Terry Asked For Deciding Penalty In Moscow

Avram Grant has reflected on the European Cup final of 2008 when Manchester United beat Chelsea on penalties.

After Cristiano Ronaldo missed his penalty and Chelsea scored all of theirs, it came to John Terry to win it for the blues. Terry slipped and the rest is history but Grant has today talked about how his captain asked to take the deciding penalty in place of Didier Drogba, who had been sent off in extra time.

“Terry was not on the list,” he said. “But because Drogba was sent off we changed it because Kalou needed to be the fifth and then, because it was the deciding penalty, JT wanted it. He did his best. I thought he would score. But JT missed and Anelka missed again and that was the end of the story. Finish.”

However, it wasn’t Terry’s miss that won the cup for United, but the sudden death save from Nicolas Anelka’s penalty by Edwin Van der Sar.

Grant has revealed that Terry asks his former manager why that penalty is often forgotten, whilst everyone always remembers his.

“People forget about Anelka,” said Grant. “John Terry always says to me, ‘Why do people always talk about my miss?’ I say, ‘If you had not missed nobody would speak about it’.”

I think the fact he spent the next hour crying like a little girl probably makes it more memorable too. Just a thought.