Liverpool storm back to clinch FA Cup

Steven Gerrard scored twice and goalkeeper Jose Reina made heroic saves as Liverpool stormed back from a two-goal deficit to beat West Ham 6-4 on penalties and clinch the FA Cup title.

كتب : Ahmad Saied

السبت، 13 مايو 2006 - 20:31
ليفربول فاز بكأس إنجلترا الموسم الماضي
Steven Gerrard scored twice and goalkeeper Jose Reina made heroic saves as Liverpool stormed back from a two-goal deficit to beat West Ham 6-4 on penalties and clinch the FA Cup title.

Captain Gerrard latched on to a loose ball and hammered an injury-time bullet to tie the score 3-3 at the final whistle and deny West Ham an almost guaranteed victory.

West Ham initially took the lead in the 21st minute when Jamie Carragher converted the ball into his own net and Dean Ashton made it 2-0 seven minutes later after capitalizing on a dreadful error from Reina.

Djibril Cisse pulled one back in the 32nd minute with a close range shot before Gerrard leveled in the 54th minute when he fired into the roof of the net.

Paul Konchesky restored West Ham's lead four minutes after the hour mark through a long-range volley that eluded the out-of-balance Reina but Gerrard came to the rescue again deep into the injury time.

Both teams failed to find the net in the additional 30 minutes and all eyes focused on the goalkeepers as the penalty shootout started.

Reina made up for the blunders he made through out the game and blocked three spot-kicks from Bobby Zamora, Paul Konchesky and Anton Ferdinand respectively.

Gerrard, John Arne Riise and Dietmar Hamann scored for Liverpool while Sami Hyypia failed to find the net. 41-year-old striker Teddy Sheringham was the only player to score for West Ham.