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The Billy Buchanan Diaries - 29
Our dominance domestically continued, and was so great that we had actually wrapped up our 6th successive title before we had played the League Cup Final. In situations like this, I'm often tempted to say, ok we'll forfeit the remaining games becuase we've won the League anyway. But of course, they wouldn't let us do that.So we simply had to show them that such an idea was silly, and we do so by remaining unbeaten in the League, ending with 33 wins and 5 draws. Perhaps next season we'll try and win them all!
In the League Cup, a 2-0 win over Dundee in the Semi Final saw us through to a final against Kilmarnock. By this point, we were already SPL Champions, and although not a great performance from us, an own goal from Killie's Graeme Hutchison and fine strike from our own Steven Murray gave us the 2nd leg of the domestic treble, and we had hardly broken sweat.
In the Scottish Cup, we reached the semis easily, by overcoming Brechin, Raith Rovers and Dunfermline, and once again our opponents would be Dundee. A Steven Murray hattrick ensured that there would be no joy for our local neighbours, and goals from Craig and Adams saw us romp to a 5-0 win, and place for in the final against Aberdeen for the second successive season. The final turned out to be a very one sided affair, Aberdeen managed only one shot on goal in the entire 90 minutes. Goals from Scott Craig, his 41st of the season, on 37 minutes, and second from Steven Murray 19 minutes from the end saw not only complete our second domestic treble, the other being in 2009, but we had also gone the whole season unbeaten domestically. A pretty sensational achievement.
But of course, the center of our world this season is the Champions League, and our journey to the field of dreams continued as we went to Lisbon to play Benfica. After 24 minutes, Murray and MacDonald had us 2-0 ahead and we were in for a fantastic result. Benfica though as no mugs, and goals from Mantorras and Tiago gained them a draw, but even so a good result for us, and we should have enough to win the home leg.
Yet if we had any illusions that this was going to be easy, we were soon disabused of those as the Portuguese giants started brightly. After 29 minutes though, they recieved a huge blow as Mantorras was red carded, and three minutes later SCott Craig sent us ahead on the night. It was a tough and hard fought match, but a goal from Scott Adams eight minutes from the end finally killed Benfica off, and we were through to a Quarter Final meeting with Real Sociedad.
The first leg away again, and after 39 minutes Scott Craig sent us into the lead to stun the Spanish side. Just after the hour we had a penalty, and Paul O'Neill rarely misses these, and he didn't miss this one. Yet Sociedad are also a decent side, and seven minute later Roque Santa Cruz gave them a lifeline. But it was a lifeline they couldn't take as furhter goals from Murray and MacDonald saw us sweep to a sensational 4-1 win, and the 2nd leg was now surely a formality. And despite Sociedad taking the lead after just 16 minutes, another penalty from O'Neill and a great strike from Adams saw us win 2-1 on the night, and 6-2 on aggregate. The semi final would see us play Bayern Munich.
We had already played Bayern eight times in European adventures, including of course the 2010 Champions League Final. Of those eight matches, five had ended in draws, although of course we did lose one of those draws on a penalty shoot out, and we had won the other three. This was bound to be two great matches, and once again we had the away leg first, which seems to suit us.
Twenty five minutes into the match, we had a penalty, which Paul O'Neill slotted home and we were ahead once more in Munich. Bayern though wanted this title as much as we did, and four minutes after the break they were level through Rau. The match was end to end stuff, and on 66 minutes Bayern were ahead, a fantastic strike from Michael Ballack that had the whole crowd gasping in admiration. Three minutes later though, they were gasping in pain as Steven Murray levelled the match, and in injury time Scott Craig scored what could well be the most important goal of his career.
The game was far from over, but of course Bayern needed to win by two clear goals, or win by 4-3 or more. It was tight game, but right on half time, Paul O'Neill scored a 4th successive penalty in European competition and that was enough to see us through to our third Champions League Final.
Our opponents this time, in a match that will be play at Old Trafford, are Dinamo Kiev, and althought the bookies have the Ukranians as favourites, I can't help feeling that surely, surely this is our chance to finally become the best team in Europe.....
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