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Chelsea second time lucky in FA Cup final

(Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
19th May, 2018
9

After Chelsea came second in the FA Cup final last year, the history of 11 years ago repeated itself. Chelsea was crowned FA Cup Champions for the first time in seven years and the scoreline was a repeat of the 2007 FA Cup final, which was also held at the same venue.

The start favoured the Blues, as Eden Hazard forced a fantastic reflex save from David de Gea. There were penalty shouts for both teams, but it only took a few more minutes for a penalty to be given.

A defence-splitting pass had Hazard one on one with the keeper. Phil Jones caught up with him but conceded the penalty and earned himself a yellow card. Hazard made no mistake and casually sent De Gea the wrong way.

Despite Manchester United conceding the opening goal, they played better than Chelsea for the remainder of the half, with Paul Pogba narrowly missing to Thibaut Courtois’ right, and the ball falling in front of Marcus Rashford on the stroke of half-time. Fortunately for the Pensioners, they didn’t capitalise, or else Antonio Conte’s half-time talk would have been very different.

Statistically Manchester United were dominant, having two-thirds of the possession. Chelsea had only four shots on goal to Manchester United’s seven, but the latter couldn’t fire a single shot on target. Their finishing did not get much better.

Chelsea

(Ian Kingston / AFP / Getty Images)

The Red Devils were dominant in the second half and created chances, but the Manchester United attackers made little of them. When the ball finally did go into the back of the net for the Red Devils, it was disallowed, as Alexis Sanchez was offside.

No sooner had the goal been disallowed, Chelsea caught the United defence napping. Marcos Alonso was one on one with the keeper, but instead of lashing it in, he took a touch, and his shot was comfortably saved by De Gea.

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In a matter of seconds down the other end Rashford had a golden opportunity to equalise, only to be denied by Courtois. No sooner had that chance gone begging, Rashford and Jesse Lingard were taken off due to poor performances in front of goal and were replaced by Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial.

Instead it was the Manchester United midfielders who were guilty of spurning opportunities, with Paul Pogba, unmarked in the penalty box, heading wide of the post. The same occurred for former Chelsea player Nemanja Matic, who couldn’t keep his header down after a pinpoint delivery from Antonio Valencia.

Two minutes later, Jose Mourinho looked at his watch. He knew it was all over. His former club had won the FA Cup final. The score was 1-0.

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