On the 19th of may Chelsea became the first London club to win the Champions League. Here is a reminiscence of Chelsea's 2012 Champions League campaign. In the last 16 of the Champions League 2012 Chelsea over turned a 3-1 defecate by beating Napoli 4-1 at Stamford Bridge thanks to a Drogba diving header, John Terry header, Lampard penalty and a match winning goal from Ivanovic. In the quarter finals Chelsea booked a Champions League semifinal clash with Barcelona after beating Benfica 2-1 at Stamford Bridge through Frank Lampard penalty and a 20 yard blast from Meireles to register a 3-1 win on aggregate. In the semi-finals first leg Chelsea beat Barcelona 1 nil at home when Ramires's cut back cross assisted Drogba who placed his shot in the bottom corner beyond Barca's Victor Valdez. In the semi final second leg at the Nou Camp Chelsea lost centre back Gary Cahill in the first 10 minutes because of a thigh injury, lost their Captain John Terry due to red card and went 1 nil down when Lionel Messi's pass assisted Busquest's at the near post to score. Lionel Messi through ball assisted Andres Iniesta who placed the ball beyond Petr Cech to make the score 2-0 to Barcelona. But Just before half time Lampard's through ball assisted Ramires who strode forward to chip Chelsea ahead on away goals. In the second half Lionel Messi's penalty hit the cross bar and later on Messi had a shot out side the box struck the post. Chelsea still defending deep then in the 94 minute Ashley Cole's long Ball finds Fernando Torres in his own half clear through one on one rounds Barca's keeper Victor Valdez and scores to put Chelsea through to the Champions League Final in Munich. In the 83rd minute of the Champions League final Muller's header put Bayern in front but in the 88th minute Mata's corner assisted Drogba's bullet equalizing header to make scores 1-1. In the third minute of extra time Drogba brought down Franck Ribery in the box which meant former Chelsea player Arjen Robben steped up to take the penalty but his shot was saved by Petr Cech. Aet the final will be decided by a penalty shoot out. Bayern took the first penalty which was scored by Bayern Munich captain Phillip Lahm, Mata's penalty shot was saved by Neuer, Gomez scored his penalty for Bayern, David Luiz for Chelsea took a long run up and scored his penalty, Bayern Munich keeper Neuer scored his penalty, Lampard scored his penalty for Chelsea, Olic steped up for Bayern and Petr Cech saved it, Ashley Cole scored an excellent penalty for Chelsea to make scores 3-3 in the shoot out, Schweinsteiger took Bayern's 5th penalty but was saved by Petr Cech and finally Chelsea striker Didier Drogba scored the winning penalty, Chelsea crowned Champions Of Europe 2012. Chelsea begin their title defence against Italian seria a Champions Juventus. On 11th March 2009 was the last time these two met and the score was Juventus 2-2 Chelsea (2-3). In their domestic league 2012-13 seria a Champions Juventus have won their first two games and sit top of the serie a table with 6 points. Chelsea have won 3 games, drawn 1 and sit top of the English Premier League table with 10 points. Terry picked up a knee injury in the latter stages of last Saturday's 0-0 draw at QPR but came through a training session on Tuesday. Defensive midfielder John Obi Mikel should also be available despite a slight back injury. Playmaker Juan Mata is set to return after sitting out the QPR match. Juventus have made no changes to their 23-man squad from the team that beat Genoa 3-1 on Sunday. Emanuele Giaccherini, Mirko Vucinic and Kwadwo Asamoah scored as Juventus fought back to continue their 42-game unbeaten run. Defender Lucio was an unused substitute as he continues to recover from an ankle complaint. UEFA Champions League : Group E Table 1 Chelsea 2 FC Nordsjaelland 3 Juventus 4 Shakhtar Donetsk Here is my team line up: Cech Ivanovic David Luiz Terry Cole Ramires Lampard Oscar Mata Hazard Torres Subs: Turnbull, Cahill, Bertrand, Romeu, Mikel, Moses, Sturridge.
I read that Juventus are now on a 42 match unbeaten run in all games! There's some great bragging rights up for the taking tonight!
Considering the team at the moment I think any form of draw would be very respectable. 1-1 I think, RDM will play pretty defensively.
Line Up - Cech - Ivan - Luiz - Terry - Cole - Ramires - Mikel - Lampard - Hazard - Oscar - Torres Moses, Mata and Azpi among the subs.
Mikel the mug gives the ball away, an then stands still, instead of fighting t get it back !!!!! whats all that about ....
When all's said and done we'd have settled for that! However I wouldn't have said that after Oscar's second!
this cant be THE match thread can it ? First champions league game and the ENTIRE match thread for the 90 minutes has TWELVE posts . Jesus H Christ .
I thought we played pretty well although struggled to exert real control over the midfield. Mikel was woeful tonight. Oscar did well with his two goals but needs to get involved more - he just needs time. Mata looked very sharp when he came on - link up play with Hazard was sublime leading up to Mata's side netting attempt. I'm on Torres downer at the moment - God do we need a striker who can keep hold of the ball and then do something with it. Really enjoyable match. Not quite as good as the City/Real match last night though.
