Cristiano Ronaldo deserves his first Champions League medal after a season of genuine brilliance.
John Terry deserves our sympathy after slipping so cruelly and crucially before pushing the shoot-out penalty wide which would have handed Chelsea the trophy.
Sir Alex Ferguson deserves his place in history and Avram Grant time to build on what was so close to being a triumphant first season.
I know it does not make sense but for a fleeting moment I thought a pang of sympathy was deserved also for that well-known multi-billionaire Roman Abramovich, whose heart surely was racing faster amid that shoot-out than during any mega deal he has ever done.
But after a Champions League final which only confirmed the Premier League as the most dramatic and exciting, if not always technically proficient, entertainment on the planet I could not raise one kind word for Didier Drogba.
If Drogba has played his last match in the blue shirt of Chelsea then it is not a moment too soon.
Great finals on grand stages call for men with selflessness and integrity. The tension and the importance of the prize acts like an x-ray to the skeleton of a man's character.
And in the Luzhniki stadium Drogba was found wanting. All fractured personality. Just as he has been so often during a career with Chelsea in which he has been the club's biggest asset as well as their greatest liability.
Yes, he provided perhaps the most sublime moment of the entire match when, seemingly without any space or back lift, he curled an exquisite right-foot shot against the United post.
Nothing against Chelsea, who in so many ways deserved to triumph, but I'm glad it was not four inches inside that post.
That would have seen headlines proclaiming Drogba as Chelsea's great hero and the truth is that this season he has been anything but.
Precious, at times puerile, Drogba has made football posturing into an art form.
So much so that at one point during the final he was seen standing over Ronaldo, urging the fallen United winger to get to his feet.
And the phrase which came to mind included pots and kettles. Truly there is not a footballer in Europe less qualified to lecture his fellow professionals on the darker arts of the so-called 'Beautiful Game'.
The red card he received for slapping Nemanja Vidic in the face was fully deserved. The original spat was not of Drogba's concern but the man from the Ivory Coast could start a fight in an empty room.
Why, it was only weeks ago that he threw a hissy fit of two-year-old proportions when Michael Ballack lined up to take a free-kick he believed was his domain. This time his red card meant he was not there to take the fifth penalty which Terry missed and could therefore legitimately be blamed for costing Chelsea the cup.
If dwelling on Drogba appears churlish when United have made history once more and when Chelsea contributed so much to the late-night entertainment then I make no apologies.
Because if Grant remains at the Chelsea helm his future is intertwined with that of the big striker.
All season stories have linked Drogba with wanting to rejoin former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho when he returns to football. Such a conflict of loyalties rarely has a happy ending for all parties.
Ferguson alluded to as much when he spared a thought for Grant following the trophy celebrations.
He said: "When he (Grant) came to Chelsea from Portsmouth it was to help Jose Mourinho. He was thrust into a job at a difficult time. When a manager with big success leaves he takes loyalties with him. That's not easy."
Drogba has not made it easy for his current manager. One of them must go. Justice says it should not be Grant.
Some things are just meant to be and Ryan Giggs breaking Sir Bobby Charlton's appearance record for Manchester United in the Champions league final was one of them.
Giggs has now taken the field 759 times for his only club and Sir Alex Ferguson made special mention of him and Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, United's home-grown duo.
"People like Scholes, Giggs and Neville know what Man Utd means," said Ferguson. "They deserve this."
For once no-one could disagree with the great man.
Spare a thought for Manchester City supporters.
On the day United win their third European Champions Cup Sven-Goran Eriksson tried to put some positive spin on what could be the last knockings of his City reign.
He said: "I think as a club - the players, the coaches, everybody - we had a good year, a very good year. The start of the season was fantastic, maybe too good to be true."
City, by the way, after spending more than £40million, came ninth in the Premier League, albeit their best performance in three seasons.
A good year perhaps, but one in which the shadow cast by their neighbours just grew a whole lot longer.
