A tale of two penalties

Two penalties that defined the European season and threw out all bets and calculations by pundits. While Messi’s dent on the cross-bar spelled doom and gloom for the Nou Camp crowd, hardly believing their beloved team too tired and incapable in breaking down the double layered 8 man defensive wall of Chelsea, Sergio Ramos’ shot made even more headlines and was the source of much amusement and jolly among football fans.

Honorable mention: Ronaldo’s miss that got the ball rolling (pun not intended) to keep Mourinho on his knees even after the referee blew his whistle for the winner of the tie. Ronaldo, who proved quite adept in taking penalties this season, accumulating double digit number of goals scored off penalties, shot an easy one that Neuer had little trouble deflecting.

A few ribs and jokes circulating the internet about Ramos' penalty:

- Apparently the Airforce and the commercial air control have landed all planes in South Africa as they have spotted Ramos’ penalty ball on radar and it will be passing in South African air space within the next 20 minutes....destination Antarctica

- It is on a world tour..

- A granny and a S.Ramos came to heaven's door and God asked them why are they here?
Granny: I am a good person and I did a lot of praying.
God: Ok, come in.
S. Ramos: I just came for a ball!!!!

- North Korea has contacted Sergio Ramos seeking information on how to get projectiles to leave earth's atmosphere.

- There will be a happy kid in Africa with a souvenir CL ball.

***********

Yes these penalties denied us, the fans, of yet another El Clasico in the final of the Champions league. But haven’t we had enough El Clasicos in the past to satisfy our hunger? Having said that I think we should not take anything away from Bayern who totally deserved to be in the final. They showed great composure and that renowned German resoluteness to reach the final. I only wonder would Chelsea decide to park the bus in the final too? Afterall it is only played in one leg and there’s no away goal rule.

Neither Bayern is like Barca. While barca’s philosophy and esthetic style has its own merits, given the type of players and usual strategies they follow, it draws a clear contrast to Bayern’s capabilities. Chelsea could afford to park the bus and huddle in the middle of their box, never worrying about shots from range or even those crosses coming from flanks as Barca’s players were far shorter and less physical than the English team’s defenders. But Bayern is an entirely different matter. Not only they will shoot from range and they have great shooters to force the defenders to come out to close on them, they also have tall physical attacking players who can and will have a real say in crosses and corners peppered in from flanks through the likes of Lahm. So if you are a Chelsea fan, I suggest you start praying.