Source: FOOTYMAD
The Road To The Final
How Chelsea and Pompey made their way back to Wembley. It started for Pompey on Saturday 2nd of January and for Chelsea on Sunday 3rd of January. The two sides have been through five rounds of FA Cup action for the right to meet each other in tomorrow's final. Here is how they did it. Chelsea have made light work of getting back to Wembley. They thrashed Watford 5-0 at Stamford Bridge with two goals from Daniel Sturridge, one each from Florent Malouda and Frank Lampard whilst John Eustace scored Chelsea's second with an own goal.They then went to Deepdale and scored either side of half-time to beat Preston 2-0. Nicolas Anelka bagged one before the break and Sturridge scored his third goal of the campaign on 47 minutes to end any hopes of North End coming back into the game.In the fifth round Michael Chopra managed to equalise at Stamford Bridge for Cardiff after Didier Drogba had given the Blues the lead. However, Carlo Ancelotti's men put the Bluebirds to the sword in the second half as goals from Ballack, Sturridge and Kalou saw the hosts win 4-1.Chelsea met their first Premier League opposition in the quarter-final in Stoke City, but Lampard and Terry sealed a relatively comfortable win for the cup holders.Aston Villa were the opposition at Wembley and John Terry was extremely lucky not to be sent off for a nasty challenge on James Milner whilst Obi Mikel got away with tangling in the box with Agbonlahor.For all of Villa's resistance, Drogba gave Chelsea the lead and when Villa were going forward to look for an equaliser, Malouda and Lampard scored late on to seal a 3-0 win.Pompey's road to the final was far more tricky as they could have been dumped out at the first hurdle. David Bell's screamer for Coventry was cancelled out by Kevin-Prince Boateng's header right before half-time to set up a replay at the Ricoh Arena. Leon Best's superb strike looked like it would win the tie for the Sky Blues but Stephen Wright inexplicably headed the ball into his own net in stoppage time, forcing the tie into extra time. As a penalty shootout loomed, Aaron Mokoena (of all people) headed in at the death to break Coventry hearts and send Pompey through.The fourth round tie against Sunderland will be remembered more for the pre-match protests outside the ground than events on the pitch as angry Pompey fans demanded answers from the supposed owners of the club.On the pitch, Darren Bent gave the vistors the lead but John Utaka equalised after his header wrongfooted Craig Gordon and rolled into the net. Utaka then raced through on goal and slotted in a second half winner as a few fans had to be dealt with when they invaded the pitch during the game. Pompey deservedly beat their Premier League counterparts and were the last ball to be drawn out of the bag for the fifth round. The penultimate ball just happened to be Southampton....Nobody will forget the fifth round tie as Pompey met their arch rivals at St. Mary's just a day after HMRC might have wound the club up. The hosts were on top for the first hour of the game as David James made a string of crucial saves to keep Pompey in it.The game changed when Avram Grant introduced Quincy Owusu-Abeyie to the fray and he curled in a wonderful goal to send the visting fans mental. Those celebrations were temporarily silenced when Rickie Lambert headed in an equaliser but Pompey's devastating counter-attacks saw Southampton thrashed 4-1 (again) following goals from Dindane, Belhadj and O'Hara.Pompey's reward for that amazing win would be a home quarter-final with high-flying Birmingham City. After a dull first half, Frederic Piquionne gave Pompey the lead with a scrappy opener but his second goal was anything but scrappy, after he turned Roger Johnson in the box and fired past Joe Hart.Liam Ridgewell should have pulled one back for Alex McLeish's side but his goal was ruled out after the ball was incorrectly judged to have not crossed the line. Pompey held on and were off to Wembley for the fourth time in two years to play Harry Redknapp's Tottenham Hotspur.After 90 minutes of dogged and sometimes desperate defending, Piquionne gave Pompey the lead in extra time after Michael Dawson slipped on the turf. We received even more luck after that as Peter Crouch had a perfectly good goal disallowed.As Spurs poured men forward late on, Aruna Dindane rushed into the box on the counter-attack and was brought down by Wilson Palacios. Kevin-Prince Boateng buried the penalty to book Pompey's place in the FA Cup Final amongst scenes of jubilant and disbelieving Pompey fans.Chelsea have played three Championship sides and two from the Premier League, scoring 16 goals and conceding just the one en route to the final.Pompey have seen off three Premier League sides, a Championship team and a League One club on their way to Wembley, scoring 13 goals and conceding 4 goals in six games.
