FA Cup: Drogba fires Chelsea to final
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| Theo Walcott 18 | Florent Malouda 33 | |||||||
| Didier Drogba 84 |
A late effort from Didier Drogba sent Chelsea into the FA Cup final following a 2-1 win over Arsenal in a tense semi-final at Wembley.
Before kick off, there was a short ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 Liverpool supporters died.
Once the match underway it was Chelsea who almost snatched the lead on four minutes. A defensive mix-up almost saw Drogba nod into an empty net, but Kieran Gibbs recovered in the nick of time to hack off the line.
The Gunners then began to take control of proceedings and went ahead on 18 minutes when Theo Walcott's far-post volley had ricocheted off Ashley Cole's hand to beat Petr Čech, who was also not helped by losing his footing on the slick surface.
Chelsea equalised just after the half hour mark when Florent Malouda turned Emmanuel Eboué before drilling a low shot past Łukasz Fabiański, who was beaten inside his near post.
It could have been even better for the Blues at the break had Nicolas Anelka taken advantage of a loose ball at the edge of the Arsenal area, but he fired the ball against the upright, with Fabiański beaten.
The winner came in the 84th minute when Drogba escaped from Mikaël Silvestre only to find Fabiański at his feet. Easily rounding the Pole, Drogba slid the ball into an unguarded goal and sent the Chelsea support into delirium.
Lineups:
Arsenal: Fabiański; Eboué, Touré, Silvestre, Gibbs; Walcott, Fàbregas, Denílson (Nasri 86), Diaby; Adebayor (Bendtner 83), van Persie (Arshavin 75)
Chelsea: Čech; Ivanović, Alex, Terry, Cole; Essien, Lampard, Ballack; Anelka (Kalou 82), Drogba, Malouda
Arsenal v Chelsea goal & highlights
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Before kick off, there was a short ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 Liverpool supporters died.
Once the match underway it was Chelsea who almost snatched the lead on four minutes. A defensive mix-up almost saw Drogba nod into an empty net, but Kieran Gibbs recovered in the nick of time to hack off the line.
The Gunners then began to take control of proceedings and went ahead on 18 minutes when Theo Walcott's far-post volley had ricocheted off Ashley Cole's hand to beat Petr Čech, who was also not helped by losing his footing on the slick surface.
Chelsea equalised just after the half hour mark when Florent Malouda turned Emmanuel Eboué before drilling a low shot past Łukasz Fabiański, who was beaten inside his near post.
It could have been even better for the Blues at the break had Nicolas Anelka taken advantage of a loose ball at the edge of the Arsenal area, but he fired the ball against the upright, with Fabiański beaten.
The winner came in the 84th minute when Drogba escaped from Mikaël Silvestre only to find Fabiański at his feet. Easily rounding the Pole, Drogba slid the ball into an unguarded goal and sent the Chelsea support into delirium.
Lineups:
Arsenal: Fabiański; Eboué, Touré, Silvestre, Gibbs; Walcott, Fàbregas, Denílson (Nasri 86), Diaby; Adebayor (Bendtner 83), van Persie (Arshavin 75)
Chelsea: Čech; Ivanović, Alex, Terry, Cole; Essien, Lampard, Ballack; Anelka (Kalou 82), Drogba, Malouda
Arsenal v Chelsea goal & highlights
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