Africa: Drogba Penalty Wins Champions League Cup for Chelsea

Nation
Didier Drogba in action.
19 May 2012
allAfrica.com
By Michael Tantoh

With an equalizer near full time, followed by the winning goal in a penalty shoot-out, Cote d'Ivoire's Didier Drogba powered Chelsea to victory in this year's UEFA Champions League final against the heavily favoured Bayern Munich on Saturday night.

Bayern Munich started the final like a house on fire, buoyed by support from a home crowd putting constant pressure on Chelsea. But the Blues' defence showed the same resilience they had displayed in the quarterfinals against Barcelona.

The game really came alive by the 30th minute as Chelsea showed their intent with a display of free-flowing football. The first 45 minutes ended in a goalless stalemate but the spectators were, without a doubt, delighted with the performance of their teams.

The second half started with Chelsea growing in confidence, to the frustration of Bayern fans. Chelsea's resilience was finally broken at the 85th minute with a beautiful header from Thomas Muller that left goalkeeper Petr Cech bewildered.

The replacement of Salomon Kalou by Chelsea's semi-finals hero Fernando Torres was an indication that they were not prepared to go down without a fight. Their fighting spirit was rewarded with an 88th minute equalizer from a Drogba header that finally took the game to extra time.

Hero soon turned into villain at the beginning of extra time when a silly foul from Drogba on Franck Ribery in the box ended in a yellow card for the goal-scorer and a penalty for Bayern.

Exceptional goal-keeping from Cech kept Arjen Robben from giving the home side the lead.

At the end of the first half of extra time, both teams were still at deadlock.

The second 15 minutes started with a fierce pace as Bayern came close to scoring at the 16th and 21st minutes. Bayern multiplied their attacks but were kept at bay by a determined Chelsea defence.

With no goals after extra time, the match had to be decided by penalties after 120 minutes of football.

Misses by Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger gave the trophy to Chelsea after a final, conversion by Drogba - despite an earlier Chelsea miss from Juan Mata.

It was despair from the home fans and jubilation from Chelsea fans who will be taking the trophy to Stanford Bridge.

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