There aren't too many moments in football that fans can recall almost frame by frame - but Chelsea captain John Terry’s long walk up to the penalty spot and miss in the Champions League final against Manchester United is one.
Terry had just about picked himself off the ground at the Luzhniki Stadium, on the outskirts of Moscow, as tears rolled down his face. Rain hammered relentlessly onto the pitch as he blew his chance to win the trophy. And soon it was United's players who sprinted away in celebration.
This was supposed to be the England defender's crowning moment - the night the Chelsea captain finally lifted the European Cup. Instead, it turned into his living nightmare. Today, on the 18th anniversary of that epic final, a body language expert helps us look back at when Terry slipped in one of football's most infamous and - depending on your allegiances - funniest moments.
John Terry
View 8 Images
Chelsea captain John Terry slipped and missed the penalty in the biggest moment of his career against Manchester United(Image: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC Via Getty Images)
JOIN US ON FB! Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page
The first ever Champions League final between two English teams had seen Cristiano Ronaldo power newly-crowned Premier League champions United ahead in the 26th minute. Wes Brown was the unlikely creator, as his quick one-two with Paul Scholes created room for a cross.
Ronaldo was back-post, in what would soon become his trademark, and leapt higher than the Chelsea defence to turn his header past a flat-footed Petr Cech. The Blues hit back before half-time, when a wayward shot by Michael Essien found its way into the path of Frank Lampard, who dinked the ball over Edwin van der Sar with ease.
However, neither side was able to break the other once more, and penalties beckoned. Ronaldo was first to miss, presenting Terry with the ultimate moment inside the rain-soaked stadium, with the scores level at 4-4.
His team-mate Claude Makelele later claimed Terry altered Chelsea's penalty order "at the last-minute", as the fifth penalty was originally meant to be taken by Salomon Kalou, because Terry "tried to be a hero".
"John Terry wanted to take that penalty. He wanted the responsibility," body language expert Darren Stanton told Daily Star Sport , via OLBG, looking back at the footage.
Chelsea Captain John Terry showing signs of his tears after missing his penalty and crying during the UEFA Champions League Final between Chelsea and Manchester United at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia.
View 8 Images
A heartbroken John Terry after he slipped as he ran up to take the spot-kick - causing him to spray the ball to the right of the goal.(Image: Corbis via Getty Images)
Some critics would later suggest that as he approached the spot, visibly adjusting his captain's armband, Terry was already thinking about lifting the trophy and the photographs he would no doubt have framed on the walls of his home. But Stanton said it was instead a "ritualistic gesture" - part of the process of focusing on the job at hand.
He said: "A lot of sportspeople tend to do this, particularly in baseball where they might touch their cap before they hit a shot. You’ll notice in the footage that he adjusts his sleeves on his arm. It helps him focus and reduces a bit of stress and to get his mind right.
“He would have been having internal dialogue, self-talk with himself saying ‘come on you can do this’. You can see he’s under a lot of pressure but the most apparent thing before he takes the penalty is the ritualistic gesture. It’s almost like a trigger.”
Wherever the truth lies, when the moment came, Terry took a long run-up, stepped to the ball and slipped - sending it ballooning to the right of Van der Sar's goal.
Content cannot be displayed without consent
Stanton said: "We see his initial reaction was to stay on the floor, lean forward almost like he's touching toes, and that is all linked directly to the idea of the space we take up.
"When we're proud, and we want to show off, we want to be seen. We make ourselves bigger. We often see it with athletes all the time. They'll raise their hands into the air, run around as footballers do, even do somersaults and make a scene.
"That is all to take up more space. There is a direct connection between space and how we perceive ourselves.
"Conversely, there's also a correlation between reducing how much space we take up when we feel negative things about ourselves or feel smaller, and in the context of Terry staying down on the floor, that's exactly what he is trying to do.
John Terry wanted the ground to swallow him up in the Champions League final
View 8 Images
John Terry wanted the ground to swallow him up in the Champions League final in 2008(Image: Getty Images)
"He is trying to make himself smaller. He’s almost in the foetal position, in a sense, or a brace position. He wants the ground to swallow him up and disappear because he knows what he’s cost his team in that moment. He was absolutely mortified.
"We see him crying too, and he puts his shirt over his mouth. Covering our faces or our features like that is another classic attempt to become anonymous. He doesn't want people to see him at this moment.
