Chelsea: 'Once in a lifetime'

As the Champions League final returns to Munich, we rewind to 2012 and hear from the players involved about Chelsea’s epic underdog victory at the home of a Bayern team dreaming of a fairy-tale ending

WORDS Chris Burke, Graham Hunter, Aaryan Parasnis

History

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Speak to any Chelsea or Bayern München fan about the 2012 Champions League final and it’s unlikely you’ll hear much nuance. In this tale of two cities, a drama stacked with remarkable twists and rich characters, everything came in absolutes. Euphoria or heartbreak. Nothing in between.

Bayern had been dreaming of this day since the Munich Football Arena had been chosen as the showpiece venue over three years previously. To actually get there would be another matter, but after dispatching Real Madrid on penalties in the semi-finals, Jupp Heynckes’ side were ready for their Finale dahoam – their final at home. The whole of Munich was ready, eager to erase the memory of Bayern’s 2010 final loss to Inter Milan. Playing on their own turf, their fans behind them in the stands, what could go wrong?

Over in London, Chelsea had their own score to settle. The Blues had lost on penalties to Manchester United in the 2008 decider, but few neutrals fancied their chances of reversing that outcome. Theirs felt like a team past its peak, and one that had reached the final by gritting its teeth rather than baring them. A 3-1 loss at Napoli in the round of 16 had looked fatal, and certainly proved so for coach André Villas-Boas, but interim boss Roberto Di Matteo turned that around before their greatest escape act yet in the last four, squeezing past holders Barcelona at the Camp Nou despite losing captain John Terry to a first-half red card.

Terry was one of several notable Chelsea absentees for the final on 19 May, along with Branislav Ivanović, Raul Meireles and Ramires – all suspended, as were Bayern trio David Alaba, Holger Badstuber and Luiz Gustavo. No London club had ever been crowned champions of Europe, and that curious anomaly looked set to continue as soon as the final settled into a rhythm of Bayern pressure and Chelsea resistance. But let’s leave the details of what happened next to the men who were there…

Ashley Cole: Playing in 2008 in Moscow was very important to us. I think we felt the heartache and misery of not getting that over the line. We were one penalty from creating history four years earlier. So, we were aware of the extent of how big this trophy is and what it means to the club. We chased that history. We felt we understood the heartbreak, we understood the feeling and we didn’t want to taste that again.

Manuel Neuer: Getting to a Champions League final was a big success. It was a home game for us – it was our final at home in Munich, and we’d knocked out Real Madrid in a penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals. But the pressure was huge, because we were playing in front of our fans in Munich. It was a very special game for us; we really wanted to beat Chelsea.

Mario Gomez: Playing at home is of course both a motivation and pressure. But, if we’re honest, there’s nothing better than winning the Champions League title in your own stadium.

Cole: It made it even more epic, knowing you’re playing a great team in Bayern. All the odds are against you, really. You’re playing in Bayern’s backyard. The whole stadium and feel of that game felt like you were playing Bayern in a normal Champions League group game. They’ve got the home dressing room. Everything was geared for them to win.

Petr Čech: The last day before the final, there’s a lot of stress involved, lots of expectations, a lot of pressure. On the last day, you kind of have to overcome that feeling of the whole world is watching – what if we lose?

The first significant shock on a night full of them is Chelsea naming Ryan Bertrand in their starting-up, the left-back making his Champions League debut in left midfield…

Cole: The main first surprise was Ryan Bertrand starting, which was incredible for him but also for the team. It showed a real belief in the group and the depth of squad we had. I can remember that our preparation was quite tough. We weren’t doing that well in the Premier League, and now a lot of us were older. Me, Petr Čech, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry – we were coming towards the back end of our career, and we didn’t know when we’d get another opportunity to win a Champions League. So, for us, it was make or break. But we’d lost a lot of quality players. Obviously, John Terry was suspended. Ivanović was suspended. David Luiz was just coming off a long, serious injury. Gary Cahill was in a similar position to David Luiz, really struggling with injuries. They put their body on the line. They weren’t 100 per cent fit. I don’t think they were 60 per cent fit.

Čech: The moment we walked out, everything felt great. You see the whole crowd, so you kind of realise you’re playing an away game, but I think it was another motivation for us because it was against the odds. Also, they’d had a fantastic campaign and we’d had a sort of rollercoaster season. As the game started, they put us under pressure and you knew that was probably going to be the tone for the rest of the game.

