Petr Cech has revealed just how close he actually was to preventing Andres Iniesta’s famous goal against Chelsea.
Winning the second leg of their 2009 semi-final Champions League tie against Barcelona, Chelsea were on the verge of reaching the final for a second successive year. However, in the dying stages of the game, Andres Iniesta hit a perfect shot into the back of Petr Cech‘s net to make the score 1-1 and knock the Blues out on away goals.
Cech, in an interview with Cadena SER, has now revealed that he was only millimetres away from stopping the Barcelona and Spain legend’s shot.
Victory that night for Chelsea would have seen them set up a rematch of the 2008 Champions League final against Manchester United, with the Red Devils beating their English rivals on penalties that year.
They were unable to claim the trophy again 12 months later, though, losing the 2009 final against Iniesta’s Barcelona side.
Petr Cech almost prevented Andres Iniesta’s goal against Chelsea
According to Cech, he was only 6mm away from getting a touch on the ball Iniesta fired in at the Bridge.
“I was very close to the ball, 6mm away,” the Chelsea legend revealed. “I almost touched the ball, but when you have a perfect shot, in a moment like that… what can you do?
“Sometimes this is the goalkeeper’s life, you know that, if you have someone who makes the perfect shot, the goal is very big and there is a huge space to cover.”

Petr Cech and Chelsea bounce back in 2012
It was a painful night for Cech and Chelsea, and it is even more painful now hearing how close the former goalkeeper was to stopping Iniesta’s goal.
However, Cech was able to put that behind him after the Blues’ 2012 Champions League final triumph over Bayern Munich, where he managed to save two spot-kicks in a penalty shoot-out.
With Chelsea having not played well during the 2011/12 Premier League season, Cech told his wife it would be ironic if the club went on to win Europe’s elite competition, which they had failed to do up until that point.
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