Chelsea are lucky. Blackburn should have put them away in second half. If Pederson had scored that header....

one word for the final: Ronaldo

Ballack puts Chelsea into final

 

 

Chelsea's Michael Ballack grabbed an extra-time winner against Blackburn to set up an FA Cup final with Manchester United at Wembley on 19 May.

 

A tame Rovers had fallen behind when Frank Lampard raced on to a Ballack pass and angled in a shot.

 

But Blackburn produced a rousing fightback and Jason Roberts glanced in a shot before an unmarked Morten Gamst Pedersen headed wide from 10 yards.

 

The gripping tie went into extra time and Ballack slotted in on 109 minutes.

 

Chelsea had bided their time at the start of the game as they efficiently and comfortably contained Rovers, while searching for a breakthrough - which came in ruthless style after 16 minutes.

 

Keeper Petr Cech's long goal-kick found striker Didier Drogba and he used his strength to hold off towering centre-back Christopher Samba.

 

Drogba laid off the ball for Ballack to slide a pass into the run of Lampard, who skipped over a Ryan Nelsen challenge before sending an unerring finish across goal into the far corner.

 

Blackburn were having their game strangled out of them by Chelsea as the occasion seemed to send them into their shell.

 

But the Ewood Park side finally showed some signs of fight just before the break when David Dunn had a 20-yard strike saved by Cech.

 

Samba should have headed in the resultant corner only to see his effort go agonisingly over from eight yards.

 

Chelsea had a great chance to add a second shortly after the interval when they dubiously beat the offside trap.

 

Drogba broke through on goal before squaring the ball to an unmarked Shevchenko, who comically fell over as he tried to sidefoot the ball in.

 

But Blackburn were a more forceful and forward thinking side in the second half as they finally shook off the shackles to give Chelsea a fright.

 

Roberts turned and rifled in an angled shot, which was well-saved by Cech at his near post.

 

Pedersen hit the post with a far-post header from a deep David Bentley corner before Blackburn's efforts were rewarded with an equaliser.

 

Roberts diverted the ball past a despairing Cech by deflecting a shot home from 10 yards.

 

Norwegian Pedersen had a free header after 82 minutes and looked set to give Rovers the lead only to put the chance inches wide.

 

Chelsea skipper John Terry then almost scored an own goal but had Cech to thank for saving his blushes as the keeper tipped the ball away at full stretch and the game went into extra time.

 

The Blues mounted the greater pressure and Ballack grabbed the winner after before a Michael Essien shot struck the crossbar late on.

 

Chelsea have already won the Carling Cup and this win keeps alive their Quadruple challenge as they are still in the hunt for the FA Cup, Premiership :lol: and Champions League.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/6534857.stm

one word for the final: Ronaldo

 

 

:) Lampard is better :p

Excellent news for the final :)

Chelsea v Manchester United

 

FA Cup final

Date: Saturday, 19 May

Kick-off: 1500 BST

Venue: Wembley

Referee: Steve Bennett (Kent)

Watch (in UK): BBC One

Listen: BBC Radio Five Live

Updates: BBC Sport website and mobile

 

Manchester United striker Louis Saha has been ruled out of the FA Cup final against Chelsea with a knee injury.

 

Saha has failed to overcome a knee problem to play.

 

United right-back Gary Neville has been ruled out with an ankle injury, while Chelsea are without Michael Ballack, Ricardo Carvalho and Andriy Shevchenko.

 

Blues boss Jose Mourinho also lamented his lack of players and also has doubts over Ashley Cole, Jon Obi-Mikel and Arjen Robben.

 

Mourinho suggested he may have to play keeper Hilario up front if his injury problems continued but it is more likely to use Israeli youngster Ben Sahar.

 

United counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson is expected to have central defender Nemanja Vidic back to partner Rio Ferdinand at the back.

 

Vidic returned in the second leg 3-0 loss at AC Milan after breaking a collarbone.

 

The Serbian played in the derby win at Manchester City when United clinched the title before sitting out the draw at Chelsea and the final game of the season in the defeat by West Ham.

 

Saha's absence opens the door for Alan Smith or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to play a prominent role.

 

"Louis is out," said Ferguson.

