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19.05.2012 – This date will hold a special feeling for all Chelsea fans. This was the day Chelsea won the Champions League for the first time in the history of the club. Winning this prestigious tournament is always a great feeling, but it is the repeated failures Chelsea experienced for the best part of 10 years that made this victory really special.
Jose Mourinho has recalled those experiences and has said that Chelsea deserved to win the Champions League. Under Claudio Ranieri and Mourinho, Chelsea experienced several heartbreaks in the semifinals of the competition. Heartbreaks in the semi-final, though, were only a taste of bigger things to come.
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Speaking to the official site, Mourinho said:
“For me the important thing is that Chelsea had a dream, and the dream became true by winning the Champions League two years ago.
“My feeling was that Chelsea, not specifically in that year, but all over the years, Chelsea Football Club and the players, the owner, and the fans, deserved to win it.
“When Chelsea won the Champions League, they probably did it in a year nobody was expecting. The fact they did it, it was justice for a club and players that did so much to touch that cup.”
There was the extraordinary 2008 Champions League final that will always be a thorn in the heart. On a similar level of pain was the cruel exit suffered at the hands of Barcelona in 2009. The injury time winner from Iniesta and the several penalty appeals turned down by Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo is still in the mind.
For all the disappointments, we kept hoping that someday the Champions League trophy would come to Stamford Bridge. There is great line in the movie ’The Shawshank Redemption’:
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
Finally, that dream came true in 2012. Munich saw the scenes of wild celebrations from Chelsea fans. Chelsea may go on to win several trophies and maybe the Champions League in the future as well. However, the victory in 2012 will always remain SPECIAL.
