Rant about football

OK, so not as many as the scouse buggers, but let’s face it, that’s all they’ve got left to cling on to these days.

1968: Man Utd 4-1 Benfica

British rule extended into a second season in 1967/68, as Manchester United marked the tenth anniversary of the Munich air tragedy by lifting the European Champion Clubs’ Cup against Benfica in London. United had picked up the gauntlet after holders Celtic had lost to Dynamo Kyiv in the first round. They beat Hibernian, FK Sarajevo, Górnik Zabrze and Real Madrid on the road to Wembley, surviving a number of scares along the way.

Matt Busby’s side failed to win a single away game, a statistic that almost cost them dear in the semi-finals. Three-one down in the return leg in Madrid, United were facing a fourth defeat at this stage of the competition until late strikes by David Sadler and Bill Foulkes carried them through, 4-3 on aggregate.

Benfica, meanwhile, had been the first team to win a tie on the new away goals’ rule. This helped them past Glentoran in the first round, before further wins against Saint-Etienne, Vasas and Juventus, 3-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals. However, Portuguese luck ran out in the final at Wembley, just as it had two years earlier in Portugal¹s FIFA World Cup semi-final against England. Alex Stepney’s late save from Eusébio sent the match into extra time after Jaime Graça had cancelled out Bobby Charlton’s 54th-minute opener. And when Munich survivor Charlton struck for a second time, the result was beyond doubt, goals from George Best and Brian Kidd merely icing United’s cake.

1999: Man Utd 2-1 Bayern Munich

The 1998-99 season of the UEFA Champions League football club tournament was won by Manchester United, coming back from a goal down in the last two minutes of injury time to defeat Bayern Munich 2-1 in a memorable final. Manchester United also completed the treble, and became the fourth side in Europe to do so, a feat they prevented Bayern Munich from achieving themselves by leaving Camp Nou victorious. Also, they managed to win the trophy without losing a single game, even though they faced the so called group of Death with Bayern Munich and Barcelona, and two Italian teams in the Knockout stages.

2008: Man Utd 1-1 Chelsea (6-5 on pens)

The 2008 UEFA Champions League Final took place on Wednesday, 21st May 2008. The match was played at the Luzhniki Stadium, home ground of Torpedo and Spartak Moscow, in Moscow, Russia, to determine the winner of the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League. The final was contested by Manchester United and Chelsea, making it an all-English club final for the first time in European Cup/Champions League history. This was only the third time two clubs from the same country contested the final – the others being the 2000 and 2003 finals. The game was won by Manchester United 6–5 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw following extra time.

In a series of coincidences, in the week during which Manchester United qualified for this Final in Russia, Russian side Zenit St Petersburg won the 2008 UEFA Cup Final at the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England. This saw the Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich bring Chelsea to the first European Cup final staged in Russia. The Moscow location made this the easternmost final in the tournament’s history. It was also Chelsea’s first European Cup final in their history. The significance for United was that 2008 marked the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, and the 40th anniversary of United’s first European Cup triumph in 1968.

Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring after 26 minutes. An interchange of passes between Paul Scholes and Wes Brown after a throw-in on the right flank gave Brown time to pick out a cross for Ronaldo, who directed his header past Petr Čech. Chelsea almost equalised in the 33rd minute when Frank Lampard’s cross was headed back into the six-yard box by Didier Drogba. United’s Rio Ferdinand, under pressure from Michael Ballack, was forced to head the ball towards his own goal and Edwin van der Sar pulled off a save to deny Chelsea a goal. United spent the rest of the first half pressing for a second goal, and had two good opportunities to extend their lead, but were denied by a double-save from Čech. Wayne Rooney delivered a long ball into the path of Ronaldo and the United goalscorer placed his cross on the head of the diving Tévez only for Čech to deny him. Chelsea’s failure to clear the loose ball gave Michael Carrick the chance to extend their lead but again Čech was equal to the task with another fine save.

Chelsea survived the pressure and equalised in the dying minutes of the first half. The goal followed from a long range shot by Michael Essien, being deflected first off Nemanja Vidić and then Rio Ferdinand. The ball’s change in direction caused Edwin van der Sar to lose his footing, leaving Lampard, who had made the run from deep, with a simple finish.

Lampard’s equaliser coming at the end of the first half led to a transformed Chelsea in the second half. Chelsea kept United on the back foot for long periods. Nevertheless, they managed to contain most of Chelsea’s attacks. Chelsea had a few opportunities to take the lead, with Essien breaking free of United’s defence in the 54th minute, only to blast his shot too high. Michael Ballack also sent his long shot just off target. Chelsea’s closest opportunity to take the lead came in the 77th minute when a Didier Drogba shot struck the post from 20 yards (18 m) out. Drogba went very close to convert Joe Cole’s low cross home for the winner four minutes from time, but blasted wide. Ryan Giggs was then introduced in place of Scholes, making a record 759th appearance for Manchester United.

The game moved into extra time, and the thrilling pace was maintained throughout. Both teams had chances to score a vital second goal, with a Lampard left-footer hitting the underside of the crossbar and Ryan Giggs having a shot headed off the line by Terry. Following a fracas involving most of the 22 players and the match officials, Didier Drogba became only the second player in history to be sent off in a European Cup Final – the first being Arsenal’s goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in 2006 – for a slap on Vidić.

Rio Ferdinand won the toss of the coin, and opted for United to go first in the shootout. Carlos Tévez stepped up first and sent Čech the wrong way. Ballack was next up, shooting powerfully past van der Sar. Carrick buried his spot-kick, as did Juliano Belletti with his first touch of the game. The first miss of the shootout came from Ronaldo, who stuttered in his run-up but Čech dived to his right to save. Lampard then put Chelsea 3-2 ahead. Owen Hargreaves levelled things up with a shot into the top corner. Ashley Cole was the next up, and van der Sar got a strong hand to the ball but couldn’t keep the ball out. Nani then knew that he had to score to keep United in it, and he did it just. Thus it was all up to John Terry to win the Cup for Chelsea. However, Terry lost his footing when planting his standing foot by the ball and, even though Edwin van der Sar was sent the wrong way, Terry’s mis-hit effort hit the outside of the right post and went wide.

Anderson scored the first penalty in sudden death. Salomon Kalou then sent van der Sar the wrong way to make it 5-5. Giggs was next up and he was also successful. Van der Sar then pulled off the crucial save for United by distracting Nicolas Anelka when he pointed to his left (Chelsea’s penalties were all attempted on van der Sar’s left side of the goal), but correctly dived to his right to deny Anelka, securing United European football’s top prize for the third time in their history.