The season 2011-12 officially came to an end with Chelsea
and City claiming the glory. The season had lots of twists and turns.
The Premier league winner was decided in the final few
minutes, big guns like United and City being eliminated from the Champions
league without even qualifying for the round of sixteen, clubs like Newcastle and Spurs finishing above
Chelsea etc.
I wouldn’t include Liverpool here cause they have been performing bad
consistently, wait probably I might include their Carling Cup victory.
The Blues started their campaign this season under a new
manger, Andre Vilas Boas, who seemed promising and vibrant. AVB started off by
winning the Barclays Asian Trophy with a victory over Aston Villa. The BPL
begun for the blues with a draw against Stoke in an away game. Four months
into the season, Chelsea was fourth in the table and AVB heavily scrutinized.
After a couple of bad performances, Chelsea dropped a position and was fifth in
the table. With the Premier League out of the vision, qualifying for the
Champions league became an issue. Owing to these problems, AVB was sacked on
March 4. It was Roberto Di Matteo’s job
eventually, interim manager. He stepped into the shoes of Vilas Boas and took the responsibility. He started off as the Manager for the club having securing a
Semi-final spot against the mighty Barcelona with a victory over Benifica in
the Champions league.
The first leg of the Semi-final took place at the bridge.
Chelsea started with a defensive formation ultimately to play the entire match
preventing Barcelona from scoring after securing a lead in the 45+2min. With a
1-0 victory at the bridge, they marched into the second leg at the Camp Nou.
Chelsea was completely dominated upon. Everything was going against Chelsea’s
way till the 40th min, a controversial red card for the Chelsea
Captain John Terry and two quick goals from Busquets and Iniesta. It takes
special stuff for a team down to 10 men trailing 2-0 to produce something
sensational. In the 45+1 min, Ramires
equalized the margin with Chelsea having an away goal advantage. Petr Cech was
put to test continuously by the Barcelona attack. In the 90+2 min, Fernando
Torres took a long run and rounded the keeper scoring a winner confirming a
ticket to Munich. Beating Barcelona was not only secured them a finals spot but
also got their revenge for the 2009 Champions league Fiasco.
Chelsea was to play Bayern Munich in the final at Munich.
With Terry, Ivanovic, Ramires and Meireles out of action due to suspension and
doubts over Luiz and Cahill due to injury, the odds were against Chelsea. A
week before the match it was declared that Luiz and Cahill were fit and were
set to return.
There was a ray of hope for the fans as the whistle was
blown signifying the start of the match. Again Chelsea was being dominated upon
with Bayern having the maximum possession, number of shots, corners etc. The
first half ended nil-nil. The second half saw no difference; Bayern was
helplessly trying to break the Chelsea defense which they finally succeeded in
the 82nd min with a brilliant finish from the German ace Thomas
Muller. With only 7 minutes on the clock, it was thought this was the end for
Londoners until the 87th min. With a fabulous header Didier Drogba
silenced the Bayern fans.
1-1 at the end of the 90 minutes.
The game went into extra time with each team trying to
capitalize on their opponent’s mistake. Drogba gave away a penalty after a poor
tackle on Frank Ribery. Robben failed to use this opportunity to take the lead
for with Petr Cech producing a good save. With no goals in the extra time, the
game went to penalty shoot-out.
Bayern Captain Phillip Lahm started off with a good strike
taking a lead. Juan Mata stood in front of Neuer with lot of boos from the
Bayern fans. He failed to score with his shot being saved. Next to strike for
Bayern was Gomez. He made no mistake. Then smashed David Luiz in the top left
corner. Neuer scored a sitter and in response the Chelsea stalwart Lampard sent
the ball straight down the middle. Then Cech made no mistake producing a fabulous
save to prevent olic from scoring. Ashley cole equalized sending the ball to
the low left corner. The scores being level with each team having a kick more,
in walked the star against Madrid, Bastian Schweinsteiger,
only to hit the post. Walking to the D box to take the decider kick was the Ivory Coast
forward Dider Drogba.
// I was praying,
holding hands with the fellow fans with sweat and tear dripping, hand shivering
as Drogba took steps. //
The Ivorian coolly placed the ball low and into the bottom
right-hand corner as Manuel Neuer was deceived and dived the wrong way. Chelsea were
crowned the European Champions 2011-12 being the first club from London and the
fifth English club to have their name in the cup.
What a night it was!
The season was a
complete chaos.
Finishing sixth in the Premier League, losing the carling cup, another manager sent off,
Yet after all this a champions
league, F.A. Cup Double.
t was said that Bayern was the team that dominated throughout the match and missed a lot of chances and that they were not lucky. Moreover players like Thomas Muller claimed that it was they who deserved to win and that the deserving team never wins.
Well Bayern might have dominated throughout but ultimately what matters is the final result. Okay they had loads of chances and they missed sitters.
But who cares. This just shows they just didn't deserve to win.
KTBFFH.
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