Sure, you can say that Chelsea would still have won the aggregate in its UEFA Champions League semifinal vs. Barcelona had Lionel Messi converted this PK. But I say it would have buried the 10-man EPL side, and Barca wouldn’t have been playing the full-pitch press which enabled Torres to close the artists formerly known as the greatest soccer team on earth off with authority.
As for Cristiano Ronaldo, well, hell, he set a bad tone in the PKs vs. Bayern Munich. But they scraped back and just fell short. As loathe as I am to offer CR7 an out, you try playing Bayern twice in a week, sandwiched around an El Clasico vs. Barca and see how your legs feel when the last match of an epic trilogy goes to extra time.
