Chelsea's Champions League Triumph: Game-by-Game Guide to How They Did It

Since Roman Abramovich took over at Chelsea, it has been clear that his main goal was to lead the club to European glory.

And on the 19th of May 2012 he achieved this goal when Chelsea defeated Bayern Munich in the Champions League final.

It was an extraordinary game, and a game that fit right in with the rest of Chelsea's Champions League campaign.

There was barely a moment throughout the competition when Chelsea fans weren't biting their nails, but all that tension was replaced with joy and relief when Didier Drogba converted his penalty in Munich.

Lets take a look at how Chelsea achieved their greatest achievement and how they managed to survive from the brink of elimination on several occasions.

Group Stages

Chelsea were drawn against Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen and Genk, the Belgian champions.

Chelsea were highly fancied to win this group with a certain amount of ease, but a lot of people saw a few potential "banana skins" for the Blues.

Their campaign started well enough, winning two of their first three games and drawing the other.

But Chelsea were in the middle of a mini-crisis on and off the field, and this showed in their Champions League performances. They drew with Genk, considered a minnow, and then losing to Bayer Leverkusen.

This made for a tense last day. Chelsea had to win against Valencia to guarantee qualification, and if they were to win the group they needed Genk to take points off of Leverkusen.

It was mission accomplished for Chelsea, winning emphatically at Stamford Bridge and Leverkusen could only draw with Genk, making Chelsea the winners of Group E.

The tension on the last day of the group stages was only a sign of things to come.

Second Round vs. Napoli

This really was a tie of two halves.

After qualifying from the group stages the Blues were drawn against Italian side Napoli.

Chelsea were made the bookies' favourites in the first leg but many people thought that Andre Villas-Boas' Chelsea would be undone by Napoli's impressive attacking play.

When Chelsea's team sheet was revealed leading up to the game in Naples, many fans and pundits were left scratching their heads.

In such a massive game, Villas-Boas had opted to leave out two key experienced veterans in Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole.

The manager's gamble had looked to be paying off as Juan Mata put the away side ahead after 27 minutes. This joy was short-lived as Napoli fired back twice in quick succession to put the home team ahead at half-time.

More woe was heaped on to Chelsea as Lavezzi scored again midway through the second half to make it 3-1 to Napoli going into the second leg.

Two weeks and a manager change later, Chelsea were about to host Napoli at Stamford Bridge and were going to need a small miracle to make it through to the next round.

The game started well for Chelsea when Drogba scored just after the 25-minute mark with a header.

Chelsea then came flying out of the blocks after half-time with another header, this time from John Terry just two minutes after the restart.

The comeback looked to be on until Gokhan Inler fired a powerful shot making it 2-1 handing the advantage back to Napoli.

This was until the ball was handled in the penalty area by a Napoli defender and Frank Lampard stepped up to smash home the penalty forcing the game in to extra-time.

Extra-time was a tense affair, until right on the stroke of the first half of extra-time, Branislav Ivanovic scored with a powerful side-foot shot in to the roof of Napoli's net completing a remarkable comeback.

Quarter-Final vs. Benfica

After their impressive turnaround performance against Napoli, Chelsea were awarded with a quarter-final tie with Portuguese giants Benfica.

The general consensus was that Chelsea had been given a favourable tie, but Benfica would be no pushovers and Chelsea would be foolish to take them lightly.

The first leg was an away tie for the Blues and many fans would have been happy to come away from the Stadium of Light with a draw and an away goal.

But after an impressive display Chelsea managed to head back to Stamford Bridge with a one-goal advantage after Salomon Kalou scored the only goal of the game following a cross from Fernando Torres.

Mission complete in Portugal, but Chelsea would need another solid display at Stamford Bridge to make sure that Benfica don't do to Chelsea what Chelsea did to Napoli.

The game started fairly slowly for Chelsea with Benfica having the majority of the possession and sending in a lot of crosses, none of which causing Chelsea too much bother.

Then just after the 20-minute mark, Chelsea were awarded a penalty when Ashley Cole was brought down unfairly in the penalty area.

The penalty was converted by Frank Lampard, and Chelsea had the lead against the run of play.

The game then ticked over without much happening for over an hour, with Benfica's efforts mostly coming from ambitious efforts outside of the box.

This was until Javi Garcia met a cross with header from close range and evened up the scores in the 85th minute, making the last part of the game nerve-racking for the Chelsea fans.

