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#3 John Terry’s infamous slip at Moscow (2008)
Venue: Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow
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Final Scoreline: Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea (United won 6-5 on penalties)
The 2007/08 Champions League season was dominated by the Premier League sides, with three of the four semi-final slots being taken up by English clubs. Hence, it came as no surprise when the 2008 final was an all-English affair.
Despite parting company with Jose Mourinho earlier in the season, Chelsea under the stewardship of Avram Grant, had managed to recover and finished second in the league, behind Manchester United, who were also their opponents in the 2009 UCL final.
That said, both teams were rich in quality. While the Red Devils boasted the likes of Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Ronaldo & Wayne Rooney, the Blues possessed John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard & Didier Drogba in the opposition ranks. The game promised to be a cracking affair, but at the end of 120 minutes, it boiled down to an unfortunate slip to decide the winner of the Champions League.
Manchester United started on the front foot and in the 26th minute went ahead through a towering Ronaldo header. Despite dominating the first half, Chelsea scored just before the break as Frank Lampard toe-poked his shot past van der Sar.
After a frantic first half, the second half witnessed mostly speculative efforts from both sides, neither of which tested the goalkeepers. The game finally went into penalties despite a red-card for Drogba in extra time.
Ferdinand won the toss and opted to go first. The first four penalties were converted by Carlos Tevez, Michael Carrick (both for United), Michael Ballack and Juliano Belletti (both for Chelsea), with neither keeper coming close to saving any of the spot-kicks.
Ronaldo stepped up next but his spot-kick was easily saved by Petr Cech. With no one missing the next set of penalties, it was Chelsea captain Terry’s chance to etch his name into the Chelsea history books.
As he stepped up to take the penalty, the English defender unfortunately lost his footing and his resulting shot agonizingly hit the post and went wide. The image of the English defender, sitting on the penalty spot, seemingly aghast still reverberates around Stamford Bridge today.
In sudden death, Nikolas Anelka missed the crucial spot-kick that handed United the Champions League trophy.
Fortunately for the defender and the Chelsea faithful though, the Blues would go on to lift the holy grail of European football in 2012 under his leadership, thereby burying the ghosts of Moscow.
#2 Manchester United’s seemingly impossible comeback to seal the treble (1999)
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona
Final Scoreline: Manchester United 2-1 Bayern Munich
Remarkably, in the 1999 UCL final, Bayern Munich somehow managed to lose a game they dominated for 90 minutes. Coming into the encounter, the Red Devils had already wrapped up the Premier League and the FA Cup and were on the verge of securing a historic treble.
However, with United’s midfield duo of Paul Scholes and Roy Keane suspended for the game, Bayern started as slight favourites. And, it certainly panned out that way.
Mario Basler rifled in a free-kick from the edge of the box in the 6th minute and it was one-way traffic thereafter. Despite dominating possession, United were sorely missing the determination and creative abilities of the Keane-Scholes partnership.
Bayern piled on the pressure and the Red Devils were extremely lucky to not fall further behind. Such was the Bavarians' dominance that Ferguson’s men barely managed to venture into the opposition penalty area.
As the referee’s board went up for 3 additional minutes, United won a rare corner. After an in-swinging corner by David Beckham, the ball pin-balled inside the box before Ryan Giggs’ tame effort from the edge of the box looked to be rolling straight into the arms of Oliver Kahn. However, recognizing the chance to score, Teddy Sheringham, who had come on as a substitute, turned in the incoming shot past the helpless goalkeeper and United fans went into delirium. That wasn’t going to be the end of the story though.
Into the 3rd minute of stoppage time, United won another corner. Once again, Beckham delivered the cross and Sheringham won his header at the near post and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer threw out a boot towards the trajectory of the ball and it remarkably rifled into the roof of the net.
United had pulled off a heist that no one saw coming. The game is never won until the final whistle is blown and that is lesson the Bayern players learnt the hard way at the Camp Nou.
Also Read: All Champions League winners by year
