CHELSEA WINS 2012 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Schweinsteiger's side made it to the 2010 Champions League final

Chelsea wins 2012 Champions League in heartbreaking penalty shootout! You got to love the underdog in any sports matchup especially European football. Chelsea come into this final with injuries and suspensions but still braved their heart out in front of hostile crowd in Allianz-Arena's Bayern Munich home. Chelsea's manager Roberto Di MatteoRoberto Di Matteo had to pull his trick in a surprising pick on Ryan Bertrand to start his Champions League final instead of Torres.

Bayern Munich meanwhile came into this game firing in all cylinders but only Thomas Muller's goal made it at 83 minute to make it 1-0 for the German team. In the first half Bayern's offense fired 11 shot attempts with only 2 from Chelsea. Mario Gomez is not accurate in the first half, Robben and Ribery has their chances but not so lucky.

You must have to give credit to Chelsea's stonewall defense lead by Ashley Cole. Drogba who's been quite in the first half finally made his presence known with Drogba's first-time effort from the right wing only being blocked at 54 minute of play. The second time Drogba finally bring home the bacon with Juan Mata's corner shot finds flying power header by the Didier DrogbaDidier Drogba with just six minutes after Bayern Munich scored.

Check Drogba goal video, go here.

With scored tied 1-1 Robben has a chance to grab the lead in penalty shot but Cech saves it at 95th minute resulting to extra time. Bayern outnumbers shot attempts with 24 to only 6 by Chelsea, same strategy they adopted when they ousted Barcelona in the semi-finals as defense breakdown Bayern's offensive trio.

The 2012 Champions League must be settled on penalty shoot out. Lahm and Gomez delivered for Bayern, Cole had no trouble putting it in to tie 3-3, leaving Schweinsteiger and Drogba to take what were sudden-death kicks. This time Bayern badly miss David Abala who made his kick in shootout easily against Real Madrid in the semi finals.

Read more on Abala story , go here

Schweinsteiger beat Cech, but not the post which is way wide, Drogba step up the plate and bring home the bacon once again for the Englishmen making it 4-3 as the 34-year old fired home to send the Bayern crowd into delirium. Great finish by the warrior and Chelsea is the 2012 Champions League Champ! Roberto Di Matteo on Chelsea to winning the tournament, becomes the 10th Italian manager to win the European Cup or Champions League. Chelsea sub-captain Frank Lampard, told in interview: "I can't believe it. The determination we've shown ... we didn't play fantastic but the main man Didier dug us out of trouble there. It means everything. We've been so many years trying to do this."

A TALE OF TWO CITIES ''UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE''

At the risk of sounding premature, Early Doors would like to engage in some pointless parochial gloating at the misfortune of Britain's second city in last night's Champions League. As a fully-fledged member of the Arrogant London Media (West), ED will always favour the likes of Chelsea and Spurs in Europe and, when feeling a touch effete and continental, Arsenal.

Making no apologies to Birmingham regarding second-city status, it is therefore with great pleasure that last night's results leave both Manchester clubs fighting for their places in the knockout stage of the Champions League - with said hopes hanging by a thread in the case of City.

Clearly City and United are the top sides in England at the moment, although North London's rival clubs are in excellent form after ropey starts to the season. Chelsea are a shadow of their normal selves - they looked a more viable proposition under Avram Grant for Roman's sake - and have been aided considerably by a relatively straightforward group featuring a slow-starting Bayer Leverkusen and a Valencia side paying the price for Spain's duopoly.

However, the Blues are still in pole position to qualify for the next round, as are Arsenal, whose tantalising clash with Borussia Dortmund tonight will see two sides with similarly-ingrained attacking styles look to capitalise on their domestic resurgences.

Even if Abou Diaby was trending on Twitter the other day following his return from injury, the Gunners have won five in a row in the Premier League and are unbeaten in eight in all competitions. They also boast the form player in the country in Robin van Persie, although their form is arguably as fragile as the Dutchman's frame.

But back to the People's Republic of Mancunia.

United's travails lie in a combination of the dry functionality of their post-Ronaldo world, and the constant reshuffling of a defence that boasts undeniable ability but is blighted by injury problems for the experienced players and a touch of over-exuberance in its youngsters - not to mention a dodgy teenage keeper who barely speaks English.

United boast too much quality for the lesser lights in the domestic game, and have enough fight to at least hold England's top sides.

But in the vigour and spotlight of a buzzing European clash their less-fancied opponents - who, by default of being in the Champions League, will feature some of their respective countries' brighter attacking talents - will always raise their game enough to exploit relative hesitancy at the back.

ED has no doubt Sir Alex Ferguson's side will avoid defeat in Basel, but by falling behind Benfica - who should beat Otelul Galati with ease - in the head-to-head stakes, United have left themselves open to a nasty second-round draw that could see them pitted against Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Internazionale. Knowing their luck, though, they'll probably get Apoel Nicosia.

While United's malaise has a clear diagnosis, City's toil is harder to fathom, even if they have the toughest overall draw of the group stages, with Villarreal the relative whipping boys.

