My thoughts and reactions and review of The Final.

By: Rob | May 22nd, 2008

So there we have it, Manchester United are Champions of Europe once again, having won against Chelsea last night on penalty kicks after the sides couldn’t be seperated in 120 minutes of football. While the game wasn’t constantly edge of your seat, it was certainly full of incedent and had some wildly exciting moments. I think it was worthy of being a final. So before I have a look at the season as a whole, here are my thoughts on the Final game. (after the jump).

The game started incredibly slowly, neither side wanting to give anything away, and looked like we might face a 2007 FA cup Final kind of situation. There we a couple of stinging tackles, from Essien on Ronaldo, and notably when Vidic got his fingers down Drogba’s throat but nothing really of interest. Ronaldo started brightly on the left, all clever backheels, and he did Essien a couple of times with his stepovers. Whats noticable about Ronaldo on the left though is that he hugs the touchline, which means Evra doesn’t get forward.

After around 15 minutes the game bagan to heat up. Ronaldo started to see alot of the ball, as well as Hargreaves who was playing in Ronnie’s usual Right Wing berth. Makelele and Scholes both went up for a challenge that really looked like nothing, but Scholes got up with a nosebleed. Neither player needed to be booked I didn’t think, but both were.

Chelsea had thier first notable chance though, after Lampard (who had a fine game) put in a dangerous ball toward Drogba, and the defensive header was covered by Van der saar.

United opened the scoring soon after, a one-two between Hargreaves and Wes Brown led to a fantastic cross from the latter, and a stunning header from Cristiano Ronaldo put it right in the corner. A brilliant header, Cech didn’t even move. Man United 1-0.

Chelesea tried to force thier way back into the game - mostly Micheal Ballack who was so determined to win the game on his own, every time he got the ball he tried to have a shot. Unfortunatly for Chelsea he wasn’t playing well enough to justify it, and squandered many chances.

Chelsea however at this point began to look on the ropes. A good cross from Ronaldo gave Tevez a great chance from a diving header, which Cech brilliantly saved. The rebound fell to Carrick who really should have done better, but he hit it straight at Cech. The Czech Keeper was yelling at his defence.

Tevez had another chance soon after when a ball is rolled across he box. Makelele couldn’t reach it, and Tevez, who I think thought the french midfielder would get to it reacted late and couldn’t get there. Man United were looking very good for thier 1-0 lead.

Chelsea did get a free-kick soon after, and Ballack took it, despite being at an odd angle. It wasn’t his best though and went over the bar.

Just on the stroke of half-time, and when I was begining to wonder if Chelsea were going to create anything, they got a bit of luck. A deflected Essien strike and a slip from Ronaldo left the ball in no mans land, and Frank Lampard saw the oppurtunity brilliantly, burned it to get into the box, and applied a great finish to get the ball between Ferdinand and Van der Saar. 1-1, game on.

There was also a bit of a flashpoint just before halftime, when Carvalho went in on Ronaldo who went down. I’ve discussed this elsewhere on The Offside, and Carvalho did get the ball I believe. He did get a massive chunk of Ronaldo afterwards of course, but what was he going to do to get out of the way? I think he was entitled to make the challenge myself. It had shades of Paul Scholes takle in the 1999 Champions League semi-final, where he picked up a controversial booking that saw him out of that final.

Half time then, and United looked much the better side, but the momentum was with Chelsea after that Lampard goal.

Alex Ferguson was seething at the ref for something at half time. I assumed at the time it was Scholes/Makelele booking at the time, but maybe it was the Carvalho challenge. Who knows.

Man United got the first attack of the second half, an Evra cross goes over Rooney and Hargreves. Rooney shouted at Evra - probably annoyed he hadn’t really got into the game himself - while Hargreaves applauded the pass and blamed himself.

Chelsea however began to show that they did want this thing afterall. Essien, who looked psychotically fired up all game turned Ronaldo and then put it over the bar. A cross came in for Drogba and he couldn’t get there before Vidic. Ballack put another over the bar.

