Chelsea’s elusive Holy Grail

The following season was Mourinho’s third attempt at winning the Champions League with Chelsea. We finished first in the group stages, with 13 points, which dealt us a favourable draw with Jose’s former team Porto. We triumphed against Porto and marched on to the Mestalla to play Valencia.

Many believed that this could be Chelsea’s year to win the competition, as we proved a tough side to crack, however, we was drawn against Liverpool once again, something we was all to familiar with. With the tie leading to penalties at Afield, the slice of luck that you need to win the Champions league eluded us, and we was knocked out on penalties, with heart-ache and misery felt for all the Chelsea fans, players and the head coach Mourinho.

This would prove to be Chelsea’s last full Champions League tournament with Jose Mourinho as he left by ‘mutual consent’ in September 2007. This left us with one of the most unlikely of choices of manager, Avram Grant. Although the fans struggled to warm to Avram at first, he would prove to be the manager who would take us all the way to the Champions League Final in Moscow, the first in Chelsea’s history. This campaign would see us beat Olympiacos, Fenerbache and finally Liverpool, who were dealt a much needed revenge win after the previous years when they had captured the wins against us. This led us to the final in Moscow; the Holy Grail was finally insight, as John Terry led the boys out, in what is the biggest night in the clubs history.

The tie ended 1-1 after 90minutes, extra time had to be called upon, with all Chelsea fan’s desperately hoping it wouldn’t have to go to penalties. It did! Drogba was sent off late into extra time, meaning he wouldn’t be available to take a penalty, leaving certain brave Chelsea players to step up and take one for the team. It got to Chelsea’s fifth penalty with our captain, our leader, our legend, Terry stood up to take what could have been the winning penalty.

Unfortunately, we all know what happened after that, a moment that I have not seen since the game. Another European campaign leaving Chelsea with nothing to celebrate, but as a Chelsea fan I am still incredibly proud to have seen my club compete in the Champions League Final, something myself, family and friends thought we would never get to see as Blues fans.

After the disappointment and heartbreak of the Final, Avram Grant was relieved of his post and Luiz Felipe Scolari was to take over. We all know what happened with Scolari, what we really want to talk about is the man who took over Chelsea on a temporary basis, Guus Hiddink.

Hiddink will always be thought of very highly around The Bridge despite the fact he was only with us a short period of time. Under the former Holland coach our results improved, which came at the right time for a visit to Anfield, as we had come to know so well. After an excellent performance at Liverpool, which saw us win 3-1, we took them back to The Bridge, in what would be one of the most exciting matches in Chelsea’s Champions League history.

After we played out a 4-4 draw on the night, we went through to the next round on an amazing score line of 7-5 on aggregate, after 2-legs that I will never forget. Confidence was high and with the new leadership of Hiddink and Chelsea legend Ray Wilkins working well; we lined up to face a talented Barcelona side.

First up was a trip to the Nou Camp, as we became the first team not to concede their all season with a 0-0. We headed back to London, convinced we would finally triumph and win the trophy. We took the lead in the second-leg after a perfect Michael Essien volley and led until the dying moments. An Andres Iniesta strike, gave Barcelona the crucial away goal that they needed, which meant they went through to the final.

But that night will not be remembered for the great goals or performances, it will be remembered for the abysmal referee decisions by Tom Henning Øvrebø. The Norwegian missed numerous penalty shouts, which would have given Chelsea (if converted) a 3-1 or perhaps even 4-1 win. It left the Chelsea fans, pundits, journalists and football managers shocked to see such poor refereeing in such a high profile, important match. A night that no one will forget for all the wrong reasons…

Another year, another manager for Chelsea as Carlo Ancelotti was announced as the Italian took the helm in the summer of 2009. He won 2 European cups as Milan’s cheif and we hoped he’d do the same for the Blues.

Everything went to plan in the group stages but we were then drawn against Mourinho’s Inter Milan, the first time we would meet Mourinho since he left in controversial circumstances in 2007. The tale of the two legs in these matches will be remembered by me personally for how tactically outclassed we was against Inter and how we was made to look like a Conference side at home. We did not deserve to progress this year and were left more disappointed with our performance in the second leg than anything else.

This brings me on to this year, with the final being held at our second home Wembley Stadium. I write this piece following our 1-0 home defeat to Manchester United in the week, a couple of days prior to the second-leg at Old Trafford. I feel the score-line still means we have it all to play for and will not go down without a fight. We have a very good record against United at Old Trafford and I hope this will continue. With Alex and Yossi Benayoun back, we have an injury free squad, competition for places and our form is picking up after a considerably slow season this year.

Do we have enough to secure the Champions League this year, in a year that our Premier League title has all but slipped away from us? I’m being optimist and think we can!

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