 1968 and condemned them to another year of soul-searching. Instead, they produced an inspirational comeback that brought Alex Ferguson, the manager, leaping off the United bench and hugging his players in unrestrained joy.

Roy Keane scored the first goal, Dwight Yorke the second and Andy Cole, in the dying minutes, the third that propelled United to Barcelona on May 26. It will be the first time an English side has appeared in the final since Liverpool and Juventus met at Heysel in 1985.

There, in the Nou Camp, they will face Bayern Munich, who beat Dynamo Kiev by the same aggregate score. Even that seems strangely fitting. There is a happy chance now that the name of the German city may come to have happier connotations for a club that was almost destroyed there 40 years ago. Victory against the Germans, and the clock will have turned full circle. Then, at last, Peter Schmeichel, Gary Neville, David Beckham, Cole and the rest will have earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath as Bobby Charlton and George Best, and Ferguson will be allowed to emerge from the giant shadow of Busby.

This, though, was an epic to rank alongside - perhaps even to surpass - United's victory over Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final replay seven days earlier. Top of the FA Carling Premiership and already in the Cup Final, their pursuit of the treble is nearing the finishing line.

There was poignancy in their victory, too. Both Keane, their captain and driving force, and Paul Scholes will miss the final through suspension after being shown the yellow card. Last night, though, was a night for celebration. Ferguson ran on to the pitch an hour after the game had finished to raise a clenched fist at the United supporters who were still being held in an otherwise empty stadium. As the klaxons sounded and their chants rang out, Ferguson stood and drank them in.

"When they scored those two early goals, I just thought it was another case of suicide," he said. "In the end, what we have done is come to Juventus, give the club that has been the best side in Europe for the last ten years a two-goal start and still win the match. That is phenomenal."

United had hardly had time to take in the surroundings of this giant stadium on the outskirts of the city, to try to blank out the drum beats and scent the smoke from the smouldering red flares, when they went behind. They seemed to be unprepared when Zinedine Zidane took a short corner from the United right. He got the ball straight back from Angelo Di Livio, and when the Frenchman crossed to the back post, Inzaghi wrestled his way in front of Neville and prodded the ball past Schmeichel.

United were stunned by the setback. It seemed then that they were going to freeze, to be overawed by the occasion and by their resurgent opponents. Their passing was hesitant, their runs lacked conviction and Jaap Stam and Ronny Johnsen looked horribly vulnerable to the pace of Inzaghi, and in the eleventh minute the Italy striker's trickery put Juventus further ahead.

There seemed little danger when Deschamps played the ball into him on the edge of the area, but, with his back to goal and Stam marshalling him, Inzaghi turned and his left-foot shot bounced up off Stam's leg and looped over the helpless Schmeichel. It was the second time in a week that Stam had suffered such a fate after Dennis Bergkamp's deflected shot in that semi-final replay. Last night, the misfortune seemed almost too cruel to bear.

Gradually, though, United dragged their way back into the game. They forged their first clear opportunity in the 22nd minute, when Yorke was brought crashing to the ground by Iuliano as he ran through on goal. As United appealed for a free kick, the referee played advantage and the ball broke to Beckham, but he could not squeeze his left-foot shot past the stranded Peruzzi. Two minutes later, though, United did reduce the Juventus lead. Cole's cross was deflected for a corner, and when Beckham clipped his kick to the near post, Keane met it before Peruzzi and glanced it into the empty net.

United's celebrations were muted, as if they were still angry with themselves for the plight they had got themselves in to, but they might have equalised on the half-hour had Yorke not snatched at his shot after a neat lay-off from Cole. They had a lucky escape a minute later, when Schmeichel made a hash of intercepting a cross from Zidane and Inzaghi sent a lazy, looping header arcing towards the net. Stam, the saviour this time, dashed back to nod it out from under the crossbar.

United were dealt another blow when Keane, who had already chopped down Davids in the tense opening stages, fouled Zidane and was shown the yellow card. Two minutes after that, though, United's despair turned to joy. Cole, who was playing superbly, found space on the right of the Juventus area and chipped a cross to the far post. Yorke had pulled away from his marker and dived to head the ball emphatically past Peruzzi.

The transformation in United's fortunes was almost made complete six minutes before the interval, when Yorke intercepted a misplaced pass from Birindelli and lashed his right-foot shot against the base of a post. The dynamic of the match had changed. Now it was Juventus who needed to chase the game; now it was the home supporters who grew nervous and tetchy. Their team nearly went back into the lead early in the second half, but Schmeichel blocked Inzaghi's low shot with his legs.

United had another chance to take the lead in the 55th minute, when Beckham broke away down the right. He curled a perfect cross into the path of Cole, but the United striker could not control it and the opportunity passed.

Inzaghi had a goal disallowed for offside soon after, which had the home fans clasping their hands together in agonies of disappointment. They were off their seats again a few minutes later, when Inzaghi was denied by a strong challenge from Stam. These were nervous moments, with Juventus, the kings of the late escape, pushing forward with increasing desperation. There was more heartbreak, too, when Scholes, on as a substitute for Blomqvist, was booked for a double-footed challenge. He, too, knew that he would miss the final.

Relief from the tension nearly came in the 73rd minute, but Denis Irwin's right-foot shot bounced back off the base of a post and he could only hook the rebound into the side-netting. The release, the joyful release, came instead five minutes from the end. Yorke danced into the Juventus box, past what was left of their defence. As he took the ball round Peruzzi, the goalkeeper dragged him down, but Cole slipped the ball into the empty net and the celebrations began.

Juventus (4-4-1-1): A Peruzzi - A Birindelli (sub: P Montero, 46min), M Iuliano, C Ferrara, G Pessotto - A Conte, D Deschamps, E Davids, A Di Livio (sub: D Fonseca, 80) - Z Zidane - F Inzaghi.

Manchester United (4-4-2): P Schmeichel - G Neville, R Johnsen, J Stam, D Irwin - D Beckham, R Keane, N Butt, J Blomqvist (sub: P Scholes, 68) - A Cole, D Yorke.

Referee: U Meier (Switzerland).