Leicester City Are Crowned 2020/21 FA Cup Champions For The First Time In The Club's History (Match Reports And Highlight)

Leicester City have won the FA Cup for the very first time in the Football Club’s 137-year history.

Leicester ended the long-wait to lift the world-famous and oldest trophy to the skies following a 1-0 victory over UEFA Champions League finalists Chelsea at Wembley Stadium on Saturday evening.

It took a magnificent long-range strike from Youri Tielemans in the 63rd minute to decide the outcome of the game, in front of the biggest crowd (22,000 fans) in England since the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

The goal from the Belgian will be remembered as one of the finest in the competition's 149-year history that earned the Foxes their maiden win, though Keeper Kasper Schmeichel made a couple of stunning saves at the dying minutes of the encounter to deny Chelsea an equaliser. Added to more drama, VAR disallowed Ben Chilwell's stoppage time goal as the former Leicester City man was just offside.

Tielemans became the third Belgian player to score in an FA Cup final, with all three going on to lift the trophy that year (Eden Hazard in 2018, Kevin de Bruyne in 2019).

Leicester had been beaten in all their four previous FA Cup final appearances, (1949, 1961, 1963, and most recently in 1969), but claimed the trophy at the fifth attempt, becoming the 44th different side to win the competition, which means the Club has now lifted all English football’s three most prestigious honours – the Premier League, FA Cup and 3 League Cups – across its 137-year history.

𝗟𝗲𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬/𝟮𝟭 𝗙𝗔 𝗖𝘂𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀. pic.twitter.com/zhlB0vKF4I

— Leicester City (@LCFC) May 15, 2021

It was an Heartbreaking defeat for Thomas Tuchel Chelsea;s side as they become the first team to lost a back-to-back FA Cup final since Newcastle United in 1997-98 and 1998-99.

Thomas Tuchel who was confident of bouncing back from their Premier League defeat to Arsenal ahead of their Clash with the Foxes said; 

"We are not angry at our performance or boys, we did enough to win it. We weren't lucky enough to win."... said the German manager following the disappointing defeat.

"I was happy with the work rate and intensity but our decision-making was too hectic. We were too straight upfront, we tried to force it.", he added on, 

"A back-to-back defeats could kill momentum?: "There's no team that never loses in sports. It is about coming back and bouncing back, showing mentality, and believing on Tuesday. We missed a trophy and we have two finals vs Leicester and Villa, then another final."

Chelsea are a great team, but their performances in Finals are troubling as they've now lost 8 of their last 11 finals.

Leicester City guided by manager Brendan Rodgers, defeated Stoke City, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Manchester United and Southampton before overcoming Chelsea in London, making Rodgers become the first manager to win both the English and Scottish FA Cup since Sir Alex Ferguson.

Rodgers told the club's TV: "It feels amazing. My initial reaction after the game is that I’m just so happy. The courage they showed in the game was incredible, to produce that quality performance against a top level team.

"I don't know [whether I'd say it's] destiny, you just know you’re going to have to defend well when you’re 1-0 up with the last 15-20 minutes to go," the Northern Irishman added. "You’ve got to try and close the game out.

"These are the Champions League finalists, so you know they’re top, top players. You know you’re going to have to suffer. But we got the VAR [decision], it shows the line was good. We weren’t too deep, so Chilly’s offside, and Kasper [Schmeichel's] save… we talk about Youri’s goal, but in the same breath, you’ve got to talk about his save. It’s absolutely incredible. They were two big moments in the game."

speaking on football fans returning to the stadium, Rodgers expressed his delight;

"Obviously, for the supporters, for the first time in their history, they can now say they’re FA Cup winners. I’ve heard all the stories since I’ve been here, of the glorious failures and how unfortunate it’s been, so to be able to give them that moment was special.

"You can see the difference the fans make for us. The energy they gave us, it felt like there was 30,000 of them in here today. With the noise they made, we felt that energy and that really pushed us over the line."

As reported by CloudNine Sports, Nigerian duo Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi made history with the Foxes on Saturday after the Triumph.

While Iheanacho was replaced in the 67th by James Maddison, Ndidi, who has been a consistent performer for The Foxes since joining from Belgian side Genk four years ago, played the full 90 minutes and was instrumental as Leicester kept a clean sheet at Wembley.

The Super Eagles duo further went on to lit up the Leicester City dressing room with Nigerian 2010 classic song (Over The Moon) by Dr. Sid and Kayswitch.

CAMPEONES 🏆🦊 pic.twitter.com/8DTvLg3dVy

— Ayoze Perez (@AyozePG) May 15, 2021

With the victory, Iheanacho and Ndidi join Daniel Amokachi, Celestine Babayaro, Nwankwo Kanu, John Utaka, Mikel Obi, Alex Lwobi and Victor Moses as the only Nigerian footballers who have won the FA Cup victory.

 

(WATCH HIGHLIGHT)