 | |||||||
| Event | 2006–07 FA Cup | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Afterextra time | |||||||
| Date | 19 May 2007 | ||||||
| Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Frank Lampard (Chelsea) | ||||||
| Referee | Steve Bennett (Kent) | ||||||
| Attendance | 89,826 | ||||||
←2006 2008 → | |||||||
The2007 FA Cup final was played on Saturday, 19 May 2007 betweenChelsea andManchester United. It was the 126thFA Cup Final and the first to be played at the newWembley Stadium.[1] Chelsea beat Manchester United 1-0 thanks to anextra-time goal fromDidier Drogba,[2] completing a domesticcup double for the Blues in the2006–07 season, as they had already won theLeague CupFinal in February. Manchester United were favourite for winning a double of their own as they had recently beaten Chelsea to thePremier League title two weeks earlier. The game was widely considered to be a disappointment by pundits and fans alike.[3][4][5] As a result of Manchester United and Chelsea having already been guaranteed qualification for theUEFA Champions League, theUEFA Cup entry for the FA Cup winner/runner-up went instead to the highest positionedPremier League team who had not already qualified for Europe:Bolton Wanderers.
The match had an attendance of 89,826, the largest for an FA Cup Final sinceWimbledon's famous 1–0 win overLiverpool in the1988 final, when 98,203 attended. Chelsea became only the third club to complete the domestic cup double – Arsenal did it in 1993 and Liverpool in 2001. It was their fourth FA Cup triumph, and their first under the management ofJosé Mourinho. They had won the last FA Cup final at the old Wembley Stadium seven years earlier.
The match was the first time since1986 that the FA Cup final had been contested between the winners and runners-up of the English league, and the first time ever that the Premier League champions and theLeague Cup winners from the same season had gone head to head in the final. Manchester United were aiming for their 12th FA Cup to extend their overall record as the most successful team in the competition's history, while Chelsea were playing for their fourth FA Cup overall. The last time Chelsea had played Manchester United in an FA Cup Final was in 1994, when Manchester United ran out 4–0 winners after a goalless first half.Ryan Giggs was the only player in the 2007 FA Cup Final who played back in 1994. Chelsea's assistant coachSteve Clarke played on that day for the Blues in 1994.[6]
Ryan Giggs was playing in his seventh FA Cup Final, equallingRoy Keane's post-war record, having played in the 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2005 finals. Chelsea were also the last club to win theFA Cup at theold Wembley Stadium, when they beatAston Villa in the2000 Final.
Chelsea continued the dominance of the so-called "Big Four", who had now won the last 12 finals in a row (Arsenal 4 wins, Manchester United 3, Chelsea 3, Liverpool 2), since Everton's 1995 victory over Manchester United. It was the eighth FA Cup Final in a row (Arsenal 4 appearances, Chelsea 2, Millwall 1, West Ham 1) involving a London club; the last Final not to involve a London club was Manchester United's 2–0 win overNewcastle United in the1999 final.
Before the match, there was an official opening ceremony of the new stadium. This included the official opening byPrince William, afly-past byThe Red Arrows and a parade on the pitch of former winners at the old Wembley Stadium.
The full list was:
Both league matches between the two clubs in the2006–07 season finished as draws. On 26 November 2006 at Manchester United'sOld Trafford ground, the match ended in a 1–1 stalemate, with the goals coming fromLouis Saha andRicardo Carvalho. The two clubs met again on 9 May 2007 in their penultimate league fixture atStamford Bridge, but, with the league already having been sewn up the weekend before, both teams rested most of their major players and the match ended 0–0.
