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| Moscow Set For All-English UEFA Champions League Finale |
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| Written by Adeleke Afolayan | ||||||
| Tuesday, 20 May 2008 | ||||||
     The clash between England's top two sides will be the third time in the Champions League a final will be contested by clubs from the same nation after Real Madrid beat Spanish counterpart Valencia in 2000 and Italy’s AC Milan won via penalties against Juventus in 2003. For Manchester United, it is the first time since 1999 it has reached the final and the present crop of players are already being compared with that treble winning squad of ’99. Chelsea meanwhile will be making a maiden appearance in the final of the Champions League following recent failures at the semi-final stage, mostly at the hands of Liverpool. The Blues will however have experienced players available to feature in the match with United, players who have previously won the trophy at other clubs or have reached the final. These players include Nicholas Anelka and Claude Makelele who both won the 2000 final with Real Madrid and Juliano Belletti whose then club Barcelona won in 2006 against Arsenal who had Ashley Cole at the time. Want away striker Andriy Shevchenko won the title for AC Milan with a penalty in 2003 only to lose it in 2005 in that dramatic match against Liverpool. Against a Manchester United side however, Chelsea will face an opponent brimming with confidence coupled with the abounding talent in the squad of a seasoned manager like Sir Alex Ferguson. Paul Scholes, who was suspended for the 1999 win over Bayern Munich, will likely start in Moscow on Wednesday while Ryan Giggs could use the match to become the Red Devils’ most capped player ever at 759 appearances. The Welshman however may start from the bench like he did at Wigan Athletic as Park Ji-Sung looks set to get one of Fergie’s starting shirts at the Luzhniki Stadium. Another man that would be chasing a milestone is Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese will be out to add to a phenomenal tally of 41 goals in all competitions, seven of those making him top scorer in this season’s competition. The English PFA and Journalists’ Player of the Year is currently three goals short of Ruud van Nistelrooy’s 44 goals and a further two off the all-time record held by Denis Law. Away from the milestones and record setting, Chelsea would straight from the referees whistle be out for some form of revenge after losing the league title to the Lancashire side. The Blues will be counting on captain John Terry to recover well enough from a dislocated elbow while Didier Drogba should have shrugged off an ankle problem in time to silence his critics who have labelled him a diver, including most recently, Nemanja Vidic. Fans of the Stamford Bridge side will be hoping though that the Ivorian silences his critics yet again as he did against Liverpool in a pulsating semi-final second leg few weeks ago. That match, which Chelsea won 3-2 after extra time, continued the Londoners impeccable home record in Europe as it last lost in February 2006. Ironically, a lot of Chelsea fans in Nigeria and in the world have the belief Moscow is home-away-from-home thanks to the Roman Abramovic factor, the Russian billionaire being Chelsea's owner. The oil magnate also has not disappointed in making the Luzhniki feel like home for his club after buying up a thousand tickets for Russians to support the Londoners, added to the allocated 42 thousand tickets from UEFA. No matter what happens off the pitch however, the glory will go to the team of 11 men who do what is needed to become European champions of 2008, win.  Quote this article on your site | Views: 252 | Print | E-mail
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