FA CUP FINAL 2010: It's Chelsea Princes v Portsmouth paupers!

14 May 2010 22:27
The Barclays Premier League trophy stood sparkling in the sunshine, adorned with blue and white ribbons, as the smell of grilled meat drifted by on the breeze. [LNB]Carlo Ancelotti must have thought he had died and gone to heaven as he savoured the view from his office across the terrace where he had invited Chelsea's training-ground staff to enjoy their end-of-season barbecue. [LNB]Cups and chops together at last, the perfect combination for a football manager who called his autobiography Preferisco La Coppa. [LNB] Cup king: Carlo Ancelotti has an esteemed record in cup finals and is looking to lead Chelsea to a historic double[LNB]It means 'I Prefer the Cup' but coppa is also a cut of Neapolitan ham and Ancelotti used the double meaning to poke fun at his own healthy appetite and the tendency of his teams to perform better in cup competitions than the league. [LNB]  As Chelsea closed in on the Premier League trophy, the Italian was reminded how, a decade earlier, his Juventus team had blown the Serie A title on the final day of the season. [LNB]But ahead of the FA Cup, there are no haunting flashbacks. Ancelotti may be remembered on these shores as the Milan manager who surrendered a 3-0 lead to Liverpool and lost the Champions League in Istanbul but he is actually a cup specialist, winning the European Cup four times and always excelling in domestic knock-out tournaments. [LNB]'I won the Italian Cup four times as a player with Roma and once as a coach,' he said. [LNB]'And the one I won as a coach is my favourite. We won the first leg 4-1 and the second leg was 2-2. It was against Roma, when Fabio Capello was the manager.' [LNB]Enlarge The pair had not seen eye to eye since the final game of Ancelotti's illustrious playing career in 1992, when boss Capello refused to pick him for a glorious farewell on the last day of the season against Verona, even though Milan had already clinched the title. [LNB]Legend has it, Ancelotti was so enraged that when he was sent on as a substitute, he scored twice. 'I never scored twice in one game in my career,' he chuckled as he retold the story ahead of the Wembley showpiece. Revenge over Capello was sweet. [LNB]The domestic cups have been kind to Ancelotti and another success today will make him the first Chelsea boss to clinch the Double in the club's history. Surely his golden touch will not abandon him against troubled Portsmouth... will it? [LNB]Enlarge 'When it comes to cup finals, the only thing to do is control the pressure on the players,' said Ancelotti. [LNB]'If they are too relaxed, you have to put them under pressure. To play in the final, you must have courage and personality. Fear is the worst thing in a final.' [LNB]Fear of embarrassment, for example, against a relegated team with nothing to lose. [LNB]Winning the title may have eased the pressure, but no-one expects Chelsea to falter against a Portsmouth team who finished bottom and 67 points behind them. [LNB]One club is bankrolled by the billions of Roman Abramovich, the other has the administrators crunching numbers to save it from crippling debts after a period of gross financial mismanagement culminating in a season when four different owners took it to the brink of extinction. [LNB] Enlarge The last time these teams met, Chelsea won 5-0. Ancelotti has a lavish and well-paid squad of internationals, primed at a state-of-the-art training centre under the eye of Bruno Demichelis, the sports psychologist responsible for masterminding AC Milan's sports science lab. [LNB]At Portsmouth, manager Avram Grant plots one of the great FA Cup final shocks with a motley collection of misfits and cast-offs. [LNB]Enlarge Four times this season their pay was late and the better-paid players even clubbed together to cover the wages of essential backroom personnel to keep them employed. Several players have forsaken bonuses to play in the final. [LNB]'The job of Avram Grant this year has been more difficult than my job,' confessed Ancelotti. [LNB]'He has a lot of problems. When a player doesn't receive his money, it's more difficult for him to train and stay focused on the games. To get to the final is a fantastic result.' [LNB]The fact that Grant is a former Chelsea manager, sacked after just seven months despite reaching the Champions League final, adds another dimens ion to the occasion. [LNB]'People turn their noses up at what Avram achieved here,' said Joe Cole.[LNB] 'But he took us to two cup finals, we were two points off winning the title and the width of a post from winning the Champions League.' [LNB]Can Grant now muster an upset or is it typical of Pompey's luckless season that they will encounter Carlo, King of Cups, at Wembley? [LNB] [LNB]  

Source: Daily_Mail