1994 FA Cup Final: Manchester United vs Chelsea

Match Report

United went into the final as Premiership Champions, having won the title by 8 points over Blackburn Rovers. They were bidding to become only the fourth team of the 20th Century to complete "the Double" and the first in United's history. The closest the club had been previously was 1957 when the "Busby Babes" won the League but lost the cup final to Aston Villa. United were red-hot favourites going into the match fielding their strongest team, however some pundits were predicting an upset or at least they were hoping for an upset. Bryan Robson, the man who had lifted the F.A. Cup three times already as captain of United was dropped from the squad in favour of Brian McClair, who was considered by Alex Ferguson as a giving him more options from the bench.

Chelsea manager Glenn Hoddle left himself out of his team, and took a place as substitute. 80,000 fans packed Wembley on a rain-soaked Saturday afternoon that made the famous turf quick and greasy. The game started slowly, in the first-half United seemed to be stuck in first gear. Chelsea were slightly on top going into half time, Gavin Peacock having hit the bar in the first-half with a fierce dipping volley. For the first ten minutes of the second-half the game was the same: poor passing and bad positional play, making flowing football impossible for either team.

However, after sixty minutes, the game changed completely. United's slick passing game suddenly started to work. The two winger's, Giggs and Kanchelskis were getting the ball more often and both full-backs, Irwin and Parker, were getting up to support the attackers. Giggs had the ball on the wing and released Irwin, he did a neat one-two with Giggs and was through in the penalty area. He slipped the ball past Frank Sinclair, who proceeded to clumsily up-end the Irishman. United were awarded a penalty. Up stepped United's leading scorer and talisman, Eric Cantona. He never looked like he was going to miss, three little paces and he gently stroked the ball to the left-hand side of Dmitri Kharine. One-nil to United.

The game had now got going and Chelsea went on all out attack. However six minutes later they were caught on the break, Kanchelskis was bearing down on goal with only Eddie Newton for company. Kanchelskis nudged the ball into the box, Newton ran across him, and Kanchelskis went tumbling. The referee, David Elleray controversially awarded another penalty to United. Which way would Cantona put the penalty this time? Cantona stepped up again, with exactly the same result, a carbon-copy of the first penalty into the bottom left hand corner of Kharine. Two minutes later the Reds were three-up courtesy of a defensive slip on the wet turf by Eddie Newton. Mark Hughes ran on to power the ball from the edge of the box under the despairing Kharine. Chelsea put on a brave display, creating chances which troubled Schmeichel, but to no avail.

United had more goalscoring opportunities before a lightning break on the counter-attack in the last minute set Paul Ince up one-on-one with Kharine. However, he unselfishly passed across goal giving Brian McClair a simple tap-in to make it four. United had equalled their own Wembley F.A. Cup Final record score of 4-0 against Brighton in the 1983 Replay. Captain Steve Bruce climbed the famous steps and collected the famous trophy while United fans celebrated the greatest domestic triumph in the club's history. This victory meant Manchester United joined the few elite clubs who had done the famous English Double - and they'd done it in style.