Chelsea weren't lucky. They were on target

What does it take to be completely outclassed yet come out on top against Bayern Munich and Barcelona? It takes luck. It takes the blessing of fate. And it also takes a lot of hard work to produce that amount of luck. There are many who will have woken up in the morning and said that after ‘lucky’ Arsenal, it’s now lucky Chelsea. And if you try to fight that – they’ll probably throw a ton of statistics at you. Bayern had 43 shots on goal (out of which only 7 were on target). Chelsea, in comparison, were pedestrian. They had just 9 shots on target, with just three on target. The German side also had an amazing 20 corners as compared to Chelsea’s count of just one. Of course, then there is also the case of Arjen Robben missing the penalty in the 95th minute of the game. All of that – most Chelsea haters would say – points to luck – luck and nothing else. But look at it this way – if sport were only about stats, then it would be resigned to a computer or some statistician’s office. [caption id=“attachment_315338” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Chelsea was lucky yes, but they made the most of their luck. AP”]  [/caption] Bayern played good football – indeed, they played the better football. Their passing was good, they created more opportunities and had Chelsea on the defensive throughout. In the game against Barcelona, Chelsea concentrated their defense to the centre of the pitch. They gave the flanks to Guardiola’s team and it was good strategy because Barcelona never really use the flanks. But against Bayern that strategy was counter-productive. Franck Ribery and Robben, Bayern’s most creative players, were a constant menace on the wings and that stretched the Chelsea defense. But the Blues hung on, grimly and for as long as possible. But when Thomas Muller finally scored in the 83rd minute, it seemed as if Chelsea’s luck had finally run out. But then Didier Drogba showed that luck counts for nothing if you aren’t prepared to produce a few miracles of your own. A brilliant header from the Ivorian evened things out and sent the game into extra-time. Chelsea got some wind in their sails at that point but for everything that went wrong, someone in the Blues would stand up and be counted. It was desperate stuff by a team that almost everyone had branded as has-beens – too old, too slow, too rich. Sometimes the best team doesn’t win – and statistics tell you that Chelsea were clearly second best. But what’s the use of averaging 30 points in basketball or having a batting average of 60 or taking 43 shots at goal (as Bayern did) if you can’t make it count on the day of the final? Chelsea was lucky yes, but they made the most of their luck. Bayern, in a sense, were lucky as well. They were playing at home, at a ground they know and are really tough to beat on and almost everyone was willing them to win. But they never quite figured out what to do with their luck and Chelsea did, which is why in the end – the team that won wasn’t the one with the better numbers. We love football precisely because of what happened last night – a few twists; a few turns and we have a script that we probably couldn’t have even dreamed up. Chelsea are champions; they are the Kings of Europe and no matter what anyone says for the next year, they’ve earned the right to call themselves the best.