by Gareth Hobbs

Created on: May 22, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Three weeks ago, Tuesday 29 April, to be exact was a great day. Manchester United beat Barcelona courtesy of a Paul Scholes rocket to make it to the Uefa Champion's League Final. I didn't care who won between Chelsea and Liverpool as my team had made it. They were going to Moscow. Three weeks seemed too long to wait but finally the day arrived bringing elation and despair with it.

Building up to the final much happened for both the Red Devils and the Blues. The premier league going down to the final match with United finally clinching it with a victory over Wigan Athletic, denying Chelsea a title for the second time in the season. Would they be able to take the glory a third time. Only time would tell.

Kickoff, and i almost missed it, stupid Central European Time changing in summer. Why can't things of international significance just use GMT, at least then I'd know the time difference. The whistle goes and the match begins. I wasn't expecting a great spectacle, not like the Liverpool - AC Milan game in 2005. A match like that only happens once a decade, especially in a final. Both sides were suitably cagey for the opening 20 minutes with neither wanting to make a mistake. The only thing of note was a collision between Scholes and Makelele which saw a minor flare up of tempers and a booking for each of them, although why Makelele was booked still confuses me.

Then, 26 minutes in, the game came to life. Brown passes to Scholes, back to Brown, floats in the cross, Ronaldo gets clear of his marker, heads the ball, places it to perfection beating Cech, Goooaaaal. Excellent, now we have a game on our hands, and more importantly, United is in front. United had the upper hand for most of the first half with Cech keeping the lead to one by a brilliant double save. With only seconds to go to the half time whistle, i started to relax thinking United would lead going into the break. Clearly, they started to relax as well, gifting Lampard with the equaliser just before half time, idiots.

The second half was a tense affair with Chelsea coming back into the game. My heart was in my mouth as twice I watched the Chelsea strikers beat Van der Sar only to be denied by the woodwork. Apart from that, not much of interest happened in second half as once again neither side wanted to make a costly mistake. With extra time beckoning the tension started to mount every time Chelsea got into United's half. After all, a goal now would surely doom the conceders to defeat. At 89 minutes a substitution

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