Manchester United were crowned as Champions of Europe in Moscow on Wednesday night, after beating Premiership rivals Chelsea via a penalty shoot out in the first ever European Final between two English clubs.

Exactly 50 years after the tragedy of Munich, United kept up their 100 per cent record in European finals following previous victories in 1968, 1991 and 1999 to deny Chelsea their first ever Champions League honour.

Edwin Van Der Sar turned out to be United's shoot-out hero, when he saved Nicolas Anelka's sudden death spot-kick after what had been a thrilling game.

Prior to the lottery of the shoot-out, both teams contributed to what was a fine spectacle in the Luzhniki Stadium and it really could've gone either way right up until the final minute.

United certainly enjoyed the better of the first half and after a tense opening 15 minutes, they began to exert their authority on the game.

It was therefore no surprise when United edged ahead in the 26th minute. Paul Scholes and Wes Brown linked well on the right before the latter placed a cross to Cristiano Ronaldo at the far post and he planted a fine header past Petr Cech to register his 42nd goal of the season.

It could so easily have been 2-0 shortly after when Wayne Rooney won the ball and led the charge from the back before playing a fine crossfield pass to Ronaldo. His centre was met by the onrushing Carlos Tevez, but Cech was down quickly to make a fine save and keep his header out before he completed the double save by turning away Michael Carrick's follow-up.

With half time approaching, Tevez was again agonisingly close to adding a second when he came within inches of turning Rooney's cross home.

United were made to pay and just moments after that, Chelsea were level after Michael Essien's long range shot took two deflections before falling nicely to Frank Lampard who finished well from within the area.

If the first half belonged to United, then the second half was all Chelsea's as they controlled possession and had the pick of the chances.

The closest they came was when Didier Drogba's curling effort from the edge of the area had Van Der Sar beaten only to come crashing back off the post.

With the 90 minutes up, it was on to extra time and again Chelsea were pushing to score the crucial third goal. 

The introduction of Salomon Kalou injected some pace into the Chelsea attack and when he broke away down the left, Lampard was presented with another shooting chance only to see his left footer hit the woodwork.

At the other end though, Blues skipper John Terry had to make a heroic header off the line to deny Ryan Giggs a goal following a run and cross from Patrice Evra on the left.

With just over five minutes to go, Chelsea were reduced to ten men when Drogba was shown a red card after raising his hand to slap Nemanja Vidic on the face following a needless dispute over a throw-in.

The teams couldn't be separated during the 120 minutes though, so on it went to the dreaded penalty shoot-out.

Tevez, Carrick, Owen Hargreaves and Nani scored, whilst Ronaldo missed the third spot kick to hand Chelsea an advantage after successful kicks from Michael Ballack, Lampard, Juliano Belletti and Ashley Cole, leaving Terry to score the decider. Unfortunately, he slipped just as he was about to strike and saw his shot hit the post to send the game to sudden death.

With United shooting first, further goals from Giggs and Anderson put the pressure on Chelsea and after Kalou scored the first, Anelka's shot was predicted by Van Der Sar whose save sent the title back to Old Trafford.

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