‘WHAT IF’

LONDON. − John Terry has opened up on the dark moments that followed his infamous Champions League final penalty miss.

The former Chelsea skipper would have won it for the Blues in 2008 if his effort in the shootout against Manchester United had gone in.

But he slipped moments before spooning his spot-kick onto the post − and United went on to triumph in sudden death.

Blues icon Terry was inconsolable after spurning the chance to win what would have been the club’s first Champions League title.

And he’s now shed light on the troubling thoughts that whirred through his mind after returning to his hotel room on that night in Moscow.

Terry told the Mennie Talks podcast: “After the game, we all went back to the hotel and I was on the 25th floor.

“I was looking out the window going, ‘Why? Just why?’. I’m not saying that if you had that opportunity you’d jump, but things go through your head at that particular time.

“Then the boys came up and took me downstairs. It’s those ‘What if?’ moments where you just don’t know.”

Terry spent nine more years at Chelsea and finally got his hands on the Champions League crown in 2012.

But even that was tinged with bitterness as the red card he picked up in the semis saw him banned for the final.

Terry won five Premier League titles and a host of other major trophies during a glittering Chelsea career.

However, those accolades weren’t enough to eclipse the penalty slip that still haunts him to this day.

He continued: “Still today it goes over in my head. It’s softened over the years, for sure, but when you’re playing, you kind of compartmentalise it a little bit and put it to the back of your head.” − The Sun