So near and yet so far

There are very few things in life that are worth losing your sleep over, and in the past few years I had added the Champions' League semifinals and finals to the list of those things. So it was but natural that I fought the closing instincts of my eyelids to (inconsequentially) cheer my beloved Chelsea to glory in its first ever Champions' League final.

I always thought that nothing hurts more than seeing your team put up a pathetic performance (as Chelsea did in the first half, but escaped with a serious stroke of luck in the end), but I was proved wrong in the end.

Apparently, I had forgotten the dreadful record of my teams once the matches went down to penalty shootouts. It began with 2006 World Cup quarter-finals (the unheralded Portuguese trouncing the paper-tigers England 4-1 in penalties), followed up by 4-1 defeat of Chelsea to Manchester United (3-0) by penalties in the Community Shield, 2007.

All that looked to be changing when Petr Cech saved the third ManU penalty from Christiano Ronaldo. The heart of every Chelsea fanatic would have filled with ecstacy and would have pounded in anticipation of the turning of a new page in Chelsea's history. (The foolishly red-carded Drogba ensured that) Chelsea's fifth penalty was taken by none other than the inspirational John Terry, perhaps the last person to be expected to goof-up in a tight situation. But then, even Christiano had missed and luck gave John Terry the slip at the worst possible moment and the penalty shootout was then tied at 4-4.

It only took another couple of successful shots from ManU and a save from Van der Sar (off Nicolas Anelka) to bring a sudden death to all my hopes, aspirations and expectations of victory.

It is said that penalty shootouts are a lottery and most often rightly so. And there would be no denying that after their insipid first half performance, Chelsea fought back brilliantly throughout the match, enough to have deserved their victory, if it was to be.

From the final extra-time scoreline of 1-1, it can be rightly inferred that it was an even match (perhaps, with all the missed chances from ManU and the shots from Lampard and Drogba hitting the post, 3-3 would have been more apt). But sadly, one of them had to lose and even more sadly for me, it was destined to be Chelsea.

The scenes of joy and celebration from the Luzhniki in Moscow would have made me happy for ManU if Chelsea hadn't been their opponents. Anyways, well-played Manchester United, maybe a deserved win, or maybe not, doesn't make any difference now.

As far as Chelsea is concerned, it was the most awfully heart-breaking case of being so near and yet so far.