HERE in the home city of Albert Einstein Chelsea were left scratching their heads trying to solve another brain teaser.
What will life be like without the three wise old men Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and John Terry, the latter suspended for the Champions League Final but still a major player?
As he chatted to his old England boss Fabio Capello before kick-off, high above their heads flew the blue banner ‘JT – captain, leader, legend’. Three lion-hearted words which sum up Terry’s value to his beloved club.
Stand-in skipper Lampard and Drogba are spoken of in the same revered tones by the faithful who will shed tears when they finally say adios to their three amigos.
First to go looks like match-winner Drogba – described by boss Roberto Di Matteo as one of the club’s greats.
Few words really sum up a true legend. Awesome, magnificent, moody, marvellous – you could go on about a beast of a man who says his heart will always be blue.
So was that final, cool stroke of the ball into the bottom-left corner the last time Drogba, now 34 will have touched the ball in a Chelsea shirt?
He’s already laughed off Barcelona speculation and there’s a £6.7m-a-year offer to be a bull in a China shop.
Drogba, whose contract expires next month, will meet Chelsea chiefs this week – and how will the Stamford Bridge moneymen be able to turn down a man who brought the ultimate prize to his paymasters?
After arriving from Marseille for £24million in 2004, his glittering Chelsea career has been sprinkled with three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and two League Cups and now he can add a Champions League medal after a stunning equaliser and the winning penalty.
Drogba had already netted five times against Europe’s elite in this campaign and showed how badly Chelsea will miss him. On a night of passion and drama, he must have recalled how it all began when he was spotted as an 11-year-old by his uncle Michel Goba, as a raw right-back in his local youth team on a far-flung field in France.
He played centre-forward ever since that ear-bashing and, when he scored his first Champions League goal for Marseille against Real Madrid in 2003, history was always going to be his to be made.And what a final final!
Staged in a stadium variously described as a spaceship, a rubber dinghy and a Michelin tyre. Designed by architects influenced by Anfield, Ibrox and Old Trafford. Inspired by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for “the closeness of the actors to the crowd”.
Much Ado About Nothing, you’ve got to be joking. Drogba was The Tempest desperate to whip up a goal storm.
The Arena can glow red and blue depending on which of the Munich sides are playing, though neutral white is preferred by the local police as bright colours distract drivers and cause more pile-ups on the nearby autobahn.
Inside, a Chelsea car crash threatened time and again with Bayern throwing everything they could muster at them without success.
That was until the inevitable. Thomas Muller scored and was flattened by jubilant team-mates after his downward header bounced into the top of the net.
The dream was over. Or so we thought until Drogba netted the dramatic 88th-minute leveller – his 34th Champions League goal of a colourful career and never could there have been a more vital, historic header from the man who has always been head and shoulders above the rest.
He almost blew it, conceding a penalty in extra-time but was rescued by Petr Cech’s save. Then he wrote his fairytale ending.