| Chelsea | Round | Manchester United | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macclesfield Town[L2] H 6–1 | Lampard 16', 41', 51' (pen.) Wright-Phillips 68' Mikel 82' Carvalho 86' | Third Round | Aston Villa[P] H 2–1 | Larsson 55' Solskjær 90' | ||
| Nottingham Forest[L1] H 3–0 | Shevchenko 9' Drogba 18' Mikel 45' | Fourth Round | Portsmouth[P] H 2–1 | Rooney 77', 83' | ||
| Norwich City[C] H 4–0 | Wright-Phillips 39' Drogba 51' Essien 90' Shevchenko 90' | Fifth Round | Reading[P] H 1–1 | Carrick 45' | ||
| Replay | Reading[P] A 3–2 | Heinze 2' Saha 4' Solskjær 6' | ||||
| Tottenham Hotspur[P] H 3–3 | Lampard 22', 71' Kalou 86' | Sixth Round | Middlesbrough[P] A 2–2 | Rooney 23' Ronaldo 68' (pen.) | ||
| Tottenham Hotspur[P] A 2–1 | Shevchenko 55' Wright-Phillips 61' | Replays | Middlesbrough[P] H 1–0 | Ronaldo 76' (pen.) | ||
| Blackburn Rovers[P] Old Trafford,Manchester 2–1 (a.e.t.) | Lampard 16' Ballack 109' | Semi-finals | Watford[P] Villa Park,Birmingham 4–1 | Rooney 7', 66' Ronaldo 28' Richardson 82' | ||
The opening twenty minutes of the game were marked by cautious play and a lack of creativity from both teams, until Didier Drogba produced the game's first noticeable attempt on goal by hammering a shot wide from thirty yards. It took a further ten minutes for another shot, this time from Chelsea'sFrank Lampard who forced a save fromEdwin van der Sar.Wayne Rooney was twice called offside for Manchester United in the first half, but it was the closest the Red Devils came to any kind of chance.
At half time, Chelsea managerJosé Mourinho made a like-for-like substitution, bringing onDutch wingerArjen Robben forJoe Cole. A minute after the restart, Rooney produced the most exciting action to that moment, dribbling round two Chelsea defenders before aiming a powerful shot towards goal, butPetr Čech managed to make a convincing save. Rooney set off on another run ten minutes later, carrying the ball a good sixty yards towards goal only to be tackled by the last Chelsea defender,Wayne Bridge.Ryan Giggs then flashed a volley barely two feet over the bar from close range after a cross fromPaul Scholes, who picked up the game's first booking a minute later after fouling Lampard. From the resulting free kick, Drogba curled the ball around the Manchester United wall and off the outside of the near post. Rooney set off on another dangerous run soon after, dribbling round bothJohn Terry andMichael Essien before having the ball taken off his feet by Čech.
With neither side doing enough to score in normal time, the game went into extra time for the third consecutive FA Cup Final. Manchester United's best chance of the game fell to Giggs from only three yards out after Rooney slid a pass across goal, but the Welshman could not get proper contact on his shot and Čech got down to make the save. Giggs appealed for a goal, claiming that the ball had crossed the line in Čech's arms, but the linesman did not flag and refereeSteve Bennett waved play on. Television replays appeared to show that the ball had just crossed the line, but only after Giggs's momentum had pushed Čech backwards into his own goal.[7] After the game, Manchester United managerSir Alex Ferguson claimed that Giggs had been fouled by Essien just before he took his shot.[8]
The deadlock was finally broken after 116 minutes when Drogba played a one-two with Lampard on the edge of the box after receiving the ball fromMikel John Obi, and prodded the ball past the onrushing van der Sar and into the net. Chelsea picked up three more bookings in the last few minutes as they tried to halt a late Manchester United comeback, but Drogba's goal proved to be the last chance of the game as Mourinho's side held on to win the first ever FA Cup Final at the new Wembley Stadium.
| Chelsea | 1–0 (a.e.t.) | Manchester United |
|---|---|---|
Drogba 116' | (Report) |
          Chelsea |      Manchester United |
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Match officials
| Match rules
|
| Chelsea | Manchester United | |
|---|---|---|
| Total shots | 18 | 12 |
| Shots on target | 4 | 4 |
| Ball possession | 50% | 50% |
| Corner kicks | 1 | 6 |
| Fouls committed | 18 | 18 |
| Offsides | 0 | 5 |
| Yellow cards | 4 | 3 |
| Red cards | 0 | 0 |
Source: ESPN[10]
