POIGINIANT CHAMPIONS

Manchester United have once again been crowned Champions of Europe following a late-night gripping encounter with Chelsea in Moscow. It was no great surprise that the destination of the Champions League trophy eventually came down to a penalty shoot-out but many fans will have been surprised by the quality of the 120 minutes beforehand.

United bossed the opening half and could have easily been 3-0 ahead after half an hour. Ronaldo capped a remarkable 42-goal season with a bullet header following excellent approach play by Wes Brown and Paul Scholes. The Red Devils failed to add to their tally despite a period of intense pressure with Carlos Tevez and Michael Carrick each going close. Chelsea showed their undoubted resilience by grabbing an equaliser shortly before half time with the tireless Lampard firing home from close range.

The Londoners were a different side in the second period and overran United in midfield with Lampard, and Ballack taking control in the centre of the park. Didier Drogba was having an ineffectual evening thanks to the brilliance of Vidic but demonstrated his class by thumping the Manchester upright with a spectacular 25 yard effort. The game became stretched going into the final 15 minutes with both sides visibly tiring (to be fair it was 1am Russian time). Tempers became frayed near the end and Drogba received his marching orders after a silly tap across the face of Vidic. Despite their numerical disadvantage Chelsea had the best chance of sealing victory when Lampard rattled the United crossbar late on. Giggs could well have grabbed an extra-time winner were it not for the superb defending of John Terry.

The Chelsea captain would play the pivotal role in the dreaded penalty shoot-out. Terry strode forward for the 10th and final spot-kick knowing a goal would secure Champions League glory for his side. Alas, the England defender either slipped or made a hash of his run-up and for the third time that night the upright came to the rescue of Manchester United. Memories of 1999 came flooding back when Bayern Munich absolutely pummelled the United defence with the aid of a 1-0 cushion only to hit post, crossbar and side-netting. United bounced back to score twice in injury time and snatch the most dramatic European Cup final victory in history. RTE panellist, John Giles remarked during extra-time that despite Chelsea's dominance, United's name may well be on the trophy. How right he was and when Edwin Van Der Sar flung himself to his right to deny Anelka in sudden death, the European Cup was set for its third visit to Old Trafford.

Sir Alex Ferguson looked more relieved than happy at the final whistle. Winning 31 trophies in his time as a manager with both Aberdeen and Man United cements his position in the pantheon of best British managers of all time. In my opinion his greatest achievement is putting together three different teams in his time at Old Trafford and being consistently successful with each side. Who knows, if the cap on foreign players hadn’t been in existence during the mid-90’s United may well have won at least another two Champions Leagues.

It was fitting that Sir Bobby Charlton was present to lead the United squad up to receive the trophy from Michel Platini, adding a touching poignancy to the celebrations. The Old Trafford club are still defined by that horrible crash that took the lives of so many wonderful footballers on a Munich runway 50 years ago.

The current manager and squad look set to honour the memories of that team by continuing their dominance of both the domestic and European game for many years to come.