Chelsea's Cup delight
05/15/2010 06:35:59 PM
suffered the backlash.
For once, a half had been completed with no one mentioning the pitch.
An odd colour it might have looked but it was not restricting the entertainment value, which included a penalty 10 minutes after the restart.
Introduced for Michael Ballack, who had been the subject of a vicious first-half tackle from Boateng, Juliano Belletti had not quite got his bearings.
And when Dindane nipped past him, the Brazilian lunged in and sent him sprawling.
After all that had gone before, the entire stadium had the sense this was the moment that would give the underdogs the trophy. Except Boateng had not read the script.
So bad was his effort that Cech, having gone down early, had time to make the readjustment required and boot it clear.
Within three minutes, Drogba converted his magnificent free-kick and the dream was over.
Had Lampard scored when he was bundled over in the box by Michael Brown three minutes from time, Chelsea would have deserved it.
He did not. It was that type of extraordinary game.