On March 19, 2012, The UEFA Finals were held in Munich, Germany. The UEFA Championship Cup is one of the most prestigious trophies in the continent of Europe. The two teams that were playing was Chelsea from England and Bayern Munich from Germany. Many people believed that Bayern Munich was going to win the match since they are the best soccer [football] team in Germany and Chelsea was the under-dog due to their 6th place finish in the Barclays Premier League. Chelsea did however suprise the world when they beat FC Barcelona (arguably the best football club in the world) in the semi-finals. The Barclays Premier League consist of 20 football clubs [teams] in England and Wales. They were down 4 players due to suspensions so they had to play their subs.
2 minutes after kickoff, Bayern Munich's Center Midfielder, Bastian Schweinsteiger earns a yellow card for a handball which leads to a free kick. It is poor and gets headed away by Chelsea. 5 minutes in, Bayern Munich is the first to attempt a goal. The first half of the game (45 minutes) goes by without a single goal. After most of the second half goes by, Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller (Center Attacking Midfielder) scores with a header that bounces off the ground and over goalkeeper Petr Cech at the 84th minute. Chelsea looks as if they might lose with only 6 minutes to go. At the 88th minute, Chelsea's forward center, Fernando Torres has two Bayern players on him and one of them kicks the ball out of bounds which gives Chelsea a free kick. Chelsea's Juan Mata kicks the ball which connects with Didier Drogba (forward) and scores a goal for Chelsea which ties up the with 2 minutes left.
The game goes into extra time and on the 93rd minute, Bayern Munich earns a penalty kick due to Drogba's tackle from behind. Drogba is booked for a yellow card. At the 95th minute, Bayern Munich's midfielder, Arjen Robben steps up to take the penalty shot, but it is kept out by Petr Cech. Nobody scores in extra time, so now it is down to the penalty shootout. Each team is given 5 penalty shots for the shootout. Bayern scores the first goal while Chelsea misses theirs. Bayern scores another goal while Chelsea lands their first goal. Bayern scores a third goal along with Chelsea's second goal. Cech is able to make a save which prevents Bayern from scoring a fourth goal. Chelsea is able to produce another goal which evens up the score. Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich) kicks the ball and Cech misses the catch, but it bounces off the post and rolls away leaving Schweinsteiger completely shattered. The score is Bayern 3-3 Chelsea and it is all down to Didier Drogba. Drogba kicks, goalkeeper Manual Neuer dives to the right, but the ball goes left and lands in the goal giving Chelsea the victory. Drogba's game winning goal was bitter-sweet since that was possibly his last match being on Chelsea since his contract is due to run out soon. It is not clear on whether it will be renewed.
Many Munich fans will argue that Chelsea rode on their luck throughout the entire game, but the Chelsea fans will say that it was the defense that held back Munich. Either way you look at it, a win is a win. To add more salt to their wounds, Chelsea defeated them in their own stadium.
It was a good game...But I still think Chelsea was lucky.
ReplyDeleteNice article, though.