2012 FA Cup Final

The 2012 FA Cup Final was the 131st final of the FA Cup, the world's oldest domestic football cup competition, and was contested between Chelsea and Liverpool on 5 May 2012. It was the first FA Cup Final to be sponsored by Budweiser. The date of the 2012 final, as with the 2011 final, clashed with Premier League fixtures. While the date of the 2011 final was affected by the Champions League Final, the 2012 fixture was scheduled in order to provide a clear four-week period between the end of the English season and the start of UEFA Euro 2012. In order to avoid having league games take place simultaneously with the final, the match kicked off at the later time of 5:15 p.m., rather than the usual 3:00 p.m., by which time the other fixtures had ended.
Chelsea won the final 2–1, claiming their fourth FA Cup title in six years. Ramires put Chelsea in front in the 11th minute, and Didier Drogba doubled their lead just after the break. Liverpool halved the deficit in the 64th minute through Andy Carroll, but Chelsea held on to secure the FA Cup for the seventh time.
In the United Kingdom, the final was televised live in HD on ITV1 and also on ESPN. A peak of 11.2 million saw the climax of the game on ITV1 with 8.9 million viewers on average watching the live match coverage. It was the highest-rating final since the 2007 final. ESPN had 397,000 viewers for its coverage of the final.
===Details===
{| style="font-size: 90%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"	 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	
GK 	1 	Petr Čech 	 	
RB 	17 	José Bosingwa 	 	
CB 	2 	Branislav Ivanović	 	
CB 	26 	John Terry (c) 	 	
LB 	3 	Ashley Cole 	 	
CM 	12 	Mikel John Obi 	 	
CM 	8 	Frank Lampard 	 	
RW 	7 	Ramires 	 	
AM 	10 	Juan Mata 	 	
LW 	21 	Salomon Kalou 	 	
CF 	11 	Didier Drogba 	 	
Substitutes: 	Substitutes: 	Substitutes: 	Substitutes: 	
GK 	22 	Ross Turnbull 	 	
DF 	19 	Paulo Ferreira 	 	
MF 	5 	Michael Essien 	 	
MF 	15 	Florent Malouda 	 	
MF 	16 	Raul Meireles 	 	
FW 	9 	Fernando Torres 	 	
FW 	23 	Daniel Sturridge 	 	
Manager: 	Manager: 	Manager: 	Manager: 	
Roberto Di Matteo	Roberto Di Matteo	Roberto Di Matteo 	Roberto Di Matteo	
Man of the match
*Juan Mata (Chelsea)
Match officials
*Assistant referees:
**Stuart Burt (Northamptonshire)
**Andrew Garratt (Staffordshire)
*Fourth official: Mike Jones (Cheshire)
*Reserve official: Simon Long (Cornwall)	
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==
2012