Chelsea has the unique distinction of being the
Champions League titleholders (at least until May 25) and the winners of
the Europa League,Chelsea is a European champion Again.
After a dramatic win in last year’s Champions League final against
Bayern Munich, Chelsea added the Europa League trophy to its haul by
beating Benfica, 2-1, in Amsterdam on Wednesday with a goal in stoppage time.
Chelsea becomes the first English team to win all three major
European club competitions, having already claimed the Champions League
and the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup.
The win came against the backdrop of a tumultuous season, but it was
also characteristic of a resilient and determined team that has made an
art of collecting trophies in unconventional fashion.
For much of the campaign, it looked as though Chelsea would perform
far below its own standards. After a slow start in the Premier League,
Chelsea was left trying to secure a Champions League spot for next
season’s tournament. In addition, the Champions League-winning coach
Roberto Di Matteo was dismissed after a 3-0 loss to Juventus in
November, a loss that essentially eliminated the club from this season’s
competition.
Di Matteo’s dismissal after he won two major trophies, along with the
appointment of the unpopular Rafael BenÃtez as the interim manager,
raised several questions and cast doubt over the team’s direction. A
loss to Corinthians in the World Club Cup final in December only added
to those reservations.
The goal scorers: Branislav Ivanovic,
right, and Fernando Torres.
Benfica created chance after chance while its opponent appeared
largely uninspired. Benfica dominated possession in the first half and
continually managed to pass its way around the Chelsea defense, lacking
only a final touch or finish to score. That pattern continued into the
second half, which made Fernando Torres’s opening goal even more
surprising.
Torres had taken a knock earlier in the game, and his teammates had
struggled to find him up to that point. Then, out of nowhere, in a
three-touch sequence around the hour mark, Chelsea found its way past
Benfica to take the lead.
Goalkeeper Peter Cech sent a ball forward, which midfielder Juan Mata
delicately chipped Torres’s way. Torres rounded Benfica goalkeeper
Artur to score his ninth goal in Europe this season. Only Real Madrid’s
Cristiano Ronaldo and Borussia Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski have scored
more this season.
Benfica persisted and continued to put pressure on Chelsea. It was
finally rewarded when the referee Bjorn Kuipers awarded Benfica a
penalty. Óscar Cardozo stepped up and leveled the score.
A year earlier, Chelsea also had its back to the wall when Bayern
Munich scored with less than 10 minutes to go. In that game, Chelsea
improved as the match progressed. Sure enough, Chelsea did it again.
Despite the equalizer, Chelsea seemed to gain confidence and began to
display its resilience and determination of last year. With the clock
running down, BenÃtez surprisingly insisted on not making any
substitutions; his counterpart, Jorge Jesus, used all three substitutes
in the final 12 minutes of the match.
In the final minutes, defender Branislav Ivanovic leaped over everyone to hit a looping header for the match-winning goal.
Chelsea now joins Bayern Munich, Ajax and Juventus in an elite group
of teams that have won all three major club competitions (the Champions
League, the Europa League/UEFA Cup, and the Cup Winners’ Cup). It also
become only the second European team to win both major competitions back
to back and the first to hold them at the same time.
BenÃtez, meanwhile, will leave the club at the end of the season with
an illustrious record. He became the second coach to win a major
European club trophy with three teams, following the German coach Udo
Lattek.
Torres and Mata also join an exclusive list of players, becoming the
third and fourth players to have won the World Cup, the European
Championship, the Europa League and the Champions League in their
careers, after the German players Jürgen Kohler and Andreas Möller.
The exhilarating finish came near the end of a long and tiring season
for Chelsea, which was playing its 68th game. But despite all the
turbulence surrounding the club, the owner Roman Abramovich can be
content knowing that his club won its 11th trophy in his 10 years in
charge and made history, again.