Plucky Toffees Come Unstuck Against Chelsea in the FA Cup Final

Chelsea 2 - Everton 1 (FA Cup Final, May 30, 2009) (Longer highlights here.) Forget slow-coach Roberto Di Matteo. Twenty-four seconds is all it took for Everton to open the scoring in the FA Cup final, in the Toffees first attack Fellaini showed his aerial threat in the box from a Pienaar (offside?) cross, with Louis Saha profitting with a clinical left-footed strike past Cech. The Merseysiders held the lead for 20 minutes until Malouda swung over a left-wing cross into the box and Didier Drogba beat Lescott to head in the equaliser. (Extended ITV first half highlights here.) The match then settled down into a relatively even contest, but 20 minutes from time a Frank Lampard cracker from 25-yards beat Tim Howard (too easily?) to put the Blues’ noses in front. Florent Malouda should have claimed a third, but the officials wrongly ruled against the Frenchman’s strike after his effort struck the underside of the bar and bounced down over the line.

Chelsea’s celebrations at the final whistle can be seen here, and footage of the trophy celebrations can be seen here. Guus Hiddink’s emotional post match interview can be seen here.