Chelsea’s draw with Bayern Munich will allow the London club’s fans the chance to return to the scene of its only Champions League final victory in 2012.
It’s fair to say Chelsea won that year’s tournament against all the odds.
Former midfielder Roberto Di Matteo had taken over first-team managerial duties on a caretaker basis following the sacking of Andre Villas-Boas in March 2012.
In a remarkable second-leg semifinal against Barcelona, Chelsea went down to 10 men after John Terry’s sending off and and were losing 2-1 on aggregate after Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta scored for the La Liga team.
Somehow Chelsea rallied and Ramires’ clever chip and Fernando Torres’ late goal sent the Premier League side through to the final.
Without the suspended Terry in the final, which was played in Munich, Chelsea went behind before Didier Drogba’s late goal took the game against Bayern into extra-time and eventually penalties.
Chelsea won the shootout 4-3 – current coach Frank Lampard captained the team on that historic night – with David Luiz scoring one of the penalties. That the Brazilian was playing was incredible given he was suffering from a serious hamstring injury.
“I was out for 35 days and came back to training,” said Luiz at the time. “But two days before the final I had a bad pain again in my hamstring and it meant that maybe I wasn’t going to be fit to play in the game.
“On Friday I had to have a fitness test to see if I could play but even in the game, after 20 minutes I could feel it again, feel it bad, and then I ended up playing 120 minutes.”
“But I told myself I was not going to let it make me come off. I said, ‘I have worked all my life for this. This was the dream I had as a kid, to play in this game.’”
