The 35 Moments I’ll Remember the 2007/8 Champions League for

By: Rob | May 29th, 2008

This season’s Champions League was full of great moments. Below, I list the 35 that made my season. Remind me of the one’s I missed in the comments. Moments after the jump.

Mourinho shown the door. After a 1-1 draw with Rosenborg, The Special One is guided through the door marked ‘EXIT’ at Stamford Bridge. The rest of the season would be spent with him doing nothing except being ‘On Setanta Sports’

Ronaldo doesn’t celebrate against his old club. He’s often accused of a lack of class, but Cristiano Ronaldo’s refusal to celebrate his goal againt Sporting Lisbon was to be admired.

Deivid’s strike against Inter. Fenerbahce were this years surprise team, and they got off to a flyer with a beautiful strike from Deivid. It wouldn’t be thier last beautiful goal

Dida madness. After the smallest touch from a ’supporter’ Dida goes down and has to be taken off. Its pretty much the end of his Milan carrer.

Valbuena upsets Liverpool. A beautiful strike for the Marseilles man, made it look very difficult for Liverpool. Just one point after two games.

The begining of a bad season for Valencia. They lost to Chelsea, in Avram Grants first CL match. Not the exciting football promised from Grant, but 3 points nonetheless. Valencia’s season just went from bad to worse.

Arsenal come of age. Spectacularly. Arsenal win 7-0 against Slavia Prague to cement an incredible start to thier season as Fabregas, Flamini, Walcott et al all come of age. Its a record win the Champions League (though it doesn’t last long)

Anything you can do. Liverpool, in deserpate need of a win after just a couple of points in three games win 8-0 against Besiktas setting a new Champions League record.

Rangers play anti-football. Leo Messi frowned at why a club would want to just play for a 0-0 draw. The rest of Europe would go on to boo them as they managed to 0-0 thier way through the UEFA cup.

Super Pippo! Inzaghi breaks Gerd Muller’s record of goals in European competetion. A credit to the man.

Good Old Marco Ballotta. The Lazio keeper became the oldest player to ever play in the Champions League.

Torres Wondergoal. El Nino has been a massive success at Liverpool in his first year. His solo effort against Marseilles was brilliant.

Arsenal win in the San Siro. In a battle of youth and expierence, Arsenal win in the San Siro to put them through to the Quater Finals. The joy on Cesc Fabregas face was incredible.

The Matrix sees red. Again. A couple of weak challenges on Fernando Torres meant that the man they call The Matrix was unfairly sent off against Liverpool in leg one. Inter went defensive, but eventually Liverpool came up with the goods.

Mancini Quits. Then Doesn’t. Before the Liverpool/Inter game all the talk was of Rafa’s job. After a defeat at the hands of Liverpool, Inter manager Roberto Mancini handed in his notice. And then promptly changed his mind. Inter promptly went to pieces and now Mancini has been sacked.

Fenerbahce Vs Sevilla. The whole match. Absolutely spectacular entertainment.

BojanGoals! Bojan Krkic becomes the first player born in the 1990s to score in the Champions League. Suddenly the world realises why Ronaldinho hasn’t had much luck at Camp Nou recently.

Roma win against Real. Real Madrid’s fall in Europe continued this season, as Roma performed incredibly to grab a win.

That ‘Fixed’ Champions League draw. Someone on a Liverpool forum predicts the Champions League draw proclaiming it a fix. he has 100/1 odds of being right. He’s right. for 24 hours choas ensued. UEFA shrugged. World kept turning.

Fener shock Chelsea. A beautiful strike from Deivid completed a great comeback for Fener who beat Chelsea 2-1 in ‘Hell’. Chelsea would win the second leg though.

The Liverpool/Arsenal Trilogy. Well The Last bit. Liverpool and Arsenal played each other 3 times in a week and drew the first two 1-1. The last part of the ‘Trilogy’ as the English press insisted on calling it was the game of the tournament though.

Ronaldo’s header against Roma. Roma looked the better side, but Ronaldo rose magnificently to dispatch them.

Maldini doesn’t retire yet. It looks increasingly like St Poalo will put off retirement for another year. He’s not in the CL next season though.

English dominince. For better or worse, there’s no getting away from it, England is begining to dominate the Champions League. 5 finialists in 4 years.

John Arne-Riise’s header. Cruel, but memorable.

Phil Thompson’s reaction to that header.

Drogba dives. All week Rafa called Chelsea man Didier Drogba a diver. Drogba scored the goal that would help send Liverpool on thier way before diving before Rafa. Ouch.

Lampard says goodbye in style. After his mother’s death, some questioned Frank Lampard’s descion to play against Liverpool. More eyebrows were raised when he stepped up to take a pen. Balls of steel, Lampard tucked it away and pointed to the heavens, beautiful.

Barca vs Man United. But Rubbish. Maybe not rubbish. But it wasn’t the game we hoped for.

Paul Scholes finds redemption at last. Scholes missed Man Uniteds 99 final due to an iffy yellow card in the semi final. He made up for it by scoring an absolute belter against Barca to fire his team to another final.

Russian Science Promises Me It Won’t Rain. And Then It Did.
Ryan Giggs breaks Bobby Charlton’s record. In an era where players move clubs like they change socks, its nice to see a player play with one club his entire life, and in Giggsy’s case, be a giant success.

Lampard scores. Again. Frank Lampard scored in the final, making him the first player to score in every Knockout round of the Champions League.

Drogba slaps Vidic. Not his finest hour, Didier Drogba (probably) ended his Chelsea carrer by bitchslapping Nemanja Vidic.

Nicky Anelka throws a hissy fit and costs Chelsea the Final. Anelka came on out of position, and then when was asked to take a pen went “Fuck off, you didn’t play me up front from the start!” just when he was losing his “le sulk” image too.

JT’s missed pen. Not one he’ll want to remember, but it decided the final in the end. Unlucky to have slipped.