Chelsea beat Everton 2-1 in the FA Cup Final.
The goalscorers were Drogba and Lampard. No surprise there.
Drogba has now scored in all of his five domestic finals and Lampard has scored 20 goals in each of his last four seasons at Chelsea
Guus Hiddink dropped Ballack and started Mikel. That was the right call. Mikel, 22, is a young bruiser with good skills. He should become a very good player.
Louis Saha scored after 25 seconds.
Pienaar crossed, Alex was tight on big Fellaini, Mikel’s weak clearing header went towards those two, Fellaini knocked it down sweetly towards the French striker, and Saha’s left foot did the rest. His shot flashed into the bottom corner and shocked everybody
Everton then defended for the rest of the game and that made defeat inevitable. If they had played a bit more in Chelsea’s half, they might have had a chance.
In 21, Malouda’s perfectly flighted cross had plenty of pace and Drogba’s thrilling header flew down into far corner of Tim Howard’s goal for 1-1. Nobody does that better.
In 72, Lampard scored the winner with a left foot shot from 25 yards. In an era of one-footed players, it’s useful to have a Mr Consistency who can score with both feet. That was his 21st goal of 2008-2009.
The best goal of the game was Malouda’s but that didn’t count. His shot hit the underside and bounced down behind the line but was disallowed. No referee or assistant could have been sure the whole of the ball was over. Malouda has responded remarkably well to Hiddink’s coaching. He looks a different player.
After the first 15 minutes, Chelsea overpowered Everton, which was what you would expect. Mikel helped in that regard.
John Terry said : It’s nearly two years since we won anything, so it felt good.
Temporary coach Guus Hiddink has been absolutely brilliant. He showed he could handle big stars and got the team playing well very quickly.
Saturday was a bit weird because the FA Cup Final is normally before the Champions League Final.
Wembley should have been before Rome but it was three days was after Rome and I was still digesting Barcelona’s handsome 2-0 victory over Manchester United and wondering whether Sir Alex would do a mea culpa with his old mate Hugh McIlvanney in The Sunday Times. He didn’t.
The biggest game should be the climax of the season.
Platini says the Champions League Final will be on Saturdays from now on.
CHELSEA (4-1-4-1): Cech; Bosingwa, Alex, Terry, A Cole; Mikel; Anelka, Essien (Ballack, 61), Lampard, Malouda; Drogba. Subs not used: Hilario (gk), Ivanovic, Di Santo, Kalou, Belletti, Mancienne.
EVERTON (4-4-1-1): Howard; Hibbert (Jacobsen, h-t), Yobo, Lescott, Baines; Osman (Gosling, 82), Neville, Cahill, Pienaar; Fellaini; Saha (Vaughan, 77). Subs not used: Nash (gk), Castillo, Rodwell, Baxter.
Referee: Howard Webb (South Yorkshire).