Chelsea FC won the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday with a 6-5 penalty shootout victory over Villarreal CF at Windsor Park in Belfast to get the 2021-22 European season underway. The two sides were tied, 1-1, at the end of 90 minutes and the end of extra time.
In normal time, Hakim Ziyech’s prolific run continued from pre-season into this game when he opened the scoring following a silky Chelsea move from deep, but the Moroccan’s game was ended before half-time by what looked an arm or shoulder injury and the Blues performance was not the same again.
One made several crucial stops during two hours of match action that couldn’t separate Chelsea and Villarreal. The other was the penalty shoot-out hero with a pair of decisive spot-kick saves. The 2021 Super Cup was certainly a successful one for Chelsea goalkeepers!
This season-opening match-up between the winners of the Champions League (us!) and the side that lifted the Europa League trophy began with tonight’s Chelsea captain, N’Golo Kante, and his equivalent from Villarreal bringing on the trophies won back in May to sit alongside the smaller one up for grabs in this game.
We have now lifted the UEFA Super Cup twice with this year’s victory added to the one when we beat another Spanish side in Real Madrid in 1998 – Gustavo Poyet the lone goalscorer on that occasion.
Chelsea were the only club ever to have lost a UEFA Super Cup on penalties previously – and had done so twice, missing out to Bayern Munich that way in 2013 and Liverpool two years ago – but it is an unwanted record we no longer have.