John Obi Mikel: When you look around, all you can see is red and white. Our fans were stuck up there in the stands, just a small portion of the whole stadium, but the atmosphere that night was unbelievable. And the game was just constant, constant pressure from Bayern. We were just trying to soak up the pressure and stay in the game and try to frustrate them as much as we could.

Cole: We never gave up and we just constantly had that belief. The atmosphere was unmatched. I’ve never felt that atmosphere. It was certainly hostile, but obviously we had our crowd of blue on the other side pushing us and demanding a lot from us, and we just tried to give everything.

Čech: In the second half, there was a moment when they had some pressure, they had some shots, and I think it was Gomez who had a chance – the ball came to him and he shot it over. Then you realise it’s a player who during that season scored over 30 goals in all competitions. It’s probably one of those he would’ve buried in every game. You kind of feel, “You know, the game is actually going our way. We’re still in this. We only need one goal to win it.” That gave us confidence as well.

Despite Chelsea’s solidity at the back, Bayern finally take the lead when Thomas Müller heads in with just seven minutes remaining…

Gomez: When Thomas made it 1-0 in the 83rd minute, I was sure we we’d win.

Thomas Müller: It was a huge explosion with that goal. It was the redeeming moment the entire stadium had been waiting for the whole game. We’d finally scored this deserved opening goal to send the city and, of course, ourselves into seventh heaven.

Cole: Some teams might have crumbled, and maybe five, six, seven, eight years earlier, we might have crumbled, but we’d certainly learnt from Moscow. As soon as their goal went in, we’re still going: “OK, two, three seconds of disappointment, but then let’s go. We’ve still got maybe seven minutes of injury time, plus seven or eight minutes in the game. We have time and we need one chance.” It was just about putting that behind us. “Let’s go get a chance. If we get a chance, we could score.”

Obi Mikel: We knew we were up against it, but we thought that if we could just stay in the game and prolong the game, we’ll get our chances, and that’s exactly what happened.

Müller: We dominated the game and I think we barely gave anything away at the back, so we didn’t have the feeling that it was an open game. It was more a case of: will Bayern manage to win the game in 90 minutes or in extra time? Everyone obviously had that feeling of relief after we scored, and we didn’t think anything more could happen because of how the game had been up to that point. But when you have a set-piece situation in football, anything can happen.

With the title drifting away from them, Chelsea win a corner in the 88th minute and club legend Drogba nods in a thunderous leveller…

Cole: As soon as that ball went out for a corner, I had a feeling. I certainly had a feeling that a moment or a chance could happen, and it’s about taking it. And Didi, a man of big finals and big occasions, stepped up and got us that equaliser.

“I heard the thump of the ball on his head and then it was in the back of the net. that’s why Drogba is a hero of this club”

I had lots of ups and downs. We tried and fought to get to finals, we lost one, and then the culmination of that, to win in Munich, and in the circumstances we did, as underdogs in their home stadium…

Frank Lampard: I felt and heard the thump of the ball on his head, and then turned and the ball was in the back of the net, and that’s why Didier Drogba is a hero of this club.

Gomez: It was very dramatic and just felt totally unfair!

That drags the final into extra time, and Bayern have another excellent chance to seal the outcome when Drogba concedes a 95th-minute penalty. Arjen Robben steps up to take, with only Čech to beat…

Cole: Big Pete had to come up and make a crucial save in extra time. Didi was the hero, and he could have been the villain, and then he ends up being the hero at the end. The script was written. We always said the stars were aligned, and it was just one of those nights when everything kind of went in our favour.

Čech: In the preparation for the game, I’d seen every Bayern penalty since 2007, so basically five years of penalties. I’d seen every one of those penalties. It took a really long time to see them all and to kind of make a good picture. In the end, it paid off.

Cole: Big Pete was very diligent about where players have previously taken penalties, where they’ve put it, where they put it in pressure moments. Does he go to the left? Does he favour the right? So, a lot of homework went into Big Pete’s detailed little dossier on penalty takers and strategies. He would make us take penalties in training to mimic their players. So, he would make me take five or six penalties and look at where I position my foot. When I’m aiming across him, where does my foot plant? They put a GoPro behind the goal. He’d done it with loads of players – any detail he could.

Čech: The penalty hit my forearm inside, it hit my backside and I kind of landed on the ball, which made it kind of spin back and roll, and the ball actually stayed close to me, which was probably the luckiest moment. If it rolled another half a yard, I think Arjen would have tapped it in.

