Chelsea legend Claude Makelele believes John Terry’s desire ‘to be a hero’ cost the club the 2008 Champions League final.
The Blues were one spot kick away from winning Europe’s premier club competition for the first time in their history against Manchester United.
But Terry, who took Chelsea’s fifth penalty, slipped in his run-up and smacked his effort from the spot against the post.
United went on to win the shootout 6-5 as Terry and his Blues teammates were left to rue what could and perhaps should have been, given the legendary Chelsea skipper wasn’t even supposed to take the fifth penalty.
Didier Drogba, who ended up scoring the decisive penalty when Chelsea finally won the Champions League in 2012, would have been the fifth taker in 2008 had he not been sent off in extra-time.
Speaking on The LineUp, brought to you by BetMGM and talkSPORT, Makelele revealed it was decided Salomon Kalou would take Chelsea’s fifth penalty instead, only for Terry to intervene.
“The dressing room after the game was like fire,” Makelele said.
“There was no happiness whatsoever – it was a sad place to be.
“We made a big mistake ahead of the penalties. We had an order which was agreed with the players and the manager, but it changed at the last minute.
“It was supposed to be Salomon Kalou taking the last penalty but John [Terry] took the opportunity off him.
“I think we lost this competition because football is very harsh sometimes and, if you don’t do things the right way, you get punished.
“I was very angry when he missed the penalty because it was a chance that I knew a lot of the young players wouldn’t get.
Makelele was frustrated Terry didn’t put the team first by taking the fifth penalty[/caption]
“I’d won the Champions League before but, in this moment, John had to be the leader and do what was best for the team.
“He didn’t make sure we won the trophy, he tried to be a hero. If he knew this, he would have been a hero because he would have lifted the trophy.”
Perhaps Terry should have stuck to what he practised in the lead-up to the final, as the 44-year-old told beIN Sports he’d been scoring Panenka penalties in training.
“On the build up to finals you take penalties, and you go through the routines, and you do the walk from the halfway line,” Terry said.
“We’d been doing that for two weeks at the training ground, and I’d been dinking them down the middle like the Panenka!”
Kalou ultimately took the sixth penalty for Chelsea in what was effectively sudden death.
Despite the immense pressure, the Ivorian coolly dispatched his effort and kept the Blues alive in the shootout.
Unfortunately for Chelsea, Nicolas Anelka could not follow suit as his attempt was saved by Edwin van der Sar to end the contest.
Although it was Anelka’s miss which ultimately decided the final, it is Terry’s failed effort that sticks in the minds of most.
But Avram Grant, who was Chelsea manager at the time, constantly has to remind Terry if he scored, it would never be talked about.
“People forget about Anelka,” Grant told the Daily Mail in 2012.
“John Terry always says to me, ‘Why do people always talk about my miss?’
“I say, ‘If you had not missed nobody would speak about it’.
“Terry was not on the list. But because [Didier] Drogba was out [due to a red card] we changed it because [Salomon] Kalou needed to be the fifth and then, because it was the deciding penalty, JT wanted it.
“He did his best. I thought yes [he would score]. But JT missed and Anelka missed again and that was the end of the story. Finish.
“When we came so close against Manchester United, what Alex [Ferguson] said, that it was the best United ever, is even more hurtful. I was very disappointed.”
