Didier Drogba’s 33rd goal of the season, four minutes from the end of extra time, was enough to secure the FA Cup for Chelsea in the first final at the new Wembley on Saturday.
Just as it seemed a third successive final would be resolved by penalties, the striker picked up a pass from Mikel John Obi, found Frank Lampard on the edge of the area and burst into the box to meet the return pass with the most delicate of finishes over the sprawling Edwin van der Sar.
Drogba’s goal count this season also includes the winner in the League Cup final against Arsenal in February and this one ensured that Chelsea’s manager, Jose Mourinho, has now completed a full set of English trophies after only three seasons in charge — although whether he will be around for a fourth remains to be seen.
”That’s one I don’t throw away, it means a lot,” Mourinho said of his winner’s medal. ”It’s the first FA Cup for me. It’s something the players deserve so much. It’s a moment for everyone to enjoy.
”The team played very, very well and understood the game plan.”
Skipper John Terry said Chelsea had made up for losing out on the Premiership and Champions League. ”It’s absolutely unbelievable, the way we held on to the death, the way Didier took his chance.”
”If we hadn’t have won this Cup we would have been very frustrated,” added Drogba, saying he was ”very happy to score the first goal in this new stadium.”
Drogba grabbed the glory at the end but he will have to share the plaudits with goalkeeper Petr Cech, who had repeatedly denied United any reward for their attacking efforts in a match they did not deserve to lose.
Having pulled off a superb double save to deny Wayne Rooney and Giggs at the start of the second-half, the Czech international came to his side’s rescue twice more in extra-time.
In the 104th minute, as Giggs slid in to meet Rooney’s low cross, Cech threw himself to his right to smother the ball. The United captain’s momentum carried him into the goalkeeper’s body, forcing both Cech and the ball over the line but referee Steve Bennett waved away the appeals for a goal to be given.
Then, minutes before Drogba’s killer blow, the Chelsea keeper threw himself at Rooney’s feet to prevent the England forward finishing off Paul Scholes’s perfectly judged ball over the top of the back four.
With the Premiership champions close to full strength and Chelsea obliged to do without the injured trio of Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, United’s line-up appeared, on paper at least, to carry the greater attacking threat.
In practice, it was Chelsea, with Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips swirling either side of Drogba, who displayed the greater attacking initiative in an opening half that never really sparked into life.
United’s first sniff of an opening came after quarter of an hour when Darren Fletcher’s header left Rooney with only Cech to beat. The offside flag went up — wrongly television replays suggested — but Rooney, in any case, placed his shot wide of the target.
The England forward’s touch was equally awry a minute later when he failed to get a clean contact on a volley after Michael Essien, standing in for Carvalho, miscued a clearance into his path.
At the other end, Drogba sent a long-range effort looping wide before Paulo Ferreira’s surge into the box generated Chelsea’s best chance of the opening period.
Having cut inside Gabriel Heinze, the Portuguese right-back slipped the ball to Lampard on the corner of the six-yard box and the midfielder was able to squeeze a shot on the turn through Rio Ferdinand’s legs, forcing Van der Sar to get down smartly to his right to save.
An unusually subdued Cristiano Ronaldo finally got involved in the contest ten minutes before the interval, shooting narrowly wide after collecting an astute long ball from Scholes, a minute before Lampard sent a 30-yard drive whistling narrowly over Van der Sar’s crossbar.
Half-time brought the introduction of Arjen Robben at the expense of Cole for Chelsea, but it was the increase in United’s tempo that had a more profound impact on the pattern of the match and it took a superb double save by Cech to prevent them taking the lead within three minutes of the re-start.
An uncharacteristic lapse by Claude Makelele allowed Rooney the opportunity to go round Essien on the edge of the area. The goalkeeper could not hold the drive that followed but he recovered quickly enough to keep out Ryan Giggs’s follow-up effort.
With the game opening up, there were threatening bursts into the boxes from both Robben and Rooney, who was increasingly getting the upper hand in his personal battle with Essien.
But clear chances were extremely thin on the ground, with a Ronaldo shot that found the netting the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock before the dramatic finale in extra time. — AFP
