2007 FA Cup Final
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| Event | FA Cup 2006–07 | ||||||
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| after extra time | |||||||
| Date | 19 May 2007 | ||||||
| Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
| Referee | Steve Bennett (Kent) | ||||||
| Attendance | 89,826 | ||||||
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The 2007 FA Cup Final was played on Saturday, 19 May 2007 between Chelsea and Manchester United, who had come up against Premier League opposition in every round. It was the 126th FA Cup Final and the first to be played at the new Wembley Stadium.[1] Chelsea won the match 1–0 through Didier Drogba's extra time goal,[2] completing a domestic cup double for the Blues in the 2006–07 season, as they had already won the Carling Cup Final in February. United were playing for a double of their own as they had recently beaten Chelsea to the Premier 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 were having already guaranteed qualification for the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Cup entry for the FA Cup winner/runner-up went instead to the highest positioned Premier League team who hadn't already qualified for Europe; Bolton Wanderers.
The match had an attendance of 89,826, the largest for an FA Cup Final since Wimbledon's famous 1–0 win over Liverpool in the 1988 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 of Jose Mourinho. They had won the last FA Cup final at the old Wembley Stadium seven years earlier.
Manchester United's failure to win the game prevented them from becoming the first English club to complete the double four times.
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[edit] Background
[edit] History
The match was the first time since 1986 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 Premiership champions and the League Cup winners from the same season had gone head to head in the Final. Manchester United were aiming for their twelfth FA Cup to extend their overall record as the most successful team in the competition's history, whilst 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 coach Steve Clarke played on that day for the Blues in 1994.[6]
Ryan Giggs was playing in his seventh FA Cup Final, equalling Roy 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 the FA Cup at the old Wembley Stadium, when they beat Aston Villa in the 2000 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 over Newcastle United in the 1999 final.
Before the match, there was an official opening ceremony of the old stadium. This included the official opening by HRH Prince William, a fly-past by The Red Arrows and a parade on the pitch of former winners at the old Wembley Stadium.
The full list was:-
Peter McParland, scorer of both Aston Villa’s goals in 1957 Roy Hartle – right-back for Bolton, 1958 Chic Thomson – keeper of Nottingham Forest in 1959 Bill Slater, – Wolves captain, 1960 Bobby Smith – Tottenham scorer in 1961 Cliff Jones – Tottenham’s Welsh winger, 1962 Denis Law – opening goalscorer for Manchester United, 1963 Sir Geoff Hurst – scored for West Ham 1964, Ian St John – Liverpool’s winner in 1965 Derek Temple – Everton’s winner in 1966 Dave Mackay – Spurs captain in the first all-London final, 1967 Graham Williams – West Brom captain 1968 Mike Summerbee – Manchester City, 1969 Ron Harris – Chelsea captain, 1970 Frank McLintock – double-winning Arsenal captain 1971 Peter Lorimer, Leeds star 1972 Jim Montgomery – Sunderland’s keeper, 1973 Ray Clemence, Liverpool’s keeper, 1974 Alan Taylor – scored both goals for West Ham, 1975 Lawrie McMenemy, managed Southampton, 1976 Lou Macari – Manchester United and Scotland, 1977 Kevin Beattie - Ipswich defender, 1978 Frank Stapleton – scored for Arsenal, 1979 Sir Trevor Brooking – headed winning goal for West Ham, 1980 Ricky Villa – one of Tottenham’s Argentinian duo, 1981 Glenn Hoddle – Tottenham’s scorer in both games against QPR, 1982 Arthur Albiston – defender from Manchester United, 1983 Trevor Steven – Everton midfielder, 1984 Norman Whiteside – Manchester United;a winner 1985 Ian Rush – Liverpool’s record goalscorer in FA Cup Finals, 1986 Keith Houchen – header for Coventry, 1987 Lawrie Sanchez – Wimbledon’s winner 1988 John Barnes – winner with Liverpool, 1989 Lee Martin – Manchester United’s replay hero, 1990 Terry Venables and Gary Mabbutt - manager and captain of Tottenham, 1991 Michael Thomas, scorer of opening goal for Liverpool, 1992 Ian Wright – scored in both games for Arsenal, 1993 Mark Hughes – only man to win FA Cup four times at Wembley, 1994 Neville Southall – Everton’s keeper, 1995 Gary Pallister – three-time an FA Cup winner with Manchester United, 1996 Dennis Wise – Chelsea skipper, 1997 David Seaman – four winners medals for Arsenal, 1998 Peter Schmeichel - three FA Cup wins for Manchester United, 1999 Marcel Desailly – France World Cup winner who won the last Wembley final for Chelsea in 2000.
