Chelsea – Champions League Destiny or Fluke?
Last year’s Champions League defied form and logic. Following the exit of the two great Manchester clubs, many expected Barcelona and Real Madrid to meet in the ultimate showdown at the Allianz Arena. It wasn’t to be. The best teams did not come into the finals. Indeed, this was the first time in five years that the finalists were not the winners of their domestic leagues. Something other than form came in to picture when they defeated the Spanish sides: determination, desperation, defence, drama and perhaps even destiny.
While Bayern Munich did play some brilliant football and became runners up in the Bundesliga, Chelsea was nowhere close to the level one would expect from a Champions league finalist. Let’s face the facts, Chelsea finished sixth in their league and looked out of sorts throughout the season. After Chelsea lost 3-1 away to Napoli and Andre Villas-Boas was a sacked man walking, nobody gave the club even the smallest glimmer of hope of beating the Serie A side, let alone making it through to the next round.
Could they win the competition? At the time, no sane person could have placed their bets on them.
When the Blues played FC Barcelona in the semi-finals, a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge seemingly did nothing to suggest Chelsea had a chance of making the final. Most considered it home side advantage or at the most lack of seriousness on Barcelona’s part.
Barcelona is going to play in the Allianz Arena.
It was a prophecy that was virtually hundred percent true when Barca were 2-0 up, with John Terry sent off for Chelsea. Nobody believed the Blues would come back from the brink and do the unthinkable, apart from the manager and the players themselves, even if they were fighting that looming spectre of doubt.
And then, the unthinkable happened, after staying on the defensive for the whole match, Chelsea got a quick break where Ramires chipped the ball over Valdes to put Chelsea back in the match. After that Lady Luck seemed to stand right by their side that night. Barcelona completely controlled the game but Chelsea still survived wave after wave of attack. Adding credibility to the Fate theory, Lionel Messi missed a penalty and Fernando Torres sealed Barcelona’s doomed fate—quite possibly the most unlikely football scenario to ever happen, but happen it did.
Even then, despite defying all the odds to reach the final, still Chelsea were dismissed—knocked back as over-aged, overrated has-beens with virtually no chance of winning. But who could contradict that when Bayern Munich was theoretically a stronger team with better-performing stars and a much stronger league position. Plus they were playing the final at home.
And with just seven minutes to go in the final it certainly looked like Chelsea had finally read the script, with lacklustre man-marking and too much focus on Mario Gomez allowing Thomas Muller the chance to head home and put Bayern Munich 1-0 up.
At that point, the world thought that fate had finally closed its hands and Chelsea had finally been put back in their place. But no, unwanted Chelsea rose back yet again thanks to a towering, powerful and gloriously emphatic Didier Drogba header. His 88th minute equaliser kept that most unlikely dream remarkably alive.
When Bastian Schweinsteiger stepped up to take his penalty with Bayern 3-3 level it seemed like sudden death was around the corner. Smack! It hit the post and Chelsea was back in the shootout to go on and ultimately win it.
However, Chelsea’s win is a story of hope—no matter what the haters say, “impossible” is two letters too long.
After all, when Roberto Di Matteo took charge, who knew he’d go on to lead Chelsea to an FA Cup, and far more astonishingly, a UEFA Champions League title win? After all he was overlooked assistant to Andres Villa-Boas and was supposedly more hated than him. Like Chelsea themselves, the un-fancied part-time manager to deliver one trophy that even the likes of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Guus Hiddink and Luiz Felipe Scolari, amongst others, simply couldn’t provide.
Was it destiny? Perhaps.
Was it luck? Maybe.
Was it a fluke? A big no. It was perhaps a combination of luck, determination and strategy. After all which respectable side would go as low as have a ten man defence. But then that was the only way that Chelsea even had the slightest of chance against Barca.
When Didier Drogba was all but forgotten, it was a masterstroke by Di Matteo to reintroduce him. After all, he took upon the whole Barcelona defence on his own using his sheer physical strength.
Against Napoli they used skills, against Barcelona they employed physical strength and against Bayern Munich they played with determination. It was certainly no fluke but then it was definitely not about the best team as we know.
To leave on a cliché, and quote the fitting motto of Chelsea’s kit sponsor, as the world found out at the Allianz Arena in Munich—impossible is nothing.