Drogba gives Chelsea the FA Cup

After Didier Drogba's extra time goal gave Chelsea a 1-0 victory over Manchester United, Mourinho was the last to go up the 107 steps to collect the famous trophy. The Portuguese received a bigger cheer from the Blues fans than his players when it was his turn to hold it.

Then Mourinho ran down the steps with the trophy in his hand and onto the field to continue the celebrations, while also holding onto his winners medal after the first final to be played at Wembley for seven years.

"That one I don't throw away," said Mourinho who famously threw his Premier League medal to the fans after Chelsea's second straight league triumph last season.

"It means a lot. The FA Cup, it's the first time for me," Mourinho said. "We have won every title in English football in my three years in the club and it's something that the players deserve so much because of the season they've had and the way they've fought.

"This is a moment for everybody to enjoy. I think we deserve to go to the holiday period with this cup and this medal."

The final was four minutes away from going to a penalty shootout when Drogba collected a pass from John Obi Mikel and then swapped passes with Frank Lampard inside the penalty area. When the ball came back, Drogba had only the advancing goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar to beat and flicked it inside the post to set off the Chelsea celebrations behind the same goal.

Mourinho jumped out of his seat and charged down the sideline pumping his arms in the way he often does in celebrating a goal. Then he turned, put his left hand in his pocket, checked his watch and began calling "calm down, calm down" to his players.

Although United threw everyone up in a late attempt to equalize, Chelsea hung on to become the first FA Cup winner at new Wembley seven years after being the last winner at the old one.

The result meant that, two weeks after surrendering the Premier League title to Manchester United, Mourinho collected the one English trophy that had eluded him in his three years in charge at Stamford Bridge. He had won two Premier League titles and two League Cups and now has an FA Cup to his name.

United manager Ferguson still has five FA Cup titles to go with his nine Premier Leagues and Manchester United's record of FA Cup titles stays at 11.

"It's disappointing. It was a big game simply because of Manchester United's history in the FA Cup," Ferguson said. "It's exceptional, it's very good. We've lost two FA Cup finals now (in three years) and haven't scored a goal. But today it was just about tiredness. I think that's a genuine reason."

Chelsea now has four cup titles and, after Arsenal in 1993 and Liverpool in 2001, becomes the third club to win both cups in the same season.

With 89,826 fans - the largest at an FA Cup final for 19 years - packed into steep banks of seats, the stadium provided the ideal atmosphere for a classic final. For the first half, the players clearly didn't get the message.

For only the third time in FA Cup history, the league champion and runner up met in the final and that took much of the element of surprise out of the game. With the players so familiar with each other's style of play, the first half of the final resembled a game of chess, punctuated with some fierce tackling.

Whatever was said at the halftime team talks, it seemed to work - at least for a spell.

United should have taken the lead within three minutes of the restart when Rooney went on a weaving run only for Cech to block his shot. Cech recovered to save Ryan Giggs' follow up drive.

A 70-meter run by Rooney was foiled by a combination of three Chelsea tacklers but when Paul Scholes lobbed a pass over to Giggs, the United captain fired over the bar with a first-time shot.

The halftime introduction of winger Arjen Robben also gave new life to Chelsea and United goalkeeper Van der Sar dived low to block his countryman's low cross at the foot of the post.

A curling free kick from Drogba just missed the near post but the final went into extra time with new Wembley still waiting for its first FA Cup goal.

Ferguson sent on Alan Smith and Mourinho introduced Salomon Kalou to inject some fresh ideas into the a game which appeared to be slowing by the minute with much of the play reduced to a walking pace.

Giggs forced the ball over the line in the 13th minute of extra time when he met a low cross from Rooney and slid into goalkeeper Cech who had already saved his shot. It should have been either a foul on the goalkeeper or a goal but the officials waved play on.

Ferguson believed it was a goal - or a penalty - because Giggs had been pushed by defender Michael Essien.

"It's a penalty kick. Obviously the goalkeeper's spilled it behind the line," Ferguson said. "I think it would have been a difficult one for the linesman to call, but the referee should have been in a better position."

The veteran United manager also accused Mourinho of trying to influence referee Steve Bