The road to Munich was a very bumpy one for the Blues. Their manager, the young AVB, was sacked near the end of the Premiership season and in the midst of Champions League play, as well as the FA Cup tournament. That move payed off in huge dividends for the club from Stamford Bridge, as the care-taker manager Roberto Di Matteo was able to coalesce his individual talents into a unified group for the first time all season. His style was in sharp contrast to Villas-Boas', as he re-engaged his veterans like Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, by giving them more playing time. He realized right away that he had to mix the young with the old in order to get the most out of his club. He also stuck with Fernando Torres and continued to encourage him, then his form finally began to return (as evidenced by his massive late goal at the Camp Nou).
Chelsea manages to barely advance through the Group Stage into the Knockout Stage. Their toughest challenge (prior to Munich) by far came during the Semi-Final, when they drew the defending champions and arguably one of the best clubs in the history of the game, FC Barcelona. The 1st leg was absolutely controlled by Barca, with 80% ball possession and a huge shot advantage of 24 Barca shots to just 4 for Chelsea--but none of that seemed to matter, as the #11 Drogba only needed one look to slide the ball past Victor Valdes into the back of the net for a 1 nil Chelsea win heading back to the Camp Nou for the 2nd leg. Now even with Chelsea up 1 nil on goal aggregate, most keen observers still thought that Barca would prevail at home and score the 2 goals needed to advance to the Final--but no so fast, as Ramires had something to say about that, scoring a majestic chip-shot goal just before the stroke of half-time. This was after trailing 2-0 to the blaugrana, and it evened things up on aggregate. Then Fernando Torres returned to the world stage in style with this goal that sent Chelsea on to Munich.
To advance to the Final by defeating Barcelona in their home stadium, while playing with only 10 men (John Terry received an early Red Card for dirty tactics), is quite an amazing feat. But to defeat Bayern at the Allianz Arena in front of a very pro-Bayern crowd was just incredible. In both of these matches, there was some luck on the side of the Blues, as Leo Messi struck the post on a penalty shot in the 2nd leg of the Semis, and Arjen Robben also struck the post on a penalty shot in the Final. Didier Drogba, one of the deadliest strikers in the history of the game, again made his few chances pay off, as he led Chelsea back with a brilliant header after a late Bayern goal to equalize just before the 90th minute. Then after extra time the two sides went to PKs--they traded goals, some nice saves and a few really poor shots (I'm referring to Schweinsteiger in particular), and then up steps who else but Didier Drogba with a chance to win it all (in what will be his final time in a Chelsea jersey)...
This has to be one of the most unlikely stories in Champions League history, don't you think?
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