2007 FA Cup final: Difference between revisions

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 Manchester 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 [[Netherlands|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 Manchester 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. 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 referee [[Steve Bennett (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.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2083623,00.html |title=Minute-by-minute report |work=Guardian Unlimited |location=London |first=Paul |last=Doyle |date=19 May 2007 |accessdate=22 April 2010 }}</ref> After the game, Manchester United manager [[Alex Ferguson|Sir Alex Ferguson]] claimed that Giggs had been fouled by Essien just before he took his shot.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Giggs bemoans the goal that wasn't |url=http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_2137258,00.html |work=Football365.com |accessdate=20 May 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070521060440/http://www.football365.com/story/0%2C17033%2C8652_2137258%2C00.html |archivedate=21 May 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

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 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.