John Terry details late penalty tweak prior to 2008 Champions League final miss

Chelsea legend John Terry has revealed how he could have been a Champions League hero had he carried out his training plan against Manchester United.

Terry famously missed a penalty in the 2008 final against United, with the Red Devils winning the shootout 6-5 after the Chelsea skipper slipped and sent his spot-kick veering off to the right.

Had the center-half scored, Chelsea would have won the Champions League, as Cristiano Ronaldo had uncharacteristically missed a penalty earlier in the shootout.

And Terry has revealed that in training prior to the final, I had been practicing panenka-style penalties.

The cheeky chip-style spot-kick is named after Antonin Panenka’s technique of softly lifting the ball into the middle of the goal – and gambling that the keeper will dive either way.

“On the build-up to finals you take penalties, and you go through the routines, and you do the walk from the halfway line, ‘said Terry, speaking to Andy Gray and Richard Keys on beIN Sports.

“We’d been doing that for two weeks at the training ground, and I’d been dinking them down the middle like the panenka!”

Keys was amused by Terry’s assertion, clearly finding hard to imagine the former England defender pulling off such a trick shot, as he said: “No, you’re a center-back, get off!”

Terry’s slip-up sent the shootout to sudden death, and Edwin van der sar saved Nicolas Anelka’s penalty to win a third European Cup for United.

United and Chelsea had finished first and second respectively in the Premier League that season, with two points the difference, and the rivals had drawn the Champions League final 1-1.

Ronaldo had fired United ahead, but saw his goal canceled out by Frank Lampard shortly before half-time.

Terry picked up a Champions League winner’s medal with Chelsea four years later, but was unable to play the final through suspension.