Bayern Munich 1 - 1 Chelsea (Chelsea win 4-3 on pens): Didier Drogba penalty clinches Champions League victory in shoot-out - Readers' Pictures - Scotsman.com By JONATHAN WILSON Published on Sunday 20 May 2012 00:00 ROMAN Abramovich may have provided the resources, but it was another Russian Chelsea resembled last night as they won their first Champions League: Rasputin. This was a Chelsea that just couldn't be killed off. They were behind with two minutes to go. They conceded a penalty in extra-time. They even went behind in the penalty shoot-out. And somehow, as Petr Cech saved from Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger struck the post, they contrived a situation in which Didier Drogba could knock in the final penalty to win it. For the Ivorian, it was redemption after his missed penalty in the shoot-out in the 2006 African Cup of Nations final and in normal time of this season's Nations final. For him and the rest of Chelsea this was about raging against the dying of the light. However well they've done in winning the FA Cup and the Champions League, the fact remains that this is a squad that is getting very near its sell-by date - if it isn't already past it. It's legitimate to ask why the players couldn't produce the passion and cussedness of the past few weeks under Andre Villas-Boas but, even leaving that aside, the bloodymindedness they've shown to turn the season around has been staggering. Yes, they were fortunate at times against both Barcelona and Bayern, but they were also magnificently stubborn. Again and again they should have been finished and, as against Barcelona in the semi-final, their opponent could never quite finish them off. Ashley Cole was magnificent, Mikel Jon Obi superbly disciplined, Didier Drogba an awesome leader of the line. Again Chelsea were fortunate at times as chance after chance - including another penalty - was missed, but again their resolve made the luck seem almost deserved. In Bayern's 5-2 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in last Saturday's German Cup final, it was notable how they targeted the way Bayern's full-backs push high up the pitch. The plan was clear: get the ball to Shinji Kagawa and have the two wingers Kevin Grosskreutz and Jakub Blaszczykowski sprinting beyond the full-backs. Chelsea were never likely to be so aggressive. Salomon Kalou has played almost 200 games for Chelsea without ever really seeming to settle into any one role but his defensive diligence after coming off the bench in both legs against Barcelona in the semi-final shouldn't be underestimated. That wasn't why Chelsea signed him from Feyenoord and it's probably not how he sees himself, but his willingness to track back had proved extremely useful in the latter stages of this season. And on the other flank was Ryan Bertrand, just 22 and with only nine first-team starts behind him. He is more usually a full-back and it was clear his role was less to get behind Lahm than to try to check his sallies forward to link with Arjen Robben. Chelsea's 4-2-3-1 was more often a 4-4-1-1 as they sat deep absorbing Bayern pressure as best they could. In the top five leagues in Europe, Bayern were second only to Barcelona in terms of possession and pass completion stats and so it was no surprise that they dominated the ball almost from start to finish. It wasn't quite the defence-v-attack dynamic of Chelsea's semi-finals, but it wasn't far off. The question was whether Bayern could make better use of the possession than Barça had. They had their chances - plenty of them. Schweinsteiger, finding space just outside the box early on, struck a shot that looped just over off Gary Cahill. Mario Gomez bafflingly dummied a cut-back from Thomas Muller to nobody when he seemed to have a clear chance eight yards out. Petr Cech, unsighted by Cahill, deflected a Robben shot that had passed through the defender's legs on to the angle of post and bar. Gomez, free at the back post, miscontrolled a mis-hit Ribery volley that became a cross and then the centre-forward fired high over after turning by Cahill. And that was just the first half. The more that Bayern missed, of course, the more it began to feel like Barcelona revisited and the greater Bayern's anxiety became. Bayern's desperation to add a fifth European Cup was obvious. Jupp Heynckes admitted on Friday that the inability of German teams to win a European title in the past 11 years was something he couldn't understand and, if not a concern as such, at least something that couldn't be allowed to continue. Bayern shirts and scarves - in some case paired with lederhosen or dirndl - were everywhere around town but beneath the general sense of carnival there was a clear tension. When fans revealed banners before kick-off that read "unser stadt, unser stadion, unser pokal" ("our city, our stadium, our cup") you wondered who they were trying to convince. Ribery put in the rebound after a Robben shot had been blocked, but was offside. Robben, scampering to the line after Lahm had intercepted a Florent Malouda pass, saw a deflected cross superbly tipped over by Petr Cech. Muller dragged wide after Ribery's cross had bobbled its way to him. It felt as though the breakthrough would never come, but with seven minutes remaining it did, Muller heading in Ribery's cross at the back post. The game seemed over, but this Chelsea is like a horror-movie villain - always liable to spring up from the grave. A left-wing corner, a powerful header from Drogba and Chelsea were level. Then, four minutes into extra-time, Chelsea again seemed to have been finished off as Drogba tripped Ribery in the top corner of the box. Robben, though, like Lionel Messi in the semi-final, wasted the chance, his low kick saved by Cech to his left. The chances kept coming and so did the misses. Penalties felt oddly inevitable long before the end. Having overcome so many other odds, there was one final inevitability Chelsea had to overcome: beating the Germans on penalties. In this most ridiculous of all seasons, though, even after Juan Mata had seen the first kick saved, they achieved even that.