Rodgers reflects on ‘special day’ as Foxes win the FA Cup
Triumphant Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers saluted his fantastic Foxes after their historic FA Cup victory.
Leicester lifted the trophy for the first time after Youri Tielemans’ second-half stunner beat Chelsea 1-0 at Wembley.
Tielemans settled a tight game which saw late drama with two fine saves from Kasper Schmeichel and former Leicester left-back Ben Chilwell having a goal ruled out by VAR.
Leicester had lost all of their previous four finals, their last coming in 1969, but finally won the trophy on Saturday.
Rodgers said: “I’m very proud,it’sahistoricdayforthe club. Winning the FA Cup for the first time is clearly a special day. The players were so courageous in the game.
“I’m so pleased for Khun Top (chairman) and the family. It was a dream of theirs to win the FA Cup and we have been able to deliver that.
“We were playing against
the Champions League finalists, we knew at times we’d havetosufferbutwewereworthy of the win.
“Every final you ever enter you want to win it. I have an overriding feeling of satisfaction but I’m more pleased for everyone else, the feeling it gives the supporters.
“It’s a trophy the club really wanted to win. It was a
great victory for us. For a club like Leicester to be in the final with a great club like Chelsea, people may have been hoping from a neutral point of view we could go on and upset the odds.”
Chelsea edged the first half without ever testing Schmeichel as Timo Werner and Mason Mount shot wide.
But Leicester began to find
their feet after the break and Tielemans won the cup in the 63rdminutewhenhecollected Luke Thomas’ pass, advanced and smashed an unstoppable drive into the top corner from 25 yards.
Chelseatriedtofindaleveller and Chilwell’s header was savedbySchmeichelwhothen made an even better stop to turnMount’ssharpdrivewide.
Chelsea thought they had grabbed a dramatic leveller with two minutes left when a combination of Chilwell and Wes Morgan bundled in after Chilwell latched on to Thiago Silva’spass,despiteLeicester’s best attempts to clear.
But VAR ruled former Foxes defender Chilwell was narrowly offside and Leicester survived to lift the trophy.