O'Leary's young Leeds reach a European semi-final, and two supporters are killed in Istanbul

A few weeks into the 1998–99 season, George Graham left Leeds United to manage Tottenham Hotspur. He had replaced Howard Wilkinson two years earlier, finished 11th in his first season and fifth in his second, and qualified for the UEFA Cup.

Martin O'Neill of Leicester City was the favourite to replace him, but Leicester would not let him talk to Leeds and O'Neill stayed where he was. The job went to Graham's assistant instead. David O'Leary, the former Arsenal defender who had played 722 first-team games for that club, had been at Elland Road since September 1996. His first game as caretaker, on 3 October 1998, was a 1–0 home defeat by Leicester. After a goalless draw with Chelsea, also at Elland Road, the chairman, Peter Ridsdale, gave him the job permanently.

The kids

Leeds had won the FA Youth Cup in 1997, and O'Leary's squad was young. Jonathan Woodgate, Alan Smith, Stephen McPhail, Harry Kewell and Ian Harte all played their part in his first season. Kewell made 49 appearances and Harte 44. Smith played 26 games and scored nine goals, McPhail played 20, Woodgate ten, and Paul Robinson kept goal six times.

Smith's first appearance came at Anfield on 14 November 1998. He came on as a substitute and scored with his first shot, three minutes later. Leeds won 3–1.

Martin Hiden, an Austrian defender who had joined in January 1998, saw the change close up. "O'Leary adapted the style of play more to us players and was also much closer to us," he said. Of the squad he joined: "I was 24 years old at the time and I was already among the older players. I came at exactly the right time. When I came over, Alan Smith was still cleaning boots."

Leeds finished fourth with 67 points, and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was their top scorer with 18 league goals. In the summer he was sold to Atlético Madrid for £12 million. Michael Bridges came from Sunderland and scored 19 league goals in 1999–2000, and Kewell scored 17 in all competitions. The side that season had Nigel Martyn in goal, Lucas Radebe, Woodgate and Harte in defence, and Lee Bowyer and Eirik Bakke in midfield.

Into Europe

The UEFA Cup run began with wins home and away over Partizan Belgrade and Lokomotiv Moscow. Against Spartak Moscow Leeds lost the away leg 2–1, won 1–0 at Elland Road and went through on away goals.

In the fourth round they drew Roma. After a goalless first leg in Rome, the return at Elland Road on 9 March 2000 was settled by Kewell in the 67th minute with a rising shot that went in off the crossbar. Two Roma players, Antonio Carlos Zago and Vincent Candela, were sent off late on. "With a touch of panache," the Guardian reported, "Kewell further embellished his growing reputation throughout the continent with an extraordinary goal."

Slavia Prague were beaten 3–0 at Elland Road, and Leeds went through despite losing 2–1 in Prague. The semi-final opponents were Galatasaray.

Istanbul

On the night of 5 April 2000, the night before the first leg, two Leeds supporters, Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, were stabbed to death in Taksim Square in Istanbul. Both died of stab wounds to the chest.

"It wasn't until breakfast on the morning of the game that I was told people had lost their lives," O'Leary said twenty years later.

The game went ahead the following day at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium. Leeds supporters were told to stay in their hotels and were taken to the ground under police escort. Hakan Şükür scored after 12 minutes and Capone added a second before half-time, and Galatasaray won 2–0.

"Going into that stadium that night was like going into a war zone," O'Leary said. "I was thinking how needless the game was and because I wasn't focused on it and couldn't get them to focus, I remember thinking I'd failed them."

"Everything fell into perspective," O'Leary said. "No one cares about football or matches then, there was just a tremendous feeling of disappointment, such grief."

Elland Road

At home, supporters laid flowers, scarves and shirts at the gates of Elland Road, and a black armband was placed on the statue of Billy Bremner outside the ground. Before the league game against Arsenal at Elland Road that month there was a minute's silence, and the Arsenal players laid flowers at the four corners of the pitch.

Galatasaray's supporters were barred from the second leg, and UEFA backed the ban. It turned down Galatasaray's request to move the game to a neutral venue. When the teams met at Elland Road on 20 April, in front of 38,406, Leeds supporters turned their backs on the pitch during the first minute in protest.

Gheorghe Hagi scored a penalty after five minutes. Bakke equalised, and Hakan Şükür put Galatasaray ahead again. Before half-time Kewell and Galatasaray's Emre were both sent off. Bakke scored again in the second half, but the game finished 2–2 and Galatasaray went through 4–2 on aggregate. In Copenhagen on 17 May they drew 0–0 with Arsenal in the final and won the shoot-out 4–1, the first European trophy won by a Turkish club.

On 1 May 2002 a Turkish court jailed Ali Umit Demir for 15 years for the killings. The sentence was reduced from a possible 30 years because it was not clear that any one defendant was the sole cause of the deaths. Four other men were given sentences of three months and 22 days for their part in the fighting. The case went on through appeals and retrials for years afterwards. Leeds put up a brass plaque at Elland Road, and supporters mark the anniversary every year.

Third

Leeds finished the league season third, with 69 points, which took them into the Champions League.