London - Arabstoday
Following their 2-1 FA Cup final win over Liverpool, Chelsea captain John Terry commended the spirit the Stamford Bridge side have shown in the latter part of the season, and days like this at Wembley are what they live for. The England international centre-back also said the victory revealed that their key players are not too old - as some have said, having rallied spectacularly since the appointment of Roberto Di Matteo as caretaker manager. "It's fantastic, it's what we live for," a jubilant Terry told BBC Sport. "We spoke about winning yesterday and we've had a tough competition in the FA Cup this season and we've won, it was a great performance. At times people have slated us as too old, past it or not together but as a team we come together and unite when our backs are against the wall and we've done that superbly in the last 16 or 17 games." Since the sacking of former manager Andre Villas-Boas in early March, the Blues have won 12 of their last 18 games, losing just twice - with their 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou the only game they haven't won in cup competitions. That record culminated in today's victory, where goals from Ramires and Didier Drogba were enough to hand the Blues their fourth title in six years. It was a result that also saw Di Matteo become one of a select group to win the cup as both a player and manager of the same club. On achieving the feat, the Italian manager said: "It's quite a unique situation to be able to win the Cup as a player and then coach the team to win it. I feel honoured to have had this chance. "I'm very happy for players because we've been heavily criticised this season and we've got the trophy and have the chance for another one. It's been a difficult season but the players have made the club proud. It's been hard work but we came through it." Following their 2-1 FA Cup final win over Liverpool, Chelsea captain John Terry commended the spirit the Stamford Bridge side have shown in the latter part of the season, and days like this at Wembley are what they live for. The England international centre-back also said the victory revealed that their key players are not too old - as some have said, having rallied spectacularly since the appointment of Roberto Di Matteo as caretaker manager. "It's fantastic, it's what we live for," a jubilant Terry told BBC Sport. "We spoke about winning yesterday and we've had a tough competition in the FA Cup this season and we've won, it was a great performance. At times people have slated us as too old, past it or not together but as a team we come together and unite when our backs are against the wall and we've done that superbly in the last 16 or 17 games." Since the sacking of former manager Andre Villas-Boas in early March, the Blues have won 12 of their last 18 games, losing just twice - with their 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou the only game they haven't won in cup competitions. That record culminated in today's victory, where goals from Ramires and Didier Drogba were enough to hand the Blues their fourth title in six years. It was a result that also saw Di Matteo become one of a select group to win the cup as both a player and manager of the same club. On achieving the feat, the Italian manager said: "It's quite a unique situation to be able to win the Cup as a player and then coach the team to win it. I feel honoured to have had this chance. "I'm very happy for players because we've been heavily criticised this season and we've got the trophy and have the chance for another one. It's been a difficult season but the players have made the club proud. It's been hard work but we came through it." It's quite a unique situation to be able to win the Cup as a player and then coach the team to win it. I feel honoured to have had this chance. Roberto Di Matteo, Chelsea caretaker manager Frank Lampard was a member of all four of Chelsea's FA Cup wins and he was full of pride to add today's medal to his other three, and is putting their Premier League match with Liverpool in three days time to the back of his mind for the time being. "It's a massive day, the FA Cup final is huge to this club and an amazing feeling. We can certainly celebrate tonight, we'll deal with the game on Tuesday when it comes. "Until they scored it was very comfortable," the England international said, before commending their Ivorian striker's record of four goals in four FA Cup finals. "It was hard to deal with but we deserved to win. Didier Drogba is my hero. No striker I've seen scores so many important goals in finals." Goalkeeper Petr Cech was on hand to prevent a late recovery from Liverpool, with an impressive point blank save from Andy Carroll, and is now looking towards their trip to Munich in a fortnight's time for the UEFA Champions League final. "It's fantastic what we've achieved and still have one more final to go and hopefully we can make it two," said Cech. "I've won it for the fourth time and it doesn't matter how many times you win it the atmosphere is always the same." Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish commended his side's fight-back after a lacklustre first-half, but admitted it was too little, too late. "We were excellent in the last half hour but a game of football lasts for 90 minutes," Dalglish said. "We left ourselves too much to do. You can't lose two goals in the fashion that we lost them and expect to win." Carroll was understandably disappointed to come up short, after coming on to score the Reds' goal and reinvigorate their attack during the second half. "I thought it was unlucky - I had a few chances and could have put them away but it wasn't to be," the former striker said. "We came here to win, it's been disappointing in the league, we got here and it was unlucky because it would have taken us into extra time. I did the best I could when I came on and we were unlucky."