FA Cup Finale 1996 1997 Chelsea Middlesbrough

 

Wembley

17th Mai 1997

FA.Cp.Fin.1996.1997.Chels.Middlb.twb22.mp4
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Chelsea won the FA Cup for only the second time with two excellent goals but not a lot else. The London team were so superior on the day, they ought to have won a disappointing final with far more style and authority. Middlesbrough, perhaps exhausted at the end of their long and trying season, offered little resistance and while Boro fans were betting on a possible upset, nothing of the sort was clearly on the cards from the whistle.The game was over almost as soon as it had started, Chelsea's Roberto Di Matteo striking a knockout blow with a stunning goal in record time. Middlesbrough never really recovered from the setback and rarely looked like threatening Ruud Gullit's achievement of becoming the first foreigner to manage an FA Cup-winning team.

 

 

Sadly, Gullit's Middlesbrough counterpart, Bryan Robson, is left to pick up the pieces of a shattered and shattering season. It will take a considerable feat of management by him to renew the ambition of the Teesside club after losing two Wembley finals and being relegated to the First Division. The battle of the two little geniuses, Chelsea's Gianfranco Zola and Middlesbrough's Juninho, did not live up to expectations but was clearly won by Zola. While Juninho struggled to escape the midfield attentions of Di Matteo, rightly voted man of the match, Eddie Newton and Dennis Wise, Zola made his side's second goal and nearly got one himself.