2011 FA Cup Final

The 2011 FA Cup Final was the 130th final of the FA Cup, the world's oldest domestic football cup competition. The final took place on 14 May 2011 at Wembley Stadium in London in front of 88,643 spectators and a British television audience of more than eight million. The clubs contesting the final were Premier League clubs Manchester City and Stoke City. The match was Stoke City's first FA Cup final, and Manchester City's ninth.
As Premier League clubs, they entered the competition in the third round. Manchester City made an unconvincing start, contesting two replays against lower league opposition in the third and fourth rounds but gained momentum and kept three consecutive clean sheets en route to the final. Stoke City played one replay in the third round, before beating all opponents in a run which culminated in a 5–0 victory over Bolton Wanderers in the semi-final at Wembley Stadium – the biggest winning margin at Wembley since 1939. Manchester City entered the final as favourites, with Stoke City as underdogs.
Manchester City began the match the brighter of the two teams with the majority of possession and a number of shots forcing saves from goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen but the first half remained goalless. Stoke improved after the half-time interval but failed to score from their only shot on target in the 62nd minute, which was saved by goalkeeper Joe Hart after a one-on-one with striker Kenwyne Jones. In the 74th minute, Manchester City midfielder, Yaya Toure fired a loose ball in the Stoke City penalty area past goalkeeper Sørensen to give Manchester City the lead. Stoke attempted to equalize after Manchester City's goal without success and the final finished 1–0 with Manchester City claiming their fifth FA Cup. The result gave Manchester City their first major trophy for 35 years, ending the longest trophy drought in the club's history. Stoke City manager Tony Pulis said "Manchester City were the better team and deserved to win", but expressed "disappointment" at his team's display. Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini dedicated the victory to the Manchester City supporters, declaring, "I am happy for the fans, they deserved to win this Cup. For a long time they didn't win."
The medals were handed out by Prime Minister David Cameron. As winners, Manchester City won a place in the 2011 FA Community Shield and the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League but as they had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League via their league position, the Europa League place was given to Stoke City as runners-up. To celebrate their victory, Manchester City held an open-top bus parade on 23 May 2011, beginning at Manchester Town Hall and ending at the City of Manchester Stadium; it attracted a crowd of up to 100,000.
===Details===
{| style="font-size: 90%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"	 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	
GK 	25 	Joe Hart 	 	
RB 	2 	Micah Richards 	 	
CB 	4 	Vincent Kompany 	 	
CB 	19 	Joleon Lescott 	 	
LB 	13 	Aleksandar Kolarov	 	
DM 	34 	Nigel de Jong 	 	
DM 	18 	Gareth Barry 	 	
AM 	42 	Yaya Touré 	 	
RW 	21 	David Silva 	 	
LW 	45 	Mario Balotelli 	 	
CF 	32 	Carlos Tévez (c) 	 	
Substitutes: 	Substitutes: 	Substitutes: 	Substitutes: 	
GK 	1 	Shay Given 	 	
DF 	5 	Pablo Zabaleta 	 	
MF 	7 	James Milner 	 	
FW 	10 	Edin Džeko 	 	
MF 	11 	Adam Johnson 	 	
MF 	24 	Patrick Vieira 	 	
DF 	38 	Dedryck Boyata 	 	
Manager: 	Manager: 	Manager: 	Manager: 	
Roberto Mancini	Roberto Mancini	Roberto Mancini 	Roberto Mancini	
Man of the match
*Mario Balotelli (Manchester City)
Match officials
*Assistant referees:
**Adam Watts (Worcestershire)
**Simon Beck (Bedfordshire)
*Fourth official: Lee Probert (Wiltshire)
*Reserve official: Jake Collin (Merseyside)	
Match rules
*90 minutes.
*30 minutes of extra-time if necessary.
*Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.
*Seven named substitutes.
*Maximum of three substitutions.
==External links==
2011