Gambling + Emotions = Big Losses

There is no bigger trophy that your football club can win than the Champions League so I was understandably emotional going into the final as I was desperate for Man Utd to win.

Back in November I bet £30 against United winning the Champions League. As it’s a tricky trophy to win and we have failed to lift the trophy since 1999 the odds were quite long so I only stood to win £5 if we got knocked out.

In the build up to the big game I became more nervous about my teams chances and bet another £20 against United winning. Man Utd and Chelsea were so evenly matched prior to the game that the odds were close to even.

The game kicked off and United had an awesome start attacking Chelsea straight away. Our domination of the opening 30 minutes was rewarded with a Ronaldo goal. Full of confidence now there is always the fear that one nil is not enough and losing now would be more painful than if we had not scored so I bet another £5 against us winning. As we were now winning the odds were much lower at 1.37 so my £5 bet would have won £13.50 if we had gone on to lose the game.

Just before half time Chelsea punished United for some sloppy defending and equalised. This had to be the worst possible time for United to concede a goal and it changed the nature of the game with Chelsea going on to dominate the 2nd half. To me it seemed like wave after wave of Chelsea attack almost waiting for the inevitable Chelsea winner, but it did not come.

So like the FA cup final the previous year extra time was going to be needed to try and separate these two teams. In that game Chelsea won the game deep in extra time so I was understandably not that confident now and this was reflected in me backing Chelsea to win with another £5 bet at the same odds as I got before the start of the game.

But this time there was no extra time winner and the game would have to be settled by a penalty shoot-out. This was my nightmare scenario prior to the game. I have never seen United win a penalty shoot-out and everyone knows about England’s many failures to win a game by this means.

Whilst my head knew that the game was now a lottery which could go either way there was too much hurt in my heart from watching Euro ‘96, France ‘98, Euro ‘04, Germany ‘06 and more recently United losing the FA Cup final on penalties. So when I staked another £10 on Chelsea to win I never thought that it would be a losing bet.

I have not watched a penalty shoot-out involving either England or Man Utd since the pain of Euro ‘96 and this time was to be no different. I sat numbly outside on my balcony awaiting my teams fate.

When I heard that Ronaldo had missed I could imagine all the newspaper headlines the next day and what little hope may have remained was gone. At this point staking a further £10 on a Chelsea win seemed like the safest investment in the world.

I don’t really know why I came back in to watch Terry take the final penalty but I did. As he stepped up to take his penalty I wasn’t even thinking about the possibility that he might miss, but as he ran up to kick the ball he slipped and kicked the ball wide.

My heartbeat now went in to over drive. United were back in the lottery of penalties. I can’t really describe what happened next as it’s all a bit of a blur but Anderson and Giggs scored their penalties for United before Van Der Sar won the game for United by saving Anelka’s penalty. Finally after 3 hours of drama we had done it. Champions of Europe for the 3rd time in the clubs history!

I’m still high on United’s success but their success cost me £80 in total for all my lost bets and there will undoubtedly be further cost to come when all the winning merchandise goes on sale. It’s still too early for me to really assess what happened in terms of my betting other than my emotions were running high and that meant I bet far more than I usually would have.