The sheer finality of Didier Drogba’s penalty kick after extra time of the 2012 Champions League Final is ... a lot. Everyone knew it would end his stint at Chelsea. Everyone knew it was the closing act of a great Chelsea era that had already been crumbling.To really appreciate that final, climactic moment ... yeah, you guessed it, we’ve gotta rewind.
You need to know how much Bayern Munich and their goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, went through to reach that Champions League Final. You need to understand how last season and this season went for each of these teams. And above all else, you need to measure the multiple overlapping histories building toward this moment for the protagonist, Drogba: His history with Chelsea, his history in the Champions League Final, and his history with penalty kicks. All those threads form one big, taut rope of history, and the moment you’re about to see had the potential to tie that rope in a perfect, conclusive knot.
This is such a Rewinder-y moment, so let’s go!