[edit] Recent meetings
Both league matches between the two clubs in the 2006–07 season finished as draws. On 26 November 2006 at United's Old Trafford ground, the match ended in a 1–1 stalemate, with the goals coming from Louis Saha and Ricardo Carvalho. The two clubs met again on 9 May 2007 in their penultimate league fixture at Stamford 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.
[edit] Match
[edit] Summary
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's Frank Lampard who forced a save from Edwin van der Sar. Wayne Rooney was twice called offside for United in the first half, but it was the closest the Red Devils came to any kind of chance.
At half time, Chelsea manager José Mourinho made a like-for-like substitution, bringing on Dutch winger Arjen Robben for Joe 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, but Petr 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 from Paul 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 United wall and off the outside of the near post. Rooney set off on another dangerous run soon after, dribbling round both John Terry and Michael 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. 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 couldn't 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 didn't flag and referee Steve 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, United manager Sir 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 from John Obi Mikel, 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 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.
[edit] Match details
| 2007-05-19 15:00 BST |
Chelsea | 1 – 0 (a.e.t.) |
Manchester United | Wembley, London Attendance: 89,826 Referee: Steve Bennett (Kent)[9] |
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Drogba  116' |
(Report) |
        Chelsea
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   Manchester United
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MATCH OFFICIALS
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MATCH RULES
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[edit] Statistics
| Chelsea | Manchester United | |
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| Total shots | 16 | 11 |
| 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 |
[edit] Road to Wembley
| Chelsea | Round | Manchester United | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macclesfield Town [L2] H 6–1 |
Lampard 16', 41', 51' (pen.) Wright-Phillips 68' Mikel 82' Carvalho 86' |
Round Three | Aston Villa [P] H 2–1 |
Larsson 55' Solskjær 90' |
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| Nottingham Forest [L1] H 3–0 |
Shevchenko 9' Drogba 18' Mikel 45' |
Round Four | Portsmouth [P] H 2–1 |
Rooney 77', 83' | ||
| Norwich City [C] H 4–0 |
Wright-Phillips 39' Drogba 51' Essien 90' Shevchenko 90' |
Round Five | Reading [P] H 1–1 |
Carrick 45' | ||
| Replay | Reading [P] A 3–2 |
Heinze 2' Saha 4' Solskjær 6' |
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| Tottenham Hotspur [P] H 3–3 |
Lampard 22', 71' Kalou 86' |
Round 6 | Middlesbrough [P] A 2–2 |
Rooney 23' Ronaldo 68' (pen.) |
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| 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' |
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- Both clubs received a bye to round three.
- In square brackets is a letter that represents the opposition's division
- [C] = Championship
- [L1] = Football League One
- [L2] = Football League Two
- [P] = Premier League
[edit] See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: FA Cup Final 2007 |
[edit] References
- ^ "Wembley to host 2007 FA Cup final". Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/10/16/sfnbos16.xml.
- ^ "FA Cup final - Chelsea 1-0 Man Utd". BBC Sport. 2007-05-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/6649815.stm. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
- ^ "BBC pundits on the FA Cup final". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/6673277.stm.
- ^ "The two best teams in England but not much to shout about". Guardian Unlimited. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/05/19/the_two_best_teams_in_england.html.
- ^ "Most Boring Cup Final In History". BBC 606 Fans forum. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A22880586.
- ^ "Where are they now?". BBC Sport. 2007-05-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/6647697.stm. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
- ^ "Minute-by-minute report". Guardian Unlimited. http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2083623,00.html.
- ^ "Giggs bemoans the goal that wasn't". Football365.com. http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_2137258,00.html.
- ^ "Bennett chosen for Final". TheFA.com. http://www.thefa.com/TheFACup/TheFACup/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2007/04/CupFinalReferee.htm. Retrieved on 2007-04-19.
