Inside the folds of a match full of ideas there is also the historical fact: miai, in 38 official editions of the European Super Cup, had won a German team, obviously including Bayern Munich, defeated on three occasions.
The path that led Pep Guardiola's team to lift the cup, however, was certainly tortuous. In fact, with ten seconds to go in the only minute of added time in the second extra period, the hands on the cup were those of Frankie Lampard, captain in place of substitute John Terry, and, ça va sans dire, those of Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese had extended his claws on the trophy with a shrewd game, typical of his teams: ten, sometimes eleven, battling behind the ball line and then restarting with the four arrows in his attack bow: the elusive Hazard, a finally lethal Torres, the very fast Schürrle and the Brazilian Oscar, who has all the stigmata of the budding champion, but who perhaps will have on his conscience the ball kicked at Neuer in the second half, what seemed like a goal already scored.
Things had immediately gone well for Special One, with Torres' goal following a cyanide counter-attack. To equalize, Bayern needed a whole period of sterile ball possession, an invention by the magnificent Ribery and the collaboration of Petr Cech, who later made at least three miraculous saves, before capitulating in front of the left foot from two steps by Javi Martinez, who came on at the start of the second half when Pep, taken by enchantment, had decided to remedy the senseless initial formation, replacing the carneade Rafinha and returning Lahm to his full-back role.
The game, after the draw of the Bavarians, had continued according to the script: the ball perennially between the feet of the Germans, comfortably parked in the opposing three-quarters. It was Chelsea, however, who made themselves more dangerous, up until the 84th minute, the key minute of the match. David Luiz strikes highest of all in the Bayern box, but Neuer saves miraculously. On the restart of the Bavarians, Ramires, already cautioned, knocked out the impalpable Gotze with a killer entrance, rightly earning his way to the changing rooms.
Mourinho, whose propensity to dismiss his agonistic excesses as refereeing mistakes is well known, high-fives the Brazilian who leaves the field, and lashes out at the trio, guilty of who knows exactly what. However, Chelsea didn't give up: they replaced Schurrle with Obi Mikel and continued to play their game even in the first overtime, when Hazard took advantage of the very buttery opposition of Lahm and Boateng and slipped Neuer, actually very clumsy on the occasion.
Then the Londoners, with a man down and leading by one goal, erected an authentic fort in front of their own goal. Cech is exalted in the siege who, in his native Prague, amply redeems the uncertainty about Ribery's goal, making three miraculous saves in the space of a few minutes. Before the last, fatal rebound, when Mou was already haranguing the crowd dressed in blue. Mix and ball that ends up on the feet of the Basque Martinez.
Then the lottery of penalties: the only one to make a mistake is the young Belgian center forward Lukaku, who kicks at Neuer, and then cries hot tears, consoled by everyone, while Lahm goes to lift the trophy and Mou, once again, has to see Guardiola raised a cup in his face (to use an expression very popular in Rome, from May onwards), the first for him on the Bayern Munich bench.
