Chelsea won the Champions League with a nail-biting penalty shoot-out victory over Bayern Munich.
Didier Drogba, whose Chelsea future is in doubt as his contract its end, proved his side’s hero, scoring Chelsea’s only goal and netting the winning penalty.
Bayern, playing in their own ground, the Allianz Arena, dominated for large portions of the match but were unable to find a breakthrough until Thomas Mueller headed past Petr Cech after 83 minutes.
Drogba headed a goal of his own in the 88th minute, though, setting up a further 30 minutes of extra-time. He nearly became Chelsea’s villain as he gifted Bayern the chance to re-take the lead from the penalty spot by bringing down Franck Ribery in the box but Arjen Robben saw his tame spot-kick saved by Cech.
In the shootout Juan Mata missed the first kick to give Bayern the advantage but Chelsea responded with three flawless kicks and after Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger missed, it was left for Drogba to score the winning penalty in a fairytale ending which may well have seen him kick his last ball in a Chelsea shirt.
It was a weekend of football finals – as well as the Champions League final, the finals of the playoffs in the Championship and Conference were played, as well as the Scottish Cup final.
West Ham bounced straight back to the Premier League at the first time of asking with a 2-1 win over Blackpool at Wembley. Carlton Cole cancelled out Thomas Ince’s opener and, despite Blackpool creating the far greater number of chances, West Ham won it as Ricardo Vaz Te struck in the 87th minute.
Hearts thrashed Edinburgh rival Hibernian in the Scottish Cup Final 5-1 at Hampden Park. Darren Barr and Rudi Skacel put Hearts 2-1 in front and after James McPake pulled one back for Hibs Danny Grainger netted a penalty and Skacel and Ryan McGowan scored a further two.
At Lords, the West Indies produced a fourth-day fightback after three days of England domination to set up a nervy final day for the home side.
England scored 398 in their first-innings response to the visiting side’s score of 243 but Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels’ fifth-wicket stand of 157 helped the West Indies to second-innings score of 345 to leave England requiring 191 to win.
England finished the Sunday two wickets down, though, having lost Andrew Strauss and night-watchman James Anderson, and resume today on 10-2, chasing a further 181 runs.
Leinster won the Heineken Cup final with a crushing 42-14 victory over fellow Irishmen Ulster in what was a record winning margin in Europe’s showpiece final to retain their title.
Sean O’Brien and Cian Healy scored early on for Leinster and they never really looked back. A penalty try was awarded after Ulster illegally dragged down a maul before the posts just after half-time and, after Dan Tuohy restored some hope for Ulster before Heinke van der Merwe and Sean Cronin went over towards the end.
Wigan moved to the top of the Super League after they beat Huddersfield 32-12 in the top-of-the-table clash. Warrington took advantage of Huddersfield’s slip-up with a 42-12 win at Wakefield to move into second.
Widnes remain rooted to the bottom after defeat against Catalan Dragons, who are fourth. London Broncos stay on four points alongside Widnes having lost 14-12.
