John Terry has opened up on his infamous penalty shootout blunder during Chelsea’s 2008 Champions League final defeat against Manchester United.
Terry took what could have been the decisive penalty at the end of a 1-1 draw in the first-ever final between two English clubs, but slipped on the run-up and hit the post to send the shootout into sudden death.
Nicolas Anelka went on to miss Chelsea’s seventh spot-kick to hand Man United a domestic and European double, but Terry’s miss is still seen as the decisive and iconic moment at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.
Over 17 years on from that portentous night, Terry has revealed that his costly mistake still plays on his mind.
‘It’s the hardest trophy to win and being in the final meant the world to everyone,’ Terry told FourFourTwo.
‘Playing in a Champions League final against a team from your own country was strange, but they were a great side and it was a tough slog of a game.
John Terry has opened up on his penalty shootout blunder in the 2008 Champions League final
The former Chelsea captain notoriously slipped at the spot and sent his penalty over the bar
Terry said the moment still haunts him 17 years later and that he can see it when he wakes up
‘I wasn’t actually supposed to take one of the first five penalties, but Didier Drogba had been sent off. I still think about my miss to this day. Honestly – not as often as I used to, but I still wake up and it’s there. I can see it.
‘When you look back on your career, the trophies mean a lot but the ones you missed out on can haunt you and I won’t forget that one. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.’
Despite his heartbreak in 2008, Terry did go on to win a Champions League title later down the line.
Although he was suspended for the final, Terry took home a winners’ medal when Chelsea overcame Bayern Munich to win Europe’s elite club competition in 2012.
The defender explained that that success makes his blunder in Moscow a lot easier to come to terms with.
Terry added: ‘I was broken by it. I’m just so thankful we won it in 2012. That helps me massively.’
Last year, Terry revealed on the Up Front Podcast that it was ‘probably the worst moment in my footballing career’.
He said: ‘I’m still not over it today. I don’t think I ever will be. It’s interesting because as a player you have so many highs, but it’s the lows that stay with you longer.
In the months after the miss, Terry said: ‘Every morning I wake up, that’s the first thing I think about’
‘That night we lost we went back to the hotel and the manager was asking us all to go down for a drink, but I stayed in my room because I couldn’t face the lads. Eventually I went down and had a beer with the rest of the group.
‘I just remember standing in my hotel room on the 25th floor, looking over Moscow and asking myself, ‘why then, why did it start raining then, why did I slip?
‘The hardest thing for me was that three days later we had a friendly for England against USA at Wembley and we drew 1-1 I scored a header from outside of the box. If I could swap any two goals in my career it’d be those two.’
He also previously told Sky in the months after the miss: ‘Every morning I wake up, that’s the first thing I think about. I am still so desperately disappointed about it.
‘But I am a big man with a big character and it is now down to me to deal with that.’
Speaking ahead of the 2008-09 season, he added: ‘I’m certainly looking forward to the new season so I can wipe away that bitter disappointment for the club, and especially for me.’
