Branislav Ivanovic makes Chelsea some money

How much was Branislav Ivanovic's last-gasp goal against Benfica worth? Well, if you're feeling all emotional, it's difficult to put a price on winning a shiny trophy and restoring some pride. But since it was the Europa League, I can only feel so emotional about winning before getting embarrassed. And after that goes, we're down to counting the cold, hard, cash.

After the semifinal win against FC Basel, football finances blog the Swiss Ramble pointed out that Chelsea's Europa League run had partially made up for their failure to make it out of the group stages. Assuming that the Blues had been vanquished by Benfica, they'd have earned €6.5 million in prize money plus the income from four home games. And now that they've won it, that's up to €9 million.

It gets better, though. Although from footballing perspective the Super Cup strikes me as an enormous waste of time, it's also incredibly lucrative. Thanks to Ivanovic, Chelsea will play the winners of the Champions League final in August, and they'll get at least €2.2 million for the pleasure.

That means that the goal, which took Chelsea from a 50/50 shot at the title to a victory, was worth somewhere in the vicinity of €2,350,000 on top of a shiny trophy. It's not quite the same as a Drogba penalty, but it's not really so bad.