Gomez: We continued to dominate the opposition even after they equalised at the very end of the game. And we had really good chances to seal the deal in extra time. It was surreal. We had everything in our own hands because we were much better than Chelsea.

Čech’s penalty prowess will be called upon again as the game goes to a shoot-out – the first in a final since 2008, when Chelsea finished on the losing side…

Cole: There are a lot of variables that go into selecting penalty takers and being brave enough to stand up and challenge yourself to take a penalty. There’s a lot of pressure within yourself, pressure from the fans, pressure from the hierarchy to win, pressure from your team-mates because you don’t want to be the one who lets your team-mates down. Friends and family. A lot goes into it but, ultimately, when you do nominate yourself, and then you do take the penalty, it’s just you and the ball.

For Juan Mata, Chelsea’s first taker, that ends with Neuer making a save, putting Bayern in control after Philipp Lahm, Gomez and Neuer himself all convert…

Gomez: Your balls drop on the way from the halfway line to the penalty spot... I just remember the moment when I got to the ball and there was Petr Čech in goal, and it felt like he filled the whole goal. Fortunately, I changed my mind at the last moment.

Neuer: We were the better team, but we couldn’t find our way to victory during the first 90 minutes, so it all came down to the shoot-out. Luck was not on our side. Not that many players wanted to take one, so I had to take one, because not all the players volunteered. I can understand that, because the pressure was immense.

Čech: The Lahm penalty I touched, and Gomez I was close. With Neuer, I thought he would shoot higher, then suddenly no. I always went on the right side. When Ivica Olić stepped in, I knew I had to save that one and I believed I would.

The Chelsea No1 dives left to bat away Olić’s kick and then Cole gets ready for his turn…

Cole: I like to take penalties. I like to put myself out there. I have my processes, but I literally changed last minute, so all the process and thought pattern went out of the window. You have those mind games with the goalkeeper. He would have studied the way I take penalties. You have that battle within yourself. You’re trying to be as calm as you can in the action and the contact with the ball, and hope he doesn’t go the right way, and if he does, hope it goes in the corner. People talk about breathing, talk about when you place the ball and you step back, take your five or six-second breather, compose yourself, but it’s hard to put into words because it’s just an out-of-body experience.

Cole converts. Next up, Bastian Schweinsteiger…

Čech: With the last one, the reason I saved it was actually that, early in the footage of those penalties from 2007 to 2012, there was a period when Schweinsteiger was shooting penalties like that. Every time, he sort of stopped and he shot to the left side of the keeper. So, the moment he stopped in that final, I knew he’d shoot there, and that’s what gave me a good chance to make the save. The preparation really paid off, but you need a bit of luck as well because nothing is 100 per cent.

With the shoot-out scoreline now 3-3, Drogba can now deliver the winning blow – in his last game for the club before returning for a short stint in 2014…

Lampard: My best Champions League moment is the moment Didier Drogba’s penalty hit the back of the net. I didn’t enjoy the game, I didn’t enjoy it at all. It was painful trying to hang on in there, and trying to get the game to penalties in the end. But the moment that the ball hit the back of the net was sensational.

Gomez: Shocked. Dead silence. Unprecedented disappointment…

Philipp Lahm: We were so close to the triumph of winning the Champions League at home, and then a bitter defeat with the shoot-out at the end – it was a devastating defeat.

Neuer: It wasn’t enough, unfortunately, despite me saving one of the penalties. Petr Čech was on the other side and he performed very well. We had to congratulate them.

Müller: In football, a team that hasn’t really been in the game can be successful. Even in extra time, we were in the ascendancy, and then in the penalty shoot-out, we were one up. I didn’t think something like that could happen.

Čech: That moment when Didier scored, for about 35-40 seconds I didn’t know what to do. He was running to me and shouting, screaming. I didn’t really know what to do because the happiness and the wave of emotions were so strong. I probably was thinking of my father in the stands. During my career, he would get really nervous on matchdays. And you can imagine, with the way the game went – the penalty, the extra time and the shoot-out. I think he was the first person I thought of because I hoped he didn’t have a heart attack!

