Iconic sporting moments do not come much bigger than John Terry's famous penalty kick for Chelsea in the 2008 Champions League final.
Terry, captaining the Blues, stepped up against Edwin van der Sar of Manchester United, only to slip at the decisive moment, with the England international fluffing his lines and sending the shootout to sudden death.
Striker Nicolas Anelka went on to miss for Chelsea to hand the European crown to Sir Alex Ferguson's side, and one former Blues star has now admitted the whole situation could have been completely avoidable if not for Terry's greed.
John Terry COST Chelsea the 2008 Champions League trophy with his sheer greed
17 years on from that night in Moscow, former Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele has told BetMGM what went wrong on that terrible evening for those with a Blues affiliation.
It turns out that Terry skipped the queue when it came to the agreed penalty takers of Avram Grant's side, with Salomon Kalou instead set to take the fifth spot-kick for Chelsea, before the defender stepped in and tried to be a hero.
“We made a big mistake ahead of the penalties. We had an order which was agreed with the players and the manager, but it changed at the last minute," Makelele began when speaking to BetMGM recently.
“It was supposed to be Salomon Kalou taking the last penalty but John [Terry] took the opportunity off him. I think we lost this competition because football is very harsh sometimes and, if you don’t do things the right way, you get punished.
“I was very angry when he missed the penalty because it was a chance that I knew a lot of the young players wouldn’t get. I’d won the Champions League before but, in this moment, John had to be the leader and do what was best for the team.
“He didn’t make sure we won the trophy, he tried to be a hero. If he knew this, he would have been a hero because he would have lifted the trophy.”
In FourFourTwo's view, Terry's greed could have played a defining factor in their penalty-shootout defeat, but Anelka also missed a vital spot-kick in sudden death, so perhaps not all of the blame can be shifted onto the former England captain.
The iconic Chelsea defender is ranked at No.4 in FourFourTwo's list of the best Premier League defenders of all time and remains idolised for his contributions at Stamford Bridge across his career.
