Devilishly Red

Manchester United beat Chelsea last night to emerge as the winner of the 2008 UEFA Champions League! Yaaaaaaay!

The winner had to be decided by the much dreaded penalty shootout after both teams hung on to a 1-1 draw after extra time. Have I mentioned before that I absolutely fear dislike penalty shootouts? I was praying hard the match wouldn’t go down to a shootout because 1) let’s face it, it’s a cruel way to decide a game after seeing the players battle for 120 minutes and 2) I really wanted to go to bed. Hah. Speaking of which, I’m amazed that I could go without any sleep for a whopping 24 hours. I don’t think I’ve ever pulled this off before.

No words can express the emotions that I went through when I watched the match – it was a mixture of hope, joy, despair, relief, fear and thankfully, jubilation at the end. The shootout almost gave me a heart attack but kudos to the Red Devils, for they did a fantastic job and it was sudden death for Chelsea when Van der Sar saved Anelka’s spot kick.

I’m so happy to see Manchester United clinch the Premier League and European Cup double. I guess only ardent football fans would be able to understand how it feels to see their favourite team winning.