The game began to get a bit snide, a Makelele elbow here, a Evra elbow there, both let go by the ref. Interestingly the small descions kept going in United favour. Drogba should have won a couple of corners that were given to United, and a few throws were given the wrong way as well. None amounted to anything, but doubts might have crept in about whether it was going to be Chelsea’s night.

After we approached the 70 minute mark, players started to go down with Cramp. Ferdinand was first down, but the managers both didn’t want to make changes. In Ferdinand’s case this might have been because John O Shea was on the bench.

Chelsea might have had a penalty on a different day, Drogba headed back to Malouda who must have felt the smallest touch from Ferdinand on his back foot and went down. I don’t think it was a penalty, but its the kind that could have got given.

Drogba created a brilliant chance himself out of nothing soon after. He slipped, played a pas sout wide, then when he got it back, snapped a shot from the edge of the box and hit the post. Would have been a strike worthy of winning the match.

Ryan Giggs came on late on to break Sir Bobby Charlton’s apperance record at United. There was a bit of debate earlier in the week as to whether Giggs deserves it after coming on so many times as a late sub (there weren’t multiple substitutions in Sir Bobby’s day), but I would argue that means he earned it more - if they had have had subs in Charlton’s day, he wouldn’t have got near the number he has, he would surely have been rested more often. For Giggs to have lasted so long in a United shirt in an era of the big clubs being able to put out two teams is absolutely class. Legend.

Chelsea might have had another penalty right at the death. Ferdinand’s ridiculously high challenege on Joe Cole (his foot cleared Cole’s head) had the linesman flag, but the ref played advantage. I don’t think he wanted to give a penalty in a game like this for a challenege like that.

It started raining in Moscow at the approach of the final whistle, something that dissapointed me greatly as I was promised there would be none. Russian Science fails again, who’d have thunk it.

Chelsea had a golden chance in Extra-time. So beautiful passes in and around the box - and perhaps the one time in the night Ballack should have shot, gifted Lampard a chance which beat everyone, but just about struck the crossbar.

Joe Cole came off for Nicky Anelka. I’d have gone with Sheva myself, but there you go. Anelka is probably more suited to wide play that the Ukraine hitman, but in a game like this I wouldn’t have thought that would have mattered. Joe Cole, who looked absolutely brilliant for most of the season, really seemed to have dissapeared in the last ten games or so. Which is a pity, because he’s brilliant to watch.

Evra made a golden run into the box, beating three men and did the right thing in cutting it back to Ryan Giggs who could have had a real fairytale goal but for John Terry’s incredible header from the line. Rooney came off - he made a couple of good passes, but couldn’t really get himself into the game. Nani on.

The game began to die down after the two really good chances - Vidic hacked out Anelka when he was thru. Drogba took the FK and tried to power it around the wall, except the wall was a good length so it wouldn’t work.

Terry may or may not (I think may not - I think he was just having a go at him) have spit on Tevez, Drogba slapped Vidic (probably for the diver comment) and Drogba got his marching orders. He looked in shock. A really petulant thing to be sent off for frankly, and it could be his last act in a Chelsea shirt.

The game completely died at this point, both teams knackered. Both wanted pens.

When it came to Pens, having thought Chelsea deserved it on the night, just, I was sort of cheering them on. But there are certain players you don’t want to see miss penaltys for any side. Ryan Giggs, Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes had he been on the pitch. When Ronaldo stepped up, I thought he was going to sky it to be honest. I just thought it was set up for the World-Player-Of-The-Year-In-Waiting (I think he deserves it by the way) to miss on the biggest stage of all. And he did, Cech saved.

Chelsea’s run of pen takers - and United’s for that matter - seemed odd. Ashley Cole? To be fair to Cole he took them as I would, just blast it roughly at the keeper. John Terry, well I said at the time, you have to admire his balls for stepping up. Unfortunatly for him and for Chelsea he missed, slipping as it hit the post. Ronaldo reprieved.

