Glory Glory Man United!

Last night’s all England UEFA Champions League final lived up to the hype and expectations. There was pre-match concern that both teams would cancel each other out and play out a dull 1-0 affair like last season’s FA Cup final. But it was a great spectacle and a very exciting match to watch.

There were pre match nerves in the faces of some of the most experienced players.

Man Utd started the brighter, with Ronaldo quite obviously playing on the left to exploit Chelsea’s weakest defensive link, Michael Essien. And though it was very much one way traffic it took them 26 minutes to take the lead. Owen Hargreaves sublime cross was met by a brilliantly placed header by Ronaldo, who had again lost Essien.

Manchester United completely dominated the first half and had two more clear chances, which if taken would have put the game to bed. As it was Essien took a chance in forgetting his defensive duties and shot from outside the Man Utd penalty box. The shot took a deflection which fell nicely for Frank Lampard to equalise just before half time against the run of play.

In the second half, Chelsea were the dominant force as they penned Man Utd back in their own half. The difference was the midfield battle was being won by Lampard, Ballack and Makele, whereas in the in the first half the game was being controlled by Carrick and Scholes.

Although Chelsea dominated they didn’t have many shots at goal, apart from a quick fire shot fromDrogba that beat Edwin Van Der Sar, but hit the post.

The game went to extra time, and with cramp appearing all over the pitch, became very stretched. Lampard beat Van Der Sar, only to hit the crossbar; and with three minutes to go tempers bolied over as Carlos Tevez didn’t pass the ball back to Chelsea after it had been kiced out of play while a player received some treatment. Tempers erupted and the result was a yellow card for Tevez and a red card for Drogba, who tapped Vidic on the cheek in front of the referee.

With the game almost certainly moving towards penalties, Drogba had no reason to get sent off and in doing so stopped Chelsea mounting one last attack, and denied them of his spot-taking quality.

Man Utd won 6-5 in a nail-biting penalty shoot-out with Cech saving Ronaldo’s penalty. It finally left John Terry to score to win the Champions League for Chelsea but he slipped and hit the post. When Anelka’s penalty was saved by Van Der Sar it meant Manchester United were champions of Europe for the third time. Chelsea leave with nothing.