@eliudprom Bayern Munich 2 Chelsea 2 Lukaku's misses decisive penalty
The centre half scored. So did the little Brazilian No 10. And the central midfielder. Not to mention the left back. The striker missed. The irony will not be lost on Jose Mourinho, once the fury has subsided.
He will know how close he was here. To a first trophy in his second coming as Chelsea manager; to getting an early one in on Pep Guardiola.
Loss: Lukaku looks on after his decisive penalty miss in Prague
Champions again: Bayern celebrate the win after Neuer's penalty save
There were seconds in it, no more. Chelsea were leading 2-1 with extra time injury time already being played.
They repelled attack after attack, massed defensive ranks soaking it up as they always do. They were down to 10 men, as they so often are at moments like this. It was a familiar script. And then, deviation.
The ball fell to Dante, he prodded it to Javi Martinez and his low shot beat Petr Cech at his near post. For the first time, the UEFA Super Cup was to be decided on penalties.
Level: Javi Martinez (right) scores for Bayern in the last minute of extra time
Kudos to both teams for that. This is the least loved of UEFA’s three club competitions and if it has never taken so long to settle, that is probably because one, or more, of the competitors did not care enough to make a proper game of it.
Chelsea conceded four to Atletico Madrid in this fixture last year. This was an exception. This was exceptional. A cracking game, no quarter given, high intensity, furiously contested.
Moving the match to Prague was a winner after so many stale encounters in Monaco and these two opponents were a godsend.
Strike: Hazard scored his first goal of the season in the 93rd minute, driving low past Neuer
Ahead: Hazard put Chelsea 2-1 up in extra time in Prague
As one would expect from teams packed with Brazilians and Germans, the penalties were exceptional. England held its end up surprisingly well, too.There is history here, animosity, too. It runs deeper than Pep Guardiola versus Jose Mourinho. Chelsea killed Bayern Munich’s dream at their home final in 2012. That isn’t forgotten in a hurry.
Ashley Cole was fortunate to score off the inside of a post, Cech got a hand to the penalty of Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri.
The rest were close to perfect: David Luiz, Oscar and Frank Lampard for Chelsea, Jerome Boateng, Toni Kroos, Philipp Lahm and Franck Ribery for Bayern Munich. And with the score at 5-4 to the European champions, Romelu Lukaku stepped up to keep Chelsea in the game.
He failed, that is the politest way to put it. His effort was soft and lacking in confidence, Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer guessed right and got much of his body behind the shot.
In behind: Ashley Cole of Chelsea and Arjen Robben battle for the ball
Great strike: Torres wheels away after putting Chelsea 1-0 up
After all the debate around the worth of strikers this last week, it was no great advert for the goalscorers’ union.
The match itself was, though. Chelsea looked an entirely different team from their conservative, toothless appearance at Old Trafford, all false nines and stout defence.
Yes, the back four were the stars here, too — particularly Gary Cahill and Luiz in the centre — but that was due to a numerical disadvantage caused by the dismissal of Ramires.
He put the Europa League champions ahead after eight minutes and one cannot help thinking he may have been a better bet to take that final penalty, had he not been swapped for Lukaku six minutes into extra time.
Mourinho could not be blamed for that. Chelsea were leading, Torres was tiring and Lukaku is a physically imposing figure. Yet there is something special about Torres in Europe.
Fanatics: Bayern supporters paint Prague red before the game
Momentum: Mourinho was looking to continue his unbeaten start as Chelsea boss
He has one goal in his last 19 domestic games, and 10 in seven in Europe.
The man who took Chelsea’s opener is unrecognisable as the problem child whose £50million transfer has suited him like a lead weight.
From the start, Chelsea worried Munich’s back line and Guardiola’s deployment of Kroos as a forward sweeper in what was, at times, a five-man defence was an indication of the respect for that threat.
Torres will have been doing a lot of thinking this week, too. There was the team sheet at Manchester United that did not include his name, or that of any front-line goalscorer at the club. Then in came a true rival in Samuel Eto’o. Yet if Torres had a point to prove to Mourinho, he did so after just eight minutes.
Eden Hazard carried the ball through the centre and in doing so left Rafinha, the right back, in his wake. The Brazilian made some panicky attempts at matching his stride, but to no avail.
Hazard fed Andre Schurrle and his cross was met first-time by Torres with a simply ferocious shot that beat Neuer in Bayern’s goal. It was a brilliant start, a brilliant finish — Mourinho’s Chelsea at their best.
Yet Chelsea could not possibly have it their own way for long against this level of opposition and so it proved. Stung by the early deficit, Munich pressed and Ribery was soon showing why he was crowned UEFA’s Footballer of the Year for 2012-13.
It was a trademark Ribery approach that did the damage, receiving the ball high on the left, he cut inside and unleashed a shot that defeated Cech at his near post.
Then, the moment that tilted the balance of power. Ramires, already booked for a trip on Ribery, was shown a second yellow card for a two-footed tackle on substitute Mario Gotze.
Man manager: Ribery went straight to Bayern boss Pep Guardiola after scoring the equaliser
