MARK LAWRENSON SOCCER ANALYSTTO USE a boxing analogy, the match represented a fighter being pummelled early on and being knocked down before getting off the canvas, going on to dominate the fight and then being knocked out by a killer punch.
The match, at least the first 112 minutes of it, was a brilliant advertisement for the Premier League, played at a high tempo with great intensity. It was a great contest and will have a positive effect for English soccer in terms of the global audience.
There have been times this season when the Premiership has been over-hyped, but it was a quality game last night, apart from the farcical shenanigans in extra-time when Didier Drogba was sent off for a petulant gesture.
On the basis of the respective performance in the first half the game should have been decided in Manchester United's favour, and you wondered would the misses by Carlos Tevez, twice, and Michael Carrick come back to haunt them.
On big occasions it's impossible to overemphasise the importance of taking the majority of opportunities that come your way.
Alex Ferguson's team selection definitely caught Chelsea cold. Not many believed that the United manager would start with the attacking axis of Tevez, Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo ahead of packing the midfield.
The movement and interchanging of positions between the three meant that United could play through Chelsea and keep the ball successfully.
Ronaldo gave Michael Essien a torrid time in the first half, dropping short to receive the ball and then being able to run at the makeshift right back, and he served notice with several excellent crosses before scoring the opening goal.
Ronaldo is exceptionally good in the air, as he proved this with a perfectly timed jump and well-placed header.
United also benefited from the decision to play Owen Hargreaves on the right side of midfield; it proved a clever option in keeping Ashley Cole pinned back.
In every match there comes a period when the team, no matter how well they are playing, find that their opponents get a foothold. Chelsea could have been buried, but they're a good side and highlighted the virtues with which they play. They kept digging away and got their reward, albeit by virtue of some exceptional good fortune.
You cannot legislate for a couple of ricochets and Edwin van der Sar slipping, but Frank Lampard gambled and got his reward.
Going into half-time you felt the Chelsea dressingroom would have been the happier place. They had been largely outplayed and could have been two or three goals down, but instead were level; psychologically it would have been a massive fillip.
You could see the impact at the start of the second half: Chelsea more composed and confident, United missing the assurance with which they played most of the opening 45 minutes.
Chelsea began to pick up the breaking ball in midfield and United's front three were becoming more isolated as they struggled to keep hold of the ball.
The second half was what
I believed beforehand would happen for the whole game with Chelsea using their midfield physicality to push on.
At half-time Avram Grant would have demanded that they play the game in United's half and that's exactly what they did.
United dropped deeper and deeper as Chelsea dominated without actually creating anything really clear-cut in front of goal; Didier Drogba's moment of individual brilliance notwithstanding. Michael Ballack and Lampard were allowed to turn in possession and start running at their opponents, completely reversing the first-half trend. Chelsea wouldn't have wanted to hear the final whistle such was their dominance.
Lampard almost scores and then very much against the run of play in the first half of extra-time a wonderful run and pull back by Patrice Evra to Ryan Giggs should have led to a goal.
John Terry instinctively diverted the shot over the cross bar with his head. Giggs wanted it on his left foot, but his right might have been the better option. It was another glorious opportunity for United and in a contest like this one they could ill afford not to capitalise.
One of the most heartening things about extra-time was that both teams kept trying to win the game. There was no standing off and being cautious. Ronaldo had become a peripheral figure, Chelsea cutting off the supply line.
The lottery of penalties was probably a fitting epitaph that summed up the topsy-turvy nature of a compelling final. And so their last clash of the season ended the same way as their first and with the same result - neatly bookending the rivalry.
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