The group stages of the UEFA Champions league is almost here and most football fans cannot wait to get a glimpse of the best clubs in Europe taking on one another. While Manchester United are back in the premier European competition, their city neighbours Manchester City have again been put into a tough draw. Arsenal as well have gotten a decent draw but have to play Bayern Munich in the group stages.
The Champions League has had a great number of amazing finals, especially with nail-biting finishes and we look at some of the most recent Champions League finals victories with English clubs edging out their opponents.
The day that Liverpool rose from the ashes and proved their European pedigree once again, no one expected the English club to do much against a powerhouse AC Milan team which featured Dida, Cafu, Pirlo, Gattuso, Shevchenko, Kaka, Maldini and Crespo, to name a few. It got even worse for Liverpool who ended the first half 3-0 down but Rafa Benitez pulled off a master stroke by bringing in Didi Hamann and that led to a six minute madness as Liverpool scored thrice to level the game in the second half.
The game went to extra time and it was the Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, who somehow kept Shevchenko out at point blank range. The Polish goalkeeper then did his bit by saving crucial penalties in the penalty shootout and gave Liverpool their fifth European crown and also led to Steven Gerrard staying at the club, after he rejected advances from Chelsea back then. This is called as the greatest final ever to have taken place in the Champions League era, certainly a match worth seeing again and again, especially if you are a Liverpool fan.
For the first time in the history of the competition, two English clubs played the final and only the third time two clubs from the same country had played in the final. This was the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, while this final was Manchester United’s third, it was Chelsea’s first and one they would never forget.
The game had a lot of drama but that was reserved for extra time, Cristiano Ronaldo scored for United after a cross from Wes Brown but Frank Lampard equalised for the Blues before half time. The rest of the game went without much incidents until Didier Drogba was sent off for slapping Nemanja Vidic. The game went all the way to penalty shootouts and this is where everything went wrong for Chelsea.
After the first four penalties went in, it was Cristiano Ronaldo who missed. Chelsea were tied 4-4 in the shootout and John Terry had the chance to win it with the final kick but his shot struck the post and the teams then went into sudden death. Nicolas Anelka saw his shot saved by Edwin van der Sar, which gave Manchester United their third European Cup.
Chelsea returned to the big stage still hurting from their loss in 2008 while Bayern Munich were playing at home in their ninth appearance in a European final, after losing in the 2010 final. The game was a tense affair as Bayern were backed by a vociferous home crowd and Chelsea were looking to continue their great run after defeating the previous Champions Barcelona, en route to the final.
It was Bayern who took the lead thanks to an 84th minute goal by Thomas Muller but Chelsea were not going down without a fight as Didier Drogba equalised for the Blues in the 88th minute. The game then went into extra time and Bayern had the chance to take the lead but Arjen Robben saw his penalty saved by Petr Cech. The teams couldn’t break the deadlock and the game went to penalties.
This was Petr Cech’s time to shine as he saved two penalties from Olic and Schweinsteiger before Didier Drogba scored the important penalty to give Chelsea and London their first Champions League victory.
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