page_title: 2008 UEFA Champions League Final
section_title: First half
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 UEFA Champions League Final / Match / Summary / First half
caption_attribution_description: English: Manchester United and Chelsea players shake hands ahead of the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final
context_page_description: The 2008 UEFA Champions League Final was a football match that took place on Wednesday, 21 May 2008, at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, to determine the winner of the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League. It was contested by Manchester United and Chelsea, making it an all-English club final for the first time in the history of the competition. This was only the third time that two clubs from the same country had contested the final; the others being the 2000 and 2003 finals. It was the first European Cup final played in Russia, and hence the easternmost final in the tournament's history. It also marked the 100th anniversary of Manchester United's first league triumph, the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, and the 40th anniversary of United's first European Cup triumph in 1968. It was Manchester United's third European Cup final after 1968 and 1999, while it was Chelsea's first.
  Manchester United won the match 6–5 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw following extra time. Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring for Manchester United in the 26th minute with a header from a cross by Wes Brown, but Frank Lampard equalised shortly before half-time.
context_section_description: After a fairly cagey first 21 minutes, the first major incident of the game occurred when Paul Scholes and Claude Makélélé clashed in mid-air, resulting in both players being booked and Scholes having to leave the field for treatment to a bloody nose. The first goal of the game came five minutes later, when an interchange of passes between Scholes and Wes Brown after a throw-in on the right flank gave Brown time to pick out a cross for Cristiano Ronaldo, who directed his header past Petr Čech. Chelsea almost equalised in the 33rd minute when Frank Lampard's cross was headed back into the goal area by Didier Drogba. United's Rio Ferdinand, under pressure from Michael Ballack, was forced to head the ball towards his own goal and Edwin van der Sar pulled off a one-handed save to deny Chelsea a goal. United spent the rest of the first half pressing for a second goal, and had two good opportunities to extend their lead, but were denied by a double-save from Čech. Wayne Rooney delivered a long ball into the path of Ronaldo and the United goalscorer placed his cross on the head of the diving Carlos Tevez, only for Čech to deny him. Chelsea's failure to clear the loose ball gave Michael Carrick the chance to extend his side's lead, but Čech was again equal to the task with another save.
  Chelsea survived the pressure, as Tevez failed to connect with a low cross from Rooney, and equalised in the final minute of the first half. The goal followed from a long-range shot by Michael Essien, which deflected first off Nemanja Vidić and then Ferdinand. The ball's change in direction caused Van der Sar to lose his footing, leaving Lampard, who had made a run from deep, with a simple finish. In celebration, Lampard looked up and pointed to the sky with both hands in memory of his mother, Pat, who had died a month earlier. At the end of the first half, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson confronted match referee Ľuboš Micheľ, "jabbing out an angry finger and spitting out a few choice words".
caption: Manchester United and Chelsea players shake hands ahead of the match.
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