Chelsea’s famous Champions League win against Munich in 2012 is a source of joy for every Blues fan, but a source of heartbreak for German legend Philipp Lahm.
During the 2000s, Chelsea rose to prominence as one of the dominant forces in English football.
But European glory eluded the Blues for years, until one fateful night in Munich. A night that lives long in the memory of Lahm, for the wrong reasons.
Nothing could split the sides over 120 minutes, but Chelsea would emerge victorious thanks to penalty shootout heroics from Didier Drogba, cementing the club’s status as a European big-hitter.
Lahm recently recounted the events of the final, and how one player left him feeling as dejected as he ever felt in his 16 years as a professional footballer.
Chelsea win the Champions League in 2012 against Bayern Munich
Photo by Ben Radford/Corbis via Getty Images
Phillip Lahm’s reaction to watching Chelsea win the Champions League
Lahm has enjoyed a fair bit of success in his storied career. The German has a World Cup, a Champions League, and eight Bundesliga titles to show for his efforts at Bayern Munich.
But the night he lost to Chelsea was the low point of his career.
Speaking to The Football Section, he recalls: “The 2012 final in Munich against Chelsea was one of the worst nights of my life. We were at home, with our people, and we failed.
“When Drogba lifted the trophy, I felt empty, as if everything we had built meant nothing.”
The Ivorian scored the equaliser and the winning spot-kick, so the sight of him in particular was a sore one.
To lose a final of such magnitude is pain enough, but for one penalty kick to decide the season is a bitter pill to swallow. Luckily for Lahm, his suffering was relatively short-lived, as he goes on to explain.
“But a year later we lifted the Champions League in Wembley, and that contrast taught me the greatest lesson: in football you can die one day and be reborn the next.”
Chelsea’s Champions League prospects this season
After the summer’s events at the Club World Cup, Enzo Maresca has shown he can coach in big games, made apparent in their 3-0 dismantling of the current European champions, PSG.
We’d all relish the chance to celebrate in that manner again, and while Chelsea aren’t stacked with legends like they were in 2012, a Champions League run isn’t out of the realms of possibility.
This side has also made a deep run in Europe already, albeit in the Conference League.
The Champions League is the pinnacle of club competition, and winning is no easy feat, but no one expected Thomas Tuchel’s side to win in 2021. This time around, Chelsea have to be in the conversation.
You never know. Ten years from now, a current European star could be recounting similar heartbreak, this time inflicted by Maresca’s Chelsea.