Kings of Europe

Manchester United conquered Europe in 2008 on a rainy night in Moscow

Fate. That's the word to describe the events that had transpired in the Luzhniki Stadium. First, Champions of England and now, Kings of Europe. United went from heaven, to hell and further down hell again and then bursting back to glory again in a dramatic twist of events.

United's starting line up is probably the best 11 available to Fergie. There are no disputes regarding who should lead the attack or who should be at the back. The tricky selection is at the midfield, especially at the flanks, left to be precise. At this point in time, Giggs no longer starts at the left as he is used to and he is now more of a sub. Many would probably be wondering whether Park Ji Sung or Nani would be placed there instead. In the end, it looks like Fergie decided to deploy Hargreaves at his secondary role at the right since he has performed rather well in that area for the past few Champions League games. Not only that, he could help out with Brown to shut down Malouda. Ronaldo is placed on the left hand side, and it ain't a problem for him since he is versatile enough to play in any of the flanks. Hargreaves definitely has to be in the starting 11 since he is the other player other than van der Sar and Giggs to have played in a final. I'm really pleased with the way Fergie had arranged his starting 11.

Chelsea on the other hand played Drogba as the solo striker and being supported by a center midfield trio of Makalele, Ballack and Lampard. These 3 dominated the midfield extremely well with their outstanding physical strength and stamina and it's not surprising that these 3 would overrun Carrick and Scholes very easily. I was rather surprised by the inclusion of Malouda because he hasn't really played that frequently in the season, so there are some problems with his match fitness.

I would say the first 30 minutes of the game is controlled very well by Man Utd. There were some nice attempts, but just that the finishing is not there. Chelsea's control of the centre midfield is extremely overpowering and the only way United could attack is focusing on the flanks and floating the ball into the box for a header. In this game, Ronaldo really worked his socks off to provide vital crosses but it always end up with Hargreaves trying to knock it in with his head. Hargreaves is not well-known for his heading and so, these chances ended up wasted. But Hargreaves did provide a decent attacking build up in his flank too. In the 26th minute, a brilliant one-two exchange between Brown and Scholes resulted in a beautiful cross into the box in which an unmarked Ronaldo gleefully headed it past Cech. Essien was the guilty party there for ball watching and not putting the pressure onto Ronaldo. When Ronaldo is unmarked, you can be sure that the Portugese maestro would work something out of it.

Just before the half-time whistle was blown, Chelsea capitalised on some poor communication and mistake of Man Utd's defence to equalize. Van der Sar had a slight slip on the grass and was just fractionally off to stop Lampard from putting one in. Of course, Ferdinand's desperate sliding effort was futile. It's not the first time that Ferdinand and van der Sar got confused with each other..haha but still, Man Utd has the best defence in the league :) At the second half, Chelsea looked refreshed with determination and kept bringing the game to Man Utd. This is the difficult thing when playing against Chelsea cos teams really can't kill off the Blues. Dudes like Arse-nal concede defeat when they felt that their current opponents are pawning them. Not Chelsea. They can be 10 man down or 2 goals down, but they won't stop fighting until the 90 minutes is up. They are mentally resillient (even more than Man Utd at times) to the point that you'll probably ask "why can't they just die and get it over with?". Cech was fantastic between the post and it was clear that his superb handling stopped a two consecutive vicious shots chance by United. If anyone else had been at the post other than him, Chelsea would have been 0-2 down.

Both sides could not find a way past each other at the end of 90 minutes and it went to extra time and even after extra time, nobody could get the extra goal. Chelsea went close a few times and United would have certainly scored the winning goal had it not been bravely headed away by Terry. And yes, towards the end of extra time, something stupid just had to happen. It's a face off between the two biggest men on the pitch Vidic and Drogba and there is no love lost between them..lol. I was kinda worried with Vidic getting involved there because he had already picked up a yellow card. However, it was not him who gets the red marching orders. It was Drogba being sent off for a second yellow on something that is quite noob or even childish- a bitch slap on Vidic. This meant that with the match heading to penalties, Chelsea had lost a viable taker.

Like most of the previous seasons, it's difficult to separate Man Utd and Chelsea. It has to come to the dreaded penalty shootout. Tevez and Carrick (he whacked the ball well this time..yay!) converted it well for the first two. When it came to Ronaldo, I just had this shitty feeling that he'll miss or shoot straight at the keeper to box it away. And I was right. At that point of time, United fans were desperately hopeful that van der Sar could at least save one or that Chelsea make a mistake. No such opportunity and when it came down to Chelsea's 5th taker, it was 90% sure that United would definitely lose the title as the 5th taker just needs to beat the keeper to finish the game once and for all. It was in Chelsea's hands with just a few metres away. Ronaldo is already crestfallen, head hung in shame for that horrible miss and would have trouble forgiving himself for that mistake. He could only hope a miracle to redeem his mistake. Terry steps up to deliver the final blow, a symbolic gesture where many past sides have always done to put the captain there for the final kill. BUT he missed........with the ball whacking the post and away. United fans all over the world looked at disbelief at the sudden lifeline provided. A glimmer of hope has emerged and this drama just gets more interesting. 5 shots and still even at the end! It's penalty shootout sudden death style now. It was a relief for Utd fans whenever a Red Shirt converted his chance. Somebody has got to be the "bad" guy and the hero in the shootout and that unfortunate honour of bad guy fell to Anelka as van der Sar brilliantly punched and deflected the ball away. The tall Dutch has done it again! The hero of Old Trafford! What a drama! What a poetic finale yet again by Man Utd. They just had to win it the hard and special way :)

Chelsea hit the woodwork twice with van der Sar clearly beaten on that two occasions. That's really tragic and as I've said from the beginning, it's really fate. I'm very sure that Terry wasn't supposed to be on the list as the 5th taker and this was confirmed by Ten Cate in an interview. The planned script of symbolism didn't turn out well for Chelsea and they were made to pay for it. The question of course being asked is that if Drogba had still being on field, would Terry be even taking the shot? It's also tragic on Terry's part that the captain had to play as one of the bad guys in the penalty shootout. Lol, there is no doubt that Ronaldo would be so so so relieved that he got away with it and not having something to haunt him for the rest of his career. For Ronaldo, the question would be, would United fans remember him for the beautiful and vital goal that he scored in the first half or his failure to convert his chance in the penalty shootout? For me, I would rather remember and pay credit to the Portugese maestro for his goal since without it, Man Utd wouldn't even be shooting penalties.

Unlike Chelsea, Man Utd's romantic reverence for symbolism was further enhanced with this epic victory. The Busby Babes would have been proud of this United team for their European achievements. It's a fitting tribute for those that passed away in the Munich disaster 50 years ago, a proud moment for members of Busby's first European champions squad 40 years ago in 1968 and it was approximately 10 years since Fergie first tasted European victory. Paul Scholes was battered hard on his face early on in the game but the veteran was determined to remain on the field to enjoy the moment as much as possible. Ryan Giggs achieved his 759th appearance and he did his part for United's victory by scoring the last penalty kick to ensure that van der Sar's save meant something. As van der Sar punched Anelka's shot away, he screamed and raised his arms in celebration while the rest of the United team skidded across the pitch in jubilation. Under the raining sky in Moscow, Manchester United lifted Europe in their hands.