"He's ashamed, embarrassed and full of disbelief at what has happened. It's also a pacifying gesture to reassure himself too, like a hand-to-mouth gesture, and in this case, it was accentuated by the lifting of his shirt too.
"He's trying to create distance between himself and the threat of further embarrassment by hiding away."
The moment haunted John Terry for years to come
View 8 Images
The moment haunted John Terry for years to come(Image: Bob Thomas Sports Photography via Getty Images)
Stanton added: "He may have been consoled by his team-mates, but he obviously felt terrible. He knows he cost them not only the game but the chance to win the one trophy that Chelsea’s then-owner had set up the whole project to win, which was the Champions League. "Terry was never a player short of confidence, but in that moment and after, his self-esteem and self-image were destroyed. I can’t imagine he was in a good place mentally at all."
It's often forgotten that Terry's penalty didn't lose the game for Chelsea; there were still more penalties to come in sudden death rules. In fact, after Anderson, Salomon Kalou and then Ryan Giggs had all scored, it was Nicolas Anelka's miss that crowned United as champions of Europe.
However, it was Terry's moment that was already immortalised. The Chelsea icon admitted it "haunted" him years down the line: "I have relived that moment every minute since it happened.
"I walked forward to take it, knowing that it was there to be won, and it was all down to me. What happened next will haunt me for the rest of my life."
Manchester United's players celebrate after winning the penalty shoot out and 2008 Champions League
View 8 Images
Manchester United's players celebrate after winning the penalty shoot out and 2008 Champions League(Image: Man Utd via Getty Images)
It was another moment two weeks later that truly broke him.
"I just remember standing looking over Moscow in my hotel, I was on about the 25th floor, just looking out," Terry recalled to talkSPORT in 2024.
"Just asking, 'Why? Why then? Why did it start raining? Why did I slip?' All of these things that go over [in your head]. Probably the hardest thing was that three days later, we met up with England. We had a friendly at Wembley against the USA.
"I ended up scoring a header from outside the box, and that was probably the hardest moment. Because if I could swap any goal in my career, it would be that. I scored a header from 18 yards and after the game it f****** broke me."
Manchester United players Wes Brown (left) and Cristiano Ronaldo (right) parade the trophy following the UEFA Champions League Final against Chelsea at the Luzhniki Stadium on May 21st 2008 in Moscow, Russia (Photo by Tom Jenkins/Getty Images)
View 8 Images
Manchester United won the Champions League after Terry blew his chance at immortality(Image: Tom Jenkins/Getty Images)
In the aftermath of the defeat, Chelsea assistant manager Henk ten Cate said Didier Drogba's sending off - four minutes from the end, for a petty slap at Nemanja Vidic - saw Terry added to the first five penalty takers.
But former midfielder Makelele later raged: "We made a big mistake ahead of the penalties. We had an order which was agreed with the players and the manager, but it changed at the last minute.
"It was supposed to be Salomon Kalou taking the last penalty but John [Terry] took the opportunity off him. I think we lost this competition because football is very harsh sometimes and, if you don’t do things the right way, you get punished.
"I was very angry when he missed the penalty because it was a chance that I knew a lot of the young players wouldn't get. I'd won the Champions League before but, in this moment, John had to be the leader and do what was best for the team.
"He didn't make sure we won the trophy, he tried to be a hero. If he knew this, he would have been a hero, because he would have lifted the trophy."
John Terry infamously donned a full kit when Chelsea won the Champions League in 2012 - despite being suspended
View 8 Images
John Terry infamously donned a full kit when Chelsea won the Champions League in 2012 - despite being suspended(Image: Getty Images)
Terry, however, was able to bury his demons four years down the line, finally getting his hands on the Champions League trophy. But not how he would have wanted it, thanks to the red card he received for a moment of madness when he kneed Barcelona's Alexis Sánchez in the back in the semi-final second leg.
Didier Drogba's late header against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena allowed Terry, who didn't kick a ball that day because he was suspended, to lace up his boots and lift the trophy in his full kit. Once again, he was mocked relentlessly, but this time, he didn't care.
"People like to have their digs and their pops, but I know I played a huge part in the dressing room and on the field as well, so I count myself to have won it," he said.
"No one speaks about the other 10 players who weren't on the pitch that night in Munich as well. Maybe that's me, and that's where I am at as a player."