Leicester beat Chelsea to lift FA Cup

“The new boys have gelled well with the rest of the players and it is pleasing. It is unfortunate for the new guys that in our first game and with only a week’s training, we had to play Dynamos and they beat us. But to be honest, that game prepared us a lot and it gives us the edge in this competition.

“The format of this coming competition not only makes it difficult for us as a team, but for all clubs. Playing local teams is even harder. It would have been better playing teams from outside in the round-robin then going into the quarter-finals, it would not be as difficult, but we are ready,” Sibanda said. However, Mangoye, as Sibanda is affectionately called by the Bosso fans who say he has the agility of a cat, says the Chibuku Super Cup comes at a good time as clubs prepare for the main league.

The Bulawayo giants have brought a number of new players into their ranks as they prepared for the resumption of football. Highlanders are grouped with Chicken Inn, Bulawayo Chiefs and Bulawayo City for the round-robin tournament and the top two teams in that group go through to the quarter-finals.

LONDON — A magnificent long-range strike from Youri Tielemans gave Leicester City their first FA Cup triumph with a 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Wembley yesterday, in front of the biggest crowd in England since March 2020.

Leicester had been beaten in all their three previous FA Cup final appearances, most recently in 1969, and it was a goal that will be remembered as one of the finest in the competition's 149-year history that earned their maiden win.

There was late drama when Wes Morgan put through his own goal in the 89th minute to get Chelsea thinking they were taking the game into extratime, only for VAR to rule it out for offside.

Even after a loss, however, the Chelsea supporters will surely look back with fondness on a day when for the first time in over a year, there was a real football atmosphere with 21 000 fans filling the 90 000-capacity stadium with noise.

Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea dominated the first half but struggled to create major openings, even after Leicester lost their centre half Jonny Evans to injury in the 34th minute.

Tielemans’s goal will count among the finest to win this 149-year old competition. Collecting the ball centrally he pushed forward and as the Chelsea defence backed off he unleashed a perfectly struck drive which the diving Kepe Arrizabalaga could do nothing about.

To Leicester’s relief and Chelsea's dismay, however, the VAR replay showed that Chilwell had been offside.