Chelsea plays Portsmouth to finish the year with a double.

Fresh from their triumph in the Barclays English Premier League, Chelsea will be hoping to finish with a double this season. The blues will be meeting Portsmouth in the final of the Football Association Cup (popularly known as the FA Cup) on saturday at the “new” Wembley Stadium. It was a long way for both the teams to reach the 129th final  where teams from all the divisions participated. 

 

News from the newly crowned Premier League champions is that they will be going with their usual squad that trounced Wigan Athletic in the final league match of the season. Beyond that Carlo Ancelotti is still waiting for Branislav Ivanovic injury report which is expected to make the trip to Wembley. Overall Chelsea has had a very good record over the Pompeys and the five times winners will be hoping to make it six and more importantly two in a row following last year’s 2-1 win over gunners. The blues lockers room is in absolute health after the decision of Frank Lampard to take penalty over in the previous match made Didier Drogba who was fighting for the golden boot.

For the Pompeys this is a big game. After relegating from the top division of the English league. the port club will be hoping to win the FA Cup twice in three years. They last won in 2008 after beating Cardiff city by a single goal. News from theri locker room is that midfielder Jamie O’Hara is hoping to play at Wembley on Saturday despite suffering with a double stress fracture in his back. The on loan player will be playing his last match with the Pompeys before moving back to Tottenham Hotspur, his original club. Other than that Avram Grant will be going with their usual squad and hope to make headlines tomorrow.

The match will start at 1500 Hours GMT (1930 Hours IST)

 

Wembley stadium add “new” to its name.

Wembley Stadium is a stadium, located in Wembley Park in London, England. Primarily an association football venue, Wembley is owned by The Football Association (The FA) via its
subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited, and hosts the home international
matches of the England national football team
and the main English domestic cup finals.

As long ago as the 1880s, Wembley Park Leisure Grounds had football and cricket pitches, a running track, fountains and waterfalls, walkways and flowerbeds. The first
event in the old stadium was the famous ‘white horse cup final’ of 1923. Over
the years, the stadium was regularly updated and improved. Floodlights were
added in 1955. Whilst the electric scoreboard and the all encircling roof, made
from aluminium and translucent glass, were added in 1963. Those changes aside,
the structure of the stadium remained essentially the same as it was in 1924
and the old stadium struggled to meet the developing needs of sports fans when
it was finally closed in 2000.

The stadium was renovated and reopened to the fans lately in 2007 and the final of the FA Cup took place where Chelsea won 1-0 against Manchester United with a goal by Didier Drogba,making him the first player to score in the FA Cup final at the new Wembley.

Wembley’s 90,000 capacity makes it the second largest stadium in Europe (after Camp Nou,
Barcelona) and the largest and tallest in the world with every seat under
cover. It is one of the most expensive stadia ever built, costing close to
£800 million. Immediately following its opening, it was often referred to
as the “new Wembley Stadium” to distinguish it from the original stadium.
Now again the stadium will be alive with the league cup final between Manchester Unitedand Aston Villa will take place on the last day of this month.