It was never supposed to end like this. On December 16, 2011 when UEFA held the draw for the knock-out stage of the 2011-2012 Champions League, every soccer fan worldwide immediately came to the same realization. We were going to get an El Clasico in the final. On May 19th we were going to get Messi vs Ronaldo, Guardiola vs Mourinho, Catalonia vs Spain. The greatest club competition in soccer was going to finish with the greatest rivalry in the sport between the (allegedly) two best club teams. It was going to be perfect. And yet it wasn’t. First, on April 17th Mario Gomez’ goal in the 90th minute gave Bayern Munich an unexpected victory over Real Madrid and then one day later Chelsea managed to upset Barcelona in the other semi-final with a Drogba goal that came very much against the run of play. However even after the first leg of both semis the public and the media wrote them off, calling them minor speed bumps on the inevitable collision course between Real and Barca. And with both second legs being played in Spain, it was hard to argue.