Raul Meireles, being an ex-Porto player, was on the receiving end of a lot of booing, but he silenced the Benfica fans when a superbly taken effort in stoppage time ended all hope of Benfica nicking a win. He sent Chelsea through to a semi-final against the reigning champions.

Semi-Finals vs. Barcelona

Let's not talk too much about the last time Chelsea met Barcelona in a Champions League semi-final tie; let's just say it didn't end up in Chelsea's favour.

This time Chelsea were out for revenge, but not many people outside of the club thought they had much hope of getting past arguably the best football team of all time.

The first leg of this massive tie was held at Stamford Bridge, and Chelsea's game plan was simple: don't let Barcelona score.

The Spanish giants were relentless in possession and attack for nearly all of the first half, when out of nowhere Drogba fired in from a Ramires cross, right on the stroke of half-time.

Barcelona carried on pressing in Chelsea's half for the entire second half but without any success, and Chelsea were heading to the Nou Camp with a vital one-goal advantage.

Despite this advantage, Barcelona were once again heavy favourites to go on and qualify for the final.

When the highly anticipated second leg finally came around, the atmosphere in the Nou Camp was electric, with both sets of fans knowing how important this game was.

The game started in much the same way as the first leg with Barcelona having the possession and chances, but not being able to convert them.

Then the deadlock was broken just after the half-hour mark, but unfortunately for Chelsea, the goalscorer was a Barcelona player cancelling out Chelsea's first-leg advantage.

Things went from bad to worse for Chelsea when John Terry was shown a straight red card for an off-the-ball challenge on Alexis Sanchez.

Down to 10 men and on the ropes, Chelsea were all over the place and Andres Iniesta soon doubled Barca's advantage on 43 minutes.

All hope seemed to be fading for Chelsea until Ramires latched on to a through ball and delicately chipped the ball over Victor Valdes right on half-time.

The Chelsea fairytale was still on; with an away goal Chelsea were going through if they could just hold on to their lead.

Just as Chelsea fans started believing, Barcelona won a penalty, which of course was to be taken by Lionel Messi.

As he stepped up, Chelsea fans couldn't watch, but those who did saw his penalty come back off the crossbar and Chelsea remained in the tie.

Chelsea just about held on for 90 minutes, when out of nowhere Fernando Torres took advantage of Barcelona's ridiculously high defensive line and skipped around the keeper to send Chelsea through to the final in dramatic style.

Final vs. Bayern Munich

Somehow Chelsea had made it, scraping through so many difficult ties and reaching the Champions League final once again.

They entered the game as the bookies' outsiders, and most neutrals and pundits agreed with the odds for the match.

Before the match even started Chelsea were at a distinct disadvantage as the game was being played at the Allianz Arena, Bayern Munich's home ground.

Both teams were missing key players through suspensions so it was set to be a tense match with neither side being able to field their first-choice defence.

Soon after the game kicked off, it looked as if Chelsea were going to have to win in defensive mode as Bayern piled on the pressure.

The attacks were relentless throughout the game and Mario Gomez had three clear-cut opportunities to put his side ahead and show his critics that he can perform in the biggest game of all.

But after 83 minutes the Chelsea defence was finally breached and Thomas Muller headed in from a cross. As the ball bounced through Petr Cech's hands, Chelsea fans' hearts sank.

Chelsea didn't give up, they knew this was a now-or-never moment and they had to get a goal...then Torres won a corner.

This was probably going to be Chelsea's last chance of scoring in the game so Mata had to get it right.

And he did, floating the ball to the near post where it was met by a steam train of a header from Drogba.

As the ball hit the net the Chelsea end erupted and the players celebrated, the miracle was back on.

The final whistle blew and the game headed to extra-time. Extra-time was a far more even affair with Chelsea attacking far more than they did during the 90 minutes, raising the question of whether they could have wrapped up the game earlier if they had got at the Bayern defence more often.

Extra-time ended 1-1 with no team managing to break the deadlock, so the game was heading to penalties.

Chelsea fans were instantly transported back to their penalty heartbreak only a few seasons earlier at the hands of Manchester United.

It looked to be heading the same way as Mata had his first penalty saved by Neuer and Bayern converting their following penalty.

The next penalties were all converted, and then Ivica Olic stepped up. His penalty was saved by Cech, bringing Chelsea right back in to the shootout.

Ashley Cole showed no nerves and scored to put the pressure on Bastian Schweinsteiger, who missed.

This was it: if Drogba scored the next penalty, then Chelsea are Champions League. He wasn't going to miss, was he? This is Didier Drogba we're talking about.

Chelsea became European champions and the celebrations began.