Chouffke was right! Why didn't he place a bet.... :-)

(pic Belga)
SHAUN CUSTIS
(aet: 1-1, United win 6-5 on pens)


Published: 21 May 2008

CRISTIANO RONALDO knows he could have been the man in pieces this morning.

Instead, he is waking up a Champions League winner and it is Chelsea skipper John Terry left in bits.
When Ronaldo’s nervy third penalty for Manchester United in a dramatic sudden-death shootout was saved by Petr Cech, the double Footballer of the Year seemed to have destroyed a brilliant season.
Questions had been asked about whether he could do it on the biggest stage and he had apparently blown it when it really mattered.

With Chelsea hammering in their first four penalties, lionheart defender Terry was one kick away from the greatest moment of his career as he stepped up to take his team’s fifth spot-kick with the clock ticking past 1.30am in the Luzhniki Stadium.


All Terry had to do was put the ball in the net from 12 yards and the cup with the big ears would be the Londoners’ for the first time in their history.
It is a chance players dream about. But few ever get the opportunity to make that dream come true.
With rain pelting down, Terry stepped up to the ball and, just before he connected, his left foot gave way on the uneven pitch.
His shot skewed off the outside of United keeper Edwin Van der Sar’s left post and agonisingly wide.
It was reminiscent of David Beckham’s miss when England lost on penalties to host nation Portugal at Euro 2004. Just as it was for Becks, it turned out a nightmare for Terry.

The kicks then went to sudden death and, after Anderson and Salomon Kalou had scored, Ryan Giggs coolly slotted home on his record-breaking 759th United appearance to make it 6-5.
Nicolas Anelka had to score to keep the Blues alive but his kick was superbly saved by the veteran Van der Sar diving to his right. Cue mayhem in the United end where the penalties were taken, as the players raced to engulf their Dutch hero.

They were minus only a mightily relieved Ronaldo, who was lying face down on the halfway line with his emotions having got the better of him.
Manager Alex Ferguson danced a jig as he celebrated a second Champions League success to go with that of 1999 and another magnificent Double.

Maybe it was always meant to be that United should succeed 50 years after the Munich air disaster.
Meanwhile, emotions of a different kind were overwhelming the Chelsea players. Terry was inconsolable. No player should have to go through the pain he suffered.
He did not deserve such a fate after a superb performance at the back which had taken his team to the brink of that first-ever triumph in a Champions League final.
United’s young team are now looking forward to years of success, as they grow into maturity. It will be carnage at Chelsea, though, with manager Avram Grant probably losing his job and the likes of striker Didier Drogba leaving the club.Drogba was not even around to take a penalty in the shootout, having been sent off for slapping Nemanja Vidic with six minutes left.


In fact, Terry would not have stepped up for that decisive kick had Drogba still been on the field.


This final never looked like it would go to penalties, because United so dominated the first half they should have been out of sight by half-time.


But Chelsea were on top from then on and were desperately unlucky to hit the woodwork twice.


United took the lead on 26 minutes. Wes Brown, an unsung hero at Old Trafford, combined with Paul Scholes, who missed out on the triumph in Barcelona nine years ago through suspension.


Scholes’ genius unlocked the space for Brown on the right and his deep cross found Ronaldo, who climbed high above a static Michael Essien to head into the corner for his 42nd goal of the season.


Chelsea almost equalised seven minutes later. Drogba nodded down Frank Lampard’s pass and Rio Ferdinand, under fierce pressure from Michael Ballack, headed at his own keeper Van der Sar. The Dutchman just managed to paw the ball away.



It then took the brilliance of Cech to stop Chelsea going two down.


Ronaldo crossed for Carlos Tevez, whose diving header was saved by Cech low down.





FRANK YOU ... Chelsea ace Frank Lampard levels

As the ball ran loose, Michael Carrick smashed in a shot and Cech recovered to thrust out his right hand and turn it round his right post. Holes were opening up all over the Blues’ defence and Tevez, sliding in, could not get a proper contact on Wayne Rooney’s skidding cross from seven yards.

Right on half-time, Chelsea were back in it. Essien’s drive hit Vidic and Ferdinand before bouncing obligingly across to Lampard, who clipped a left-foot effort past Van der Sar.

Lampard raced away and raised both arms to the heavens, where his mum Pat, who died so tragically only a month ago, was looking down and willing her boy on.

Chelsea could have been out of it, yet now it felt like the psychological edge was with them.
Grant’s men came within a coat of paint of grabbing the lead with 12 minutes remaining after great work by Drogba.

He shrugged off three challenges before whipping a 25-yard, right-foot drive beyond Van der Sar and away off a post.

Chelsea also hit the bar in extra-time. Lampard turned beautifully, clipped his shot over Van der Sar and put his head in his hands as the ball bounced to safety.

Then Terry headed away a Giggs strike which was going in, only for his night to end in misery soon after.

But United have been England’s best team this season. They thoroughly deserve their reward.


(The Sun)