 

"He picked up the knee injury in Milan and we did another scan on Monday to identify the problem more clearly."

 

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/6649815.stm

New Wembley rolls out red carpet

 

 

New Wembley will roll out the red carpet to stage a star-studded celebration of the stadium's history at Saturday's FA Cup final.

 

Footballing greats from the past 50 FA Cup finals at Wembley will be take part in the opening ceremony before Chelsea meet Manchester United.

 

Prince William will be the chief guest as the £757m stadium goes on show for a worldwide television audience.

 

There will also be a celebratory Red Arrows fly-past for the 90,000 crowd.

 

These are among a series of events planned by the Football Association as the final returns to Wembley after a seven-year absence.

 

Other highlights will include the marching band of the Corps of the Royal Engineers, who won the cup in 1875, plus big screen footage of both clubs' roads to Wembley.

 

However, many fans are unhappy about proposed prices within the stadium.

 

Fans of both Chelsea and Manchester United are being advised by their peers to boycott food, merchandise and programmes inside Wembley on Saturday.

 

An official match programme will be priced at £10, a burger meal will cost £8 and a pint £4.50.

 

There has also been criticism of ticket prices for the game. Of the 25,000 tickets allocated to each club, only 4,000 were £35, with the rest costing £60 and even £95.

 

And about 400 individuals and companies who had spent up to £10,000 to join "Club Wembley" - which gave them a licence to purchase tickets at the stadium for the next 10 years - had not received their tickets for the final on Thursday because of a computer problem.

 

Wembley PLC promised to contact all the individuals affected and to courier tickets to them if necessary.

 

"We are sorry it happened and will conduct internal enquiries to make sure it doesn't happen again," a spokesman for the company told BBC Sport.

 

The Football Association will hope its pre-match events on Saturday can placate unhappy fans.

 

Des Lynam will interview Sir Bob Geldof, who organised the Live Aid concert that took place at Wembley in 1985, Sir Henry Cooper, who floored the then Cassius Clay at the stadium in 1963, and Sir Geoff Hurst, who scored a hat-trick for England in the 1966 World Cup final victory against West Germany.

 

Other guests will include Peter McParland, scorer of both Aston Villa's goals in 1957 through to Marcel Desailly, who won the Cup for Chelsea at the last Wembley final in 2000.

 

Ricky Villa, scorer of one of the best-ever Wembley goals in Spurs' victory against Manchester City in 1981 will also be present as will Mark Hughes, the only man to have won four FA Cups at Wembley.

 

Players will go for the traditional walk around the pitch before local Brent schoolchildren parade the colours of the 72 teams who have won the cup between 1923 and 2000.

 

The full guest list is: 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.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/6668447.stm

Yes and John Terry is gonna take it tommorow

the trophy?

the new wembley?

up the arse?

 

what?

the trophy is enough

good job there still 1 sleeps before the final, gives you one last chance to dream

My prediction, it will be a 1-1 draw, with Chelsea winning 4-2 on pens

I preddict Chelsea will win 1-0 and the goal by Lampard

Why is this FA Cup final just today at 4pm (Middle European time)? This time is reserved for the Bundesliga final! :D :P

 

I really wanted to watch that great game, because it will be broadcast on Free-Tv and I would like to see new Wembley. I'm sure it'll be an amazing atmosphere there. Maybe I'm going to record it... ;)

 

Hope ManU will win! Can't stand Chelsky!

0-0 after normal time

 

Extra Time here we come :D

Goal!!!!

 

1-0 to Chelsea, 3 minutes left.

Drogba wins it?

almost

And there goes the final whistle...

 

1-0 to Chelsea.

Drogba wins it.

Drogba beautiful touch but also Lampard what a wonderful pass!

also there was a defender that did an excellent job through out the match, Mikel i think his name was.

 

How come they had 3 min extra time in extra time ? (!)

 

ronaldo was aweful as the rest of manchester and even chelsea=== boring match!

can't believe ronaldo won best player over drogba.

Those 3 minutes is what they call "injury time", when the game is stopped due to an injury or something else, they add the time on at the end.

Yet another dreadful final. :angry:

Indeed it wasn't the best finals.

Lampard is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!