FA Cup final: Petr Cech's save vs Andy Carroll during Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool in 2012 | OneFootball

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·12 May 2022

FA Cup final: Petr Cech's save vs Andy Carroll during Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool in 2012

Article image:FA Cup final: Petr Cech's save vs Andy Carroll during Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool in 2012

Liverpool and Chelsea will do battle for the coveted FA Cup trophy on Saturday.

The two sides contested the League Cup final at the end of February, with Liverpool eventually prevailing 11-10 in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw.


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Chelsea will be out for revenge and desperate to repeat the team’s feat from 2012.

That year, the Blues beat Liverpool 2-1 in the FA Cup final thanks to goals from Ramires and Didier Drogba.

It was the first of two trophies Chelsea won in 2011/12 under Roberto Di Matteo, the other famously being the Champions League.

Liverpool certainly didn’t make things easy in the FA Cup final, though.

The introduction of Andy Carroll changed the whole complexion of the game and it was his goal that halved the deficit in the 64th minute.

Article image:FA Cup final: Petr Cech's save vs Andy Carroll during Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool in 2012

Carroll actually thought he’d equalised in the 81st after directing a Luis Suarez cross goalwards with his head, but Petr Cech denied him with the most remarkable of saves.

The Chelsea legend somehow clawed the powerful attempt off the line and to safety.

Carroll was adamant that the ball had crossed the line and even wheeled off in celebration.

But the officials sided with Cech and after watching a side-on replay of the incident, it was indeed the correct call.

Unreal, absolutely unreal. The ball didn’t appear to cross the line, but due to the absence of goal-line technology in those days, we’ll never know for absolute certain.

“I thought it was over the line,” Carroll himself told ITV after the match.

“I thought it hit the underside of the bar which means it did, really, but I haven’t seen it back. I thought it was unlucky. We had a few chances but couldn’t put them away but obviously it’s not to be.”

Cech added: “I don’t think it was over the line. If the ball was behind the line I couldn’t have kept it out. I’m 100 per cent sure it was not in, and I felt that from the first moment.”

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