We wuz robbed.
Strangely I don’t feel as miffed about the result as I would have expected – and much less gutted than I was after last year’s final, which was seriously painful. The thing is, Chelsea fully deserved to win: with the exception of the stoppage time goal Barcelona didn’t have a single shot on target all night, whereas, even without the distinctly dodgy penalty decisions, Chelsea had a lot of opportunities and were simply the better side. Sir Alex must be delighted – the best possible outcome for him, the weaker team gets through and is eviscerated in the process (eg no regular full backs for the final, bet Ronaldo loves that prospect). Of course, having vented that spleen, the fundamental truths are: Chelsea didn’t put away their chances, Barca did; and, the scenes at the end, whilst understandable, were a disgrace. There we go. Given the upheaval at Stamford Bridge recently, I still think this works out as a better campaign that we had any right to expect.