2008 FA Cup Final

Event

2007–08 FA Cup

Cardiff City	Portsmouth

0	1

Date

17 May 2008

Venue

Wembley Stadium, London

Man of the Match

Nwankwo Kanu (Portsmouth)

Referee

Mike Dean (Cheshire)

Attendance

89,874

The 2008 FA Cup Final was a football match held at Wembley Stadium on 17 May 2008 and was the final match of the 2007–08 FA Cup competition.^[1] The match was the 127th FA Cup Final, and the second to be held at the new Wembley Stadium since its redevelopment. The match was contested by Portsmouth and Cardiff City, with Portsmouth winning 1–0. This was the first time that the two sides have ever met in the competition, as both teams were aiming to win the FA Cup for the second time, Cardiff having won it in 1927 and Portsmouth in 1939.^[2] Had Cardiff won, they would have been the first club from outside the top division of English football to have won the competition since West Ham United in 1980.

The winning team received £1 million in prize money.^[3] As in the past few years, the players voted Player of the Round in every round from the First Qualifying Round to the Semi-finals will be present and given VIP hospitality for themselves and a guest.^[4] Although Cardiff City are considered a Welsh club and only hold associate membership with the Football Association, should they have won the 2008 FA Cup they would have been allowed to compete in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup.^[5]

It enabled Portsmouth to qualify for European competition for the first time in their history.

The FA announced that, before the game began, the Welsh national anthem, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" would be played, along with the traditional "God Save the Queen" and "Abide with Me".^[5] The Welsh anthem was sung by Katherine Jenkins, while Lesley Garrett sang "God Save the Queen", and the two duetted on "Abide with Me".^[6]

Route to the final

Cardiff City		Round	Portsmouth
Chasetown [NL] H 3–1	Whittingham 45', Ramsey 60', Parry 73'	Third Round	Ipswich Town [C] A 1–0	Nugent 51'
Hereford United [L2] A 2–1	McNaughton 45', Thompson 67' (pen.)	Fourth Round	Plymouth Argyle [C] H 2–1	Diarra 34', Kranjčar 45'
Wolverhampton Wanderers [C] H 2–0	Whittingham 2', Hasselbaink 11'	Fifth Round	Preston North End [C] A 1–0	Carter 90' (o.g.)
Middlesbrough [PL] A 2–0	Whittingham 9', Johnson 23'	Sixth Round	Manchester United [PL] A 1–0	Muntari 78' (pen.)
Barnsley [C] Wembley Stadium, London 1–0	Ledley 9'	Semi-finals	West Bromwich Albion [C] Wembley Stadium, London 1–0	Kanu 54'

Both clubs received a bye to round three.
In square brackets is a letter that represents the opposition's division
- [PL] = Premier League
- [C] = Championship
- [L1] = League One
- [L2] = League Two
- [NL] = Non-League

Team news

The Wembley scoreboard at the final whistle.

Cardiff decided to leave veteran striker Robbie Fowler out of the squad as he had only just recovered from injury. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink started on his own up-front, supported by winger Paul Parry. Aaron Ramsey became the second youngest player, at 17 years and 143 days, to appear in an FA Cup Final when he came off the bench to replace Peter Whittingham on the hour mark, only 24 days older than Curtis Weston was for Millwall in 2004.^[7]

Jermain Defoe was cup-tied for Portsmouth having played in the third and fourth rounds for Tottenham Hotspur in January. Consequently, Nwankwo Kanu played as a lone striker, with support from a five-man midfield of Niko Kranjčar, John Utaka, Pedro Mendes, Lassana Diarra and Sulley Muntari. Sol Campbell, Glen Johnson and David James were the only three English players in the starting line-up, with Campbell and former Arsenal team-mate Kanu both looking to win the FA Cup for the third time (they had won the competition twice with Arsenal).

Match details

Cardiff City v Portsmouth

17 May 2008
15:00 BST

Cardiff City	0–1	Portsmouth
	(Report)	Kanu 37'

Wembley Stadium, London
Attendance: 89,874
Referee: Mike Dean (Cheshire)^[8]

Cardiff City

Portsmouth



GK	1	Peter Enckelman
RB	2	Kevin McNaughton
CB	12	Roger Johnson
CB	6	Glenn Loovens
LB	3	Tony Capaldi
RM	16	Joe Ledley
CM	4	Gavin Rae	86'
CM	10	Stephen McPhail (c)
LM	7	Peter Whittingham	61'
CF	36	Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink	70'
CF	11	Paul Parry
Substitutes:
GK	13	Michael Oakes
DF	5	Darren Purse
MF	18	Trevor Sinclair	86'
MF	30	Aaron Ramsey	61'
FW	20	Steven Thompson	70'
Manager:
Dave Jones



GK	1	David James
RB	5	Glen Johnson
CB	23	Sol Campbell (c)
CB	15	Sylvain Distin
LB	7	Hermann Hreiðarsson	45+1'
DM	6	Lassana Diarra	90+3'
RM	17	John Utaka		69'
CM	30	Pedro Mendes		78'
CM	19	Niko Kranjčar	54'
LM	11	Sulley Muntari
CF	27	Nwankwo Kanu		87'
Substitutes:
GK	21	Jamie Ashdown
DF	16	Noé Pamarot
MF	8	Papa Bouba Diop		78'
FW	9	Milan Baroš		87'
FW	10	David Nugent		69'
Manager:
Harry Redknapp

Man of the match

Nwankwo Kanu (Portsmouth)

Match officials

Assistant referees:
- Trevor Massey (Cheshire)
- Martin Yerby (Kent)
Fourth official: Chris Foy (Liverpool)

Match rules

90 minutes.
30 minutes of extra-time if necessary.
Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.
Five named substitutes.
Maximum of three substitutions.

Statistics

	Cardiff	Portsmouth
Total shots	9	11
Shots on target	3	5
Ball possession	51%	49%
Corner kicks	7	6
Fouls committed	9	22
Offsides	2	4
Yellow cards	0	3
Red cards	0	0

Source: ESPN^[9]

References

↑ "FA Cup Round Dates". TheFA.com. 25 June 2007. Archived from the original on 22 March 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2008.
↑ "Portsmouth 1–0 Cardiff". BBC News. 17 May 2008. Archived from the original on 17 January 2010. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
↑ "FA Cup Payments to clubs". TheFA.com. 25 June 2007. Archived from the original on 22 March 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2008.
↑ "Player of the Round". TheFA.com. 25 September 2007. Archived from the original on 16 February 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2008.
↑ 5.0 5.1 "FA approves Cardiff for Uefa Cup". BBC Sport. 24 April 2008. Archived from the original on 23 April 2008. Retrieved 24 April 2008.
↑ "Today's Events". Cardiff City v Portsmouth – The FA Cup sponsored by e.on 2008 Final – Official Matchday Programme (Haymarket Network): 13. 17 May 2008.
↑ Cardiff resigned to losing Ramsay
↑ "Dean gets Final spot". TheFA.com. 7 April 2008. Archived from the original on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
↑ "Portsmouth; FA Cup Winners 2008". ESPNsoccernet (ESPN Inc.). 17 May 2008. Retrieved 6 May 2012.

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