CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL Manchester Utd 1 Chelsea 1 (aet: Utd win 6-5 on pens)SO THEY WERE right, it was written in the stars. Fifty years after the disaster that robbed the club of one great team and 40 after the triumph of another, the team Alex Ferguson has hailed as the best he has worked with in his 22 years at Old Trafford won a penalty shoot-out in Moscow last night to claim Manchester United's third European title.
Goals from Ronaldo and Frank Lampard meant the sides were level after 90 minutes and extra time. However, after the English game's outstanding player this season missed his penalty to hand Chelsea the initiative in the spot-kick decider, John Terry squandered the chance to win it for the London club, slipping at the vital moment and hitting the outside of the post after sending Edwin van Der Sar the wrong way.
United, having gone first, then applied the pressure in sudden death with Anderson and Ryan Giggs converting before their Dutch goalkeeper clinched victory by saving from Nicolas Anelka.
It was a nerve-racking end to a tense final that threatened more than once to catch fire but never truly ignited.
Both sides started solidly enough with United edging the possession from early on, but Chelsea initially handled themselves well as they looked to contain Owen Hargreaves on one flank and Ronaldo on the other.
The Englishman, freed to press forward as Paul Scholes settled beside Michael Carrick in central midfield, posed the bigger threat at first, but Chelsea's looming problem with the Portuguese started to become apparent when he slipped easily past Michael Essien a quarter of an hour in before over-hitting his cross.
Ronaldo wasn't all that Chelsea had to contend with, of course. In the centre, the movement of Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney had the potential to become a constant headache. Claude Makelele attempted to track whichever one sought to drop deep while John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho provided the last line of defence.
Neither, though, could do anything about the opening goal. After a throw on the right, Wes Brown and Paul Scholes produced a neat exchange that allowed the right back to cut inside and play an angled ball to the far post where Ronaldo jumped but Essien didn't. Petr Cech could do no more than stand and watch as the winger's terrific header flew past him.
In the remaining 20 minutes of the half, United could have pushed on to assume a really commanding position. Chelsea's back four looked shaken, but Alex Ferguson's men couldn't capitalise on the chances that came their way.
They were denied first by a Cech double save - Tevez might have done better with a close-range header, but Carrick must really have thought he only had to hit the target - then by the failure of the Argentinian to connect properly with Rooney's low cross.
The first chance had followed swiftly from Chelsea's best of the half with Didier Drogba, having spent most of the half in pursuit of a free kick, heading down and Rio Ferdinand, under considerable pressure from Michael Ballack, forcing a decent reaction save from his own goalkeeper.
Up to this point little had been seen of Frank Lampard, while the men either supposed to be sporting Drogba from out wide - Florent Malouda and Joe Cole - were, once again, struggling to make an impact. Malouda, at least improved, but in the meantime the United full backs enjoyed a fair amount of freedom to push on, with Brown particularly impressive.
Inside them Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were coping well, but both were unfortunate with the equaliser which arrived in the 45th minute. A driven Essien shot took deflections off both defenders before Lampard popped up eight yards out to push home his fourth goal of this year's competition.
A little lucky to go in level at the break, Avram Grant's men came out stronger after it. Ronaldo did well to chase back after Essien and force him inside on to his left foot when Malouda had sent the Ghanaian racing clear. A while later, Vidic dealt effectively with a low cross by the Frenchman.
Hugely influential in the centre, Ballack went close enough with a long-range effort, Malouda had a penalty appeal waved away, and Drogba clattered the outside of the post from 20 yards.
But the goal would not come and United, despite their slightly reorganised midfield looking decidedly second best by now, always looked as though they knew the game was still there for them to win.
In the dying minutes of the 90, after Ryan Giggs arrived on for his club record-breaking 759th United appearance, they even seized back enough of the play to engineer a threat. But there was a sense of inevitability about this contest between such close rivals going the full distance.
Lampard came close to grabbing his second when he fired off the underside of the bar at one end and Giggs forced a good block from Terry at the other, but there was a sense both sides were becoming nervous about losing.
When Drogba lost his discipline and was sent off three minutes from time for clipping Vidic across the face amid a wider altercation, United stepped up their pursuit of a winner.
But the penalty lottery couldn't be avoided and the final interventions by the managers before the shoot-out began was to get penalty takers on, Grant opting for Juliano Belletti rather than Andriy Shevchenko.
MANCHESTER UTD: Van der Sar, Brown (Anderson 120), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Hargreaves, Scholes (Giggs 87), Carrick, Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney (Nani 101). Subs not used: Kuszczak, O'Shea, Fletcher, Silvestre. Booked: Scholes, Ferdinand, Vidic, Tevez.
CHELSEA: Cech, Essien, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Makelele (Belletti 120), Lampard, Joe Cole (Anelka 99), Drogba, Malouda (Kalou 92). Subs not used: Cudicini, Shevchenko, Obi, Alex. Sent Off: Drogba (116). Booked: Makelele, Carvalho, Ballack, Essien.
Referee: Lubos Michel (Slovakia).
PENALTY SHOOT-OUT
Tevez scored (1-0)
Ballack scored (1-1)
Carrick scored (2-1)
Belletti scored (2-2)
Ronaldo saved (2-2)
Lampard scored (2-3)
Hargreaves scored (3-3)
Ashley Cole scored (3-4)
Nani scored (4-4)
Terry missed (4-4)
Anderson scored (5-4)
Kalou scored (5-5)
Giggs scored (6-5)
Anelka saved (6-5)