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Ahh the UEFA Champions League, how I love thee.  Today was the championship match with Manchester United pitted up against Chelsea in Moscow.  Moscow provided a slick surface of play with rain peppering in extra time.  Players slid, fell, and cramped up often.

Full analysis after the break.

FINAL SCORE: Manchester 1 - 1 Chelsea

Regular Time

First Half

The game started nervously with both teams feeling each other out.  Scholes and Makelele earn a yellow.  It only took 26 minutes for Ronaldo to deliver with a header in the back of the net.  Manchester missed a few good opportunities, especially a beautiful pass by Rooney to Tevez.  Chelsea started to gain confidence as the first half neared the end.  Ferdinand gets a yellow in the 43rd minute.  After a few pushes forward, Lampard capitalized on a defensive mistake to score the equalizer in the 45th minute.  In stoppage time, Carvalho receives a yellow.

Second Half

Chelsea started the 2nd half maintaining the confidence they had in the 1st.  They were aggressive pressing towards the goal.  Giggs comes in for Scholes and becomes Manchester’s leading man in appearances.  There were a few questionable calls against both sides, but Chelsea owned the ball for the half.  With mistakes by both sides, the game moved into extra time.

Extra Time

First Half

Right after the start of extra time, Chelsea makes the move from Malouda to Kalou.  A few minutes into extra time, Lampard nearly scored his 2nd but the bar denied his shot.  Joe Cole is replaced by Anelka.  In the 99th minute, Terry saved a sure goal by Giggs.  In the 100th minute, Rooney leaves the match and is replaced by Nani.  Again, Chelsea was aggressive and had more corner opportunities.

Second Half

In the 109th minute, Vidic gets a yellow defending near the box.  In the 114th minute, the pressure started getting to some players as a small skirmish breaks out.  Ballack and Tevez end up with a yellow.  Drogba hits Vidic in the face and consquently gets a red.  In the 117th minute, Essien gets a yellow as well.  With all the cards getting taken care of, the rain starts coming down harder.  With a few injuries and missed opportunities by Manchester, Chelsea survives the 2nd half advantage.  To get ready for penalty kicks, Chelsea sends in Belletti for Makelele.  Likewise, Manchester sends in Anderson for Brown.

Penalty Kicks

Due to Drogba being sent off, Manchester gets to send their weakest player to the bench to ensure both sides have an equal amount of players.

Tevez (Manchester): Scores! (1-0)
Ballack (Chelsea): Scores! (1-1)
Carrick (Manchester): Scores! (2-1)
Belletti (Chelsea): Scores! (2-2)
Ronaldo (Manchester): Blocked! (2-2)
Lampard (Chelsea): Scores! (2-3)
Hargreaves (Manchester): Scores! (3-3)
Cole (Chelsea): Scores! (3-4)
Nani (Manchester): Scores! (4-4)
Terry (Chelsea): Off the post! (4-4)
Anderson (Manchester): Scores! (5-4)
Kalou (Chelsea): Scores! (5-5)
Giggs (Manchester): Scores! (6-5)
Anelka (Chelsea): Blocked! (6-5)

Manchester United wins the Champions League Final on penalty kicks.  This was a hard fought match by both sides.  There was sloppy play mostly due to the poor weather conditions.  Not exactly a beautiful match for the world’s beautiful game, but a stunning view of passion, perseverance, and fun.  Congratulations to Manchester United and all their fans.

Tags: anderson, anelka, ballack, belletti, carrick, champions, champions league, chelsea, cole, drogba, Final, Football, giggs, hargreaves, kalou, lampard, league, manchester, manchester united, match, nani, Ronaldo, rooney, Soccer, sport, sports, terry, tevez, uefa, United, van der sar

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 3:46 pm and is filed under England Premier League, Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.