Cole: As soon as Didi stepped up and I saw Neuer go one way and the ball rolling the other, it was that out-of-body experience: “You’ve finally done it! You’ve created history for the club!” It was an iconic moment for me, a memory that’ll never leave me. The feeling and the sounds. I always re-envisage and replay that moment of Didi sending the goalie the wrong way. I remember turning around because I wanted to go and celebrate with the fans and my family, and I remember slipping, but I didn’t fall because I had no power in my legs, but I found an extra bit of power to stay on my feet and go and celebrate. I wanted to cry, but tears couldn’t come out because I was exhausted. It was just moments and feelings I’d never, ever felt before.

Gomez: As we were clearly the better team on the day and dominated Chelsea the whole game, it’s all the more bitter to remember this day as probably the toughest of my career.

Having held firm to pull off an unlikely, historic triumph, Chelsea can celebrate at last…

Cole: I’ve had to walk past the trophy on two occasions and that really, really hurt. So, to now have our name on the trophy, to finally be able to hold it up and lift it, to be closer to my idols… It was just amazing. If you’ve seen the actual lifting of the trophy, I was down on the side. So, I think Frank lifted it with JT, José Bosingwa, Salomon Kalou and Didi, but I just wanted to take in the moment with our team-mates. Firstly, I was exhausted, but I let my team-mates enjoy it, and then, when we walked back down and went back to pitchside, that’s when I could enjoy it. It’s certainly a special moment when you lift it in front of your fans. For some of the doubters who doubted my move, I now had an opportunity to lift it and go: “Well, this is one reason I came.”

Obi Mikel: You couldn’t wait. It hadn’t sunk in yet, until you go up there and you have your medal, and you look at it and you kiss it. It’s special. The Champions League is… If you ask any kid, any player today… As footballers, we talk about it in the dressing room: “This is a trophy we want to win. We want to be part of these games.” And the Champions League games are absolutely special. The anthem, the song, is just something out of this world.

Neuer: The walk up to collect our medals was very tough. That’s why our motivation was huge for the following campaign, because we really wanted to win that trophy.

In the aftermath, one sight provokes much amusement among neutrals, suspended Chelsea captain John Terry revelling with his team-mates in full kit – boots, shin pads and all…

Cole: To be honest, I didn’t even realise or understand the kind of impact it would have. I think everyone has the right to celebrate how they want. He was a massive part of the journey and very influential on and off the pitch in those moments. It was just something that we all embraced and we loved. We enjoyed the moment. I would have done the exact same, by the way. I don’t think I could have celebrated it in a suit. I certainly would have put my shirt on, 100 per cent. I don’t know about the shin pads. I wouldn’t have put the shin pads on!

Obi Mikel: The party was crazy. I don’t know how we got to London. Nobody knew how we got to London! We just came out of the plane – everybody was wearing glasses to cover our eyes, our faces. But if we deserved a celebration, that was the night we deserved to get drunk and enjoy the night, because this doesn’t come that often. You don’t win the Champions League that often. It comes once in a lifetime, and for us to do it that night was absolutely fantastic.

Fortunately for Bayern, meanwhile, they do not have to wait long to experience that joy themselves, picking themselves up to lift the trophy the very next season…

Lahm: After that, the team grew closer together. Such a defeat can break a team apart or, in our case, can bring you closer together. The team hadn’t yet reached its peak and we really wanted to win the title. You could just see that, one year later in 2013, we were determined to win the Champions League. Now, in retrospect, I can talk about it more easily because we won the Champions League in 2013.

Müller: 2012 was particularly bitter, of course, but we didn’t get the feeling that we had a fear of finals or couldn’t handle the pressure. We put in a great performance in 2012, which is why I didn’t slip into negative feelings. I always have a positive attitude. I kept saying: “We’ll win the thing.”

Neuer: We definitely wanted to lift that trophy, and we did so against Borussia Dortmund. It would’ve been a disaster [to lose again]. That’s why we felt really relieved when we won that game. And then we were Champions League winners at last.

Over to Lampard for the final word…

Lampard: I had lots of ups and downs. We tried and fought to get to finals, we lost one, and then the culmination of that, to win in Munich, and in the circumstances we did, as underdogs in their home stadium… The ride we’d had to get there was crazy; it was the stuff of movies. When anyone asks me about my career, I cannot help but have that as the moment that jumps out at me. That’s what the Champions League is. If I’d have finished my career without that on my CV, then I would have certainly felt incomplete, and I think the club would be incomplete. To win the Champions League as Chelsea, the first London club to do so, is something we’re all proud of.