Man U Wins Dramatic Victory

It is commonly said that there exists a god for the Europe Champions League. And the god is very cruel.

For this year’s final, the god pinpointed the most famous player at Manchester United and Chelsea, respectively, and had them see both heaven and hell.

The shoot-out started amid pouring rain. It was after a match ended in a 1-1 tie and a subsequent extended game.

Manchester’s top player Cristiano Ronaldo was the third kicker when the shoot-out was scoring 2-2. Ronaldo has scored the most goals of 31 in Premier League this year, and also had the first goal of the match 26 minutes into the first half. Few spectators expected him to miss the goal.

But Ronaldo hesitated for a short second, letting Chelsea players read his card. As a result, his left shoot was blocked by Chelsea’s goalkeeper Petr Cech.

After the five Manchester kickers completed their shootings, the score was still a 4-4 draw. The only remaining kicker was John Terry, the captain of Chelsea. Terry slowly approached the ball. If he scored a goal, the match was going to end in a 5-4 victory of Chelsea.

Roman Abramovich, the 20-trillion-won worth Russian owner of Chelsea FC, was showing his nervousness and began to pray with his face down.

The rain was the variable. Terry successfully faked his move and kicked the ball to the right-hand side. But his left foot slipped shortly before shooting and the ball ended up outside of the net.

Gaining another chance in a dramatic twist, Manchester scored two goals in a row in the additional shoot-outs, while Chelsea saw its seventh kicker Nicholas Anelka miss the goal and lost the game 5-6.

Ronald screamed in relief, lying on the ground. Terry dropped tears of regret, looking up the sky. Manchester grabbed the Champions League win for the third time, achieving the double with its victory in the Premier League.

bluesky@donga.com