For Chelsea, the 2012 Champions League triumph remains among the most memorable days in the club’s history.
With interim manager Roberto Di Matteo at the helm, the Blues overturned an aggregate defeat against Napoli, saw off Benfica, survived a two-legged semi-final against Barcelona and dispatched of Bayern Munich on their own turf in the final to win the unlikeliest of trophies.
“We won it against all the odds, said Di Matteo, speaking on BT Sport podcast James Richardson’s Kings of Europe. “We had a feeling things were going our way, but we thoroughly worked hard for it as well. You don’t get luck by sitting at home on your sofa, you need to work to have that bit of luck.”
Few could have forecasted the win for Chelsea just months after they had sacked manager Andre Villas-Boas. The decision was made to stick with Di Matteo in a caretaker role to steady the ship until the end of the season, when Chelsea were planning to pick themselves up and start again.
But for Di Matteo, it represented a unique opportunity with very little pressure.
“I was excited,” he admitted. “I really didn’t have much to lose. I was a caretaker manager, the worst case scenario is they send you home. I just tried to make the best out of the situation.”
First up for Di Matteo was navigating the second leg of the last 16. Chelsea had fallen 3-1 to Napoli in the first leg under Villas-Boas and were facing an uphill battle for which the Italian always remained positive.
Asked if he truly believed Chelsea could win, Di Matteo insisted: “Of course! This is football, it’s unpredictable. Why wouldn’t we think we could turn over the result against Napoli? We scored an away goal as well, so really, we only needed to win 2-0. Of course we believed we could go through to the next round. We did it the hard way, but we did it!”
Benfica fell in the quarter-final, earning Chelsea a two-legged semi-final against Pep Guardiola’s mighty Barcelona side. A shock 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge set up a fascinating return leg, in which Chelsea had to cling on for their lives at times against the team who were many fans’ picks to win the competition.
“I closed by eyes and hoped for the best!” recalled Di Matteo when asked how he made it through the second leg.
“We focused on their weaknesses. Every team has weaknesses. As great as the team was, they had weaknesses as well and one of them was [Dani] Alves as a right-back was…
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