Giggs I really didn’t want to miss. He didn’t. Anelka’s penalty was awful though. I wondered why he was 7th penalty taker, but it was a rubbish peanlty. Good height for the keeper and close to him. Rubbish.

Man United won, and are Champions.

What We Learned From the Final

1. You can play Mind games with Drogba if your Vidic, not if your Rafa Benitez.

2. Hargreaves should be Man United’s penalty taker. His penalty was brilliant, Ronaldo’s less so.

3. Shevchenko should be used more by Chelsea - he might have missed a pen on this kind of stage before but Anelka’s pen was dreadful.

4. You need to have more than three shots on target (from 24! Now thats awful) to win a game.

5. You can’t win the game on your own, Micheal Ballack.

6. Centre Halves should not take penalties under any circumstance.

7. Ronaldo can score against Chelsea, but he can’t take a pen in the Champions League.

8. Having the players names in lower case on the back of the shirt looks brilliant, unlike the all capitals of the united shirt.

9. Man United and Chelsea can’t play a high tempo game against each other, but they can fill it with enough talking points to last the summer.

10. Man United were the better team over the season, so deserved it. However they fared on the night.

Player Ratings

Manchester United

Van Der Saar - Didn’t do much wrong. Didn’t look as confident as usual in the shootout, but still made the vital save. 7

Evra - Made a brilliant run into the box to set up Giggs, but otherwise quite quiet. 7

Ferdinand - Struggled late on with cramp, but looked good value before that. 8

Vidic - Completely kept Drogba at bay, and won the mind game battle with him. Chelsea hd few chances in the box. 9

Brown - Looked solid, also a great cross for the United goal. 7

Hargreaves - Didn’t have a wonderful game, despite having CL final experience (where he was brilliant) for Bayern. Huffed and puffed. 6

Scholes - Worked hard, but didn’t really do much. Booked, though not his fault. 6

Carrick - Again, fairly quiet. Had a good chance after Tevez header, but hit it right at Cech. 6

Ronaldo - Looked bright early on and was at the centre of United’s first half dominence. His header was brilliant. Fell into the shadows in the second half as United created less. Missed a pen that could have been vital. 7

Rooney - Never really got into the game. Played a dangerous ball which Tevez but just worked hard to not much avail. 6

Tevez - Looked dangerous alot, and wound up the opposition which led to Drogba’s red. 8

Subs - Giggs 6, Anderson 6, Nani 6

Chelsea

Cech - Good when called upon, making good saves from United, not at fault for Ronaldo’s goal. 8

A Cole - Didn’t look too dangerous, but kept Hargreaves relatively quiet. Scored his penalty. 6

Terry - Missed his penalty, but kept Chelsea in the game before that with some vital tackles and an off the line clearance. 7

Carvalho - Some will complain about his tackle on Ronaldo, but that aside, he was solid and make so straong challenges. 7

Essien - Was undone by Ronaldo a couple of times and didn’t look convincing going forward. 6

Makelele - Was booked for a challenege on Scholes, but I thought that was fairly 50/50. Elbowed his way around the park later on. 6

Ballack - Worked hard to win the game, but tried to hard and every time he got the ball wound up blasting it over the bar. 5

Lampard - Played well. Took his chance well, created a few more, and could have had a second. 8

Malouda - Never really made a difference, put in a couple of balls that Drogba couldn’t get to. 6

Joe Cole - Wasn’t really at the races, put a couple of chances over the crossbar, but really wasn’t his magical self - could have got a pen in the dying minutes after Ferdinand’s boot cleared him. 5

Drogba - Didn’t really get into the game, except for a moment of brilliance which nearly wn the game for Chelsea. Later sent off for stupidly slapping Vidic. 6

Subs - Belletti 6 Kalou 6 Anelka 5

So its all over but the arguing for another year. Congratulations to Manchester United who are Champions of Europe, and have probably been the best club side in Europe this season - if not always in Europe.

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