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The only reason that match is remembered is that it was the first time Roman Abramovich had been to a match in England.

He liked it so much he decided to buy an English club and for good measure secured the services of Peter Kenyon, then with Manchester United, as his chief executive.

Wednesday night was totally different and we accepted penalties because that was the only way to decide this absorbing match.

Indeed, as the match progressed to the inevitable finale, I got a call from my nephew in New York, a Liverpool supporter incidentally, telling me how he and his friends were enjoying this display from England's top two.

Apart from the first 10 or so minutes, when I feared it would join the , every minute of this match was enthralling. It ebbed and flowed as we expect our best league matches to.

That was made possible by the fact that the two teams play in such contrasting styles: Chelsea relying on the power and surges of their midfield, Manchester United on the , swiftly launching raids from deep defensive positions.

It was who got this match going in the 15th minute with his trickery, Ronaldo who scored the first goal, and Ronaldo who provided the image of the match as he lay prostrate on the ground after United had won.

His head was buried in the grass as he sobbed, tears of joy which countering the tears of genuine sadness we had seen from John Terry as he cried on the shoulder of .

As we saw the Chelsea boss consoling Terry it was hard not to resist the thought that his failure to win, despite taking the club to their first ever Champions League final, may mean he will soon need consoling himself.

Talking of images, I wonder what exactly was saying as the teams came out at half time.

Television viewers could see clearly that he was having a talk with the referee - or rather Sir Alex was talking and the referee listening - and this looked more like the Ferguson hairdryer treatment for the poor ref.

What exactly prompted Ferguson to talk like that we shall never know.

On Tuesday evening, Manchester United chief executive David Gill told me he had no fears that Ferguson would use the triumph to say goodbye. If the Glazers had a say, they would want Sir Alex to go on and on.

He will one day retire but the way he has been talking one suspects that having bettered achievement and won this premier European trophy twice, he has even higher goals.

He wants to make sure Manchester United rank with the greats of European football like Real Madrid and AC Milan in the number of times they have won this tournament. That suggests he will be around for some time yet.

Both Liverpool and Manchester United supporters have told me they were glad it was not a clash between these two teams in Moscow. For both sets of supporters, losing to the other on foreign soil would have been unbearable.

I detected no such feeling between Chelsea and Manchester United, although I did see some Chelsea jibes about not being scousers.

The mood of the fans was the most subdued I have ever seen in a European final where an English team has been involved.

Talking to fans, I got the impression one reason was that many had made a long away-day trip, so had very little sleep, and they had also taken on board the warnings of .

Both sets of fans were all too familiar with each other but I got the impression they were somewhat in awe of the surroundings - and if you are in with the Kremlin illuminated, you can understand why.

However, after this match the world should be in awe of what the English Premier League can and often does produce, week in and week out.