Cocksure, stylish and free-scoring in the Premier League, City's grinding form in Europe bears more resemblance to previous seasons, as if somehow their brilliance has been caught in the temporal vacuum that saw United struggle to impose themselves on the continental game for seven years after their first Premier League title.

Not starting Sergio Aguero doesn't really help either. Rampaging between the lines domestically, David Silva is guarded with greater efficiency by the better European sides. Aguero boasts a better first touch than Mario Balotelli, something needed to unlock defences and, on a more frequent basis, retain possession further up the pitch in the less overtly-physical Champions League.

Roberto Mancini lost his job at Inter Milan precisely because he was unable to translate domestic domination to Champions League success. His track record is of developing stylish, attacking sides that will generally blow away the domestic competition but possibly lack the interest in collective sacrifice to grab Europe by the scruff of the neck.

It is doubtful that City's owners will make unreasonable demands at this early stage of Mancini's career, despite the Mirror's claims that they "were supposed to the team who could win the Champions League at the first time of asking".

The Premier League will suffice for now, and the Emirate owners are canny enough to know that the Champions League is a cup competition that can be won or lost in a split second, usually by Barcelona.

If, as expected, City go out and United scramble into the last 16 there will be much gloating from the red half of Madchester. But it took almost 13 years for Sir Alex Ferguson to win the European Cup - and don't bank on City's wait being nearly as long.

Sir Alex's European drive undimmed

Boasting 12 Premier League titles, five FA Cups and two UEFA Champions League successes, Sir Alex Ferguson's time at Manchester UnitedManchester United FC is unparalleled in English football. Ahead of the 25th anniversary of his Old Trafford tenure, which he celebrates on Sunday, the Scottish manager spoke to UEFA.com about the desire for European success that first stirred in him as long ago as 1960 and which still drives him 51 years on.

Sir Alex's initital interest of continental competition was stirred when he attended the 1960 European Champion Clubs' Cup final – hosted at Hampden Park in his native Glasgow – and won by Real Madrid CF. "That was probably the first instance of recognising what real European football was," said the Manchester United manager.

"I followed Rangers at the time and when they reached the semi-finals, they played Eintracht Frankfurt and lost 12-4 on aggregate, so every Rangers fan was saying, 'This Eintracht team will wipe Real Madrid away in the final,' – of course, it was the other way about and that gave me a measure of how good Real Madrid really were – they were unbelievable. They were the first really international club side and they were fantastic."

He also followed Manchester United's first UEFA club competition trophy win in 1968, when, Sir Matt Busby's side claimed their first European Champion Clubs' Cup a decade after the devastating Munich air disaster. "Everyone in Scotland was pleased for Sir Matt considering what he'd endured in 1958 and rebuilt that team mainly from his own players. The actual final team had only three players he'd brought in from other clubs and it was an incredible achievement. For Sir Matt, that was the pinnacle, being able to recreate from the loss of Munich and rebuilding a team to win the European Cup."

Guiding Aberdeen FC to a 2-1 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup victory against Real Madrid in 1983 only enhanced Sir Alex's desire for more European silverware – a mentality he would instil at Manchester United over his quarter-of-a-century reign, which took in a dramatic 2-1 victory against FC Bayern München in 1999, and, more recently, three further UEFA Champions League final appearances in the last four seasons.

"I think we've gathered an experience over the last few years that has acquitted us well for European football now," said the 69-year-old, whose side completed a second UEFA Champions League triumph in 2008. "I think we're far more patient away from home and we never used to be, so possession of the ball and concentration is much better. Sometimes in a European game, you can be doing actually quite well and then the roof falls in, suddenly. Many of our players are used to that now. They don't get caught out by sudden attacks the way they used to years ago."

A defeat by FC Barcelona in the 2011 UEFA Champions League final prompted Sir Alex to add to his squad in the summer with thoughts of a third European Cup foremost in his mind. "It's a great challenge. It's fantastic to equal anyone's top record and [former Liverpool FC manager] Bob Paisley was one of the great old wise birds of the game. He didn't say a lot but he knew a lot and his imparting of knowledge always had a great impact on the players of that time.

"It was a great period for them, but it's our time now. It's an opportunity for us to get to another level as Real Madrid have won it nine times, AC Milan seven times; Liverpool five; Bayern four; Ajax four; we really should be in that bracket so this is our opportunity to get into that bracket of more Champions League wins."

Van Der Sar: Manchester United Must Change Central Line Games

Manchester - Edwin van der Sar believes Manchester United have to leave the game long balls if you want to destroy Barcelona's dominance in the realm of Europe. Dutch goalkeeper ended his professional career when shirted United where they defeated Barcelona 3-1 in the Champions League final last season.

The final game at Wembley was running quite unilateral. Total to 622 Pasing Barca for 90 minutes, twice that of the 'Red Devils' are only doing 301 operands. Given that Van der Sar statistics prodding of Sir Alex Ferguson to improve the performance of the Old Trafford midfield troops if you want to take revenge over Barca.

"We had more possession of the ball, holding the ball more," said Van der Sar at Goal.com. "Do not play longer, we must hold the ball longer, especially in midfield. Hopefully, if we do that we can beat them (Barcelona) this season," he explained. "We lost the final against Barcelona last season and hopefully this year we can grow," said the tall keeper.