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United claim Champions League crown in shoot-out

22/05/2008

Edwin van der Sar made the crucial penalty save that handed Manchester United the Champions League trophy following a 1-1 draw against Chelsea.

John Terry had the chance to win the shoot-out, but with the match on the line, he slipped as he took his penalty and the ball came back off the outside of the post.

That brought United back to parity following an earlier miss by Cristiano Ronaldo. Anderson and Ryan Giggs then scored for United, but it was Nicolas Anelka who missed the crucial kick as United won the shoot-out 6-5.

Van der Sar dived to his right and United were able to celebrate their second trophy of the season having edged Chelsea out in the race for the Premier League trophy a week ago.

In a game of two halves Manchester United dominated the first half and deservedly took the lead when Ronaldo headed into the bottom corner of the net.

Chelsea grabbed and equaliser just before the break when Michael Essien's shot deflected off a United defender into the path of Frank Lampard and he slid the ball past van der Sar.

United found their range early on with some fast flowing football that had Chelsea on the back foot for the majority of the half.

They got reward for their territorial advantage midway through the first period when Wes Brown and Owen Hargreaves brilliantly worked some space on the right hand side with a neat interchange of passes.

Brown then picked out Ronaldo at the far post and the Portuguese winger placed a pin-point header past Cech who was unmoved in the Chelsea goal.

United could have doubled their lead ten minutes later but Cech pulled off a stunning double save to deny Carlos Tevez and then Michael Carrick.

However, Chelsea made the most of a rare foray into United's final third when Lampard snuck into the penalty area to finish a quick Blues break.

Crucially van der Sar slipped as he attempted to claim the cross and that left Lampard with the simplest of shots to bring the Blues level.

Chelsea seemed to take heart from that and started the second half much brighter than their opponents. Essien and Michael Ballack both sent shots wide of the target early on.

The Blues continued to pressurise the United goal and Didier Drogba was unlucky to see his shot come back off the post. Lampard then followed suit when he swivelled in the box but Chelsea were again denied by the woodwork.

Giggs came on to beat Sir Bobby Charlton's appearance record for Manchester United towards the end of the second half and the winger wasted a glorious chance in the first period of extra-time. He had the goal at his mercy but a last-ditch challenge from John Terry helped the ball over the bar.

Towards the end extra-time, the game which had threatened to boil over at times during the 120 minutes, entered into a fracas over a throw-in. In the middle of the fracas Drogba raised his hands to Nemanja Vidic in full view of the referee – who had no option but to send him off.

Midway through the shoot-out Ronaldo looked to have thrown away United's chance when his stuttering run up failed to send Cech the wrong way.

However, Terry's slip-up and the cool nerve of the rest of the United penalty takers handed United the double.