How Not to Win the Champions League; A Blueprint

[Fulham Broadway 16,386]

Could quite easily be so, talk about making it difficult.;

1) Lose 3 1 in Napoli and sack your manager

2) Go 2-0 Down to the best team in the World get your captain sent off and give a penalty to the best player in the World

3)Then get a third of your team suspended for the final against a team in their home ground

4) Then take on a German team at penalties at their end of the ground and win

Thats why its the greatest game in the world -and why its been Chelseas most successful season.

''Written in the Stars'' indeed - a message to the main, a million miles away, seasons come and go, but I will never change....

[Sheva. 5,373]

Incredible. Especially that Barca away leg, we did everything we were meant to avoid, and still came out on top

[Strike 6,958]

not to mention the squeaky bum time in the group stage. this has been one hell of a ride

[i.am.blue 61]

beating barca was historical

[Kez 2,727]

The "underdogs" did it!

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

I posted this on the post-match thread as well

Has there ever been a better Champions League journey? I'm not talking about a single game, but an entire campaign. Liverpool in Istanbul was special. Coming back from 3 goals down will be remembered as a great triumph. However our journey is greater. Our story is more grand.

You've heard it all before. Season in pieces, new manager, on the brink of defeat against Napoli, being told our players are too old and finished. We beat the odds over and over again. The win against Barcelona was truly special. No-one expected us to win. Complete underdogs. We could not be greater underdogs to win this thing. Our old guard put in one last shift. They knew this was their last chance. They stepped up, they delivered, like only they could.

Could we have won it in a more fitting way? On Penalties, with Drogba, the man who would have stepped up in Moscow to slot home the Penalty JT missed. Drogba the man who has carried us in so many big games, over so many years, who has destroyed opposition after opposition, with probably his last kick of the ball as a Chelsea player. There is just something so Romantic about it all. Never has something been written in the stars as much as this.

This truly was a fairy tail. Happy endings do exist. Rome wasn't built in a day they say. Today, the Roman Empire, is Complete!

[termninja 5,290]

Some things just can't be prevented from happening. Still can't fucking believe it!

[TomCFC 356]

5) Win not a single away game.

[captainjt26 106]

Forget the movie Dodgeball Chelsea this season is the true underdog story !

[chelsea blue 615]

5) Win not a single away game.

Benfica away won 1 - 0

[TomCFC 356]

Argh! Forgot about that. Still impressive nonetheless.

6) Start a CL debutant in the final.

[manpe 10,855]

So much more appealing story than Barca or Real strolling to their expected success with fair ease. Nobody would even care.

[warnie_666 1,081]

I have always beleived that the universe has it way of levelling things. The way we have come back from the 3-1 score at Napoli makes you think that we got all the luck we missed in 2005, 2008, 2009.

Barca beating us at our home ground and celebrating infront of our fans. Destiny gives us the opportunity to do that at Nou Camp and we pull off the greatest comeback in the history of football.

Drogba sent off in 2008 Moscow final. He was supposed to take it but he was off. 1 penalty from being champions JT steps up and slipps and misses. Fast Forward 4 years in Munich. 1 penalty away from being Champions, guess who steps up. Didier Drogba.

what goes around comes around.

like Gary neville said It is written in the stars.

[Term-X 7,891]

a message to the main, a million miles away, seasons come and go, but I will never change....

^ Just in case someone didn't 'get' that...

[capriccioso 2,545]

What a campaign. From the group stages down to the final itself we were clinging onto staying alive. We pulled through by the skin of the teeth, and that, for me, is more satisfying then winning every game 6-0. I would probably be happier if the latter scenario were to happen than I am now but the drama of the campaign, the fact that we were just one slice of bad fortune away from going out at several points along the journey, made it all the more compelling.

[Swedish House Mafia 508]

Chelsea were the lowest placed team (6th) ever in any league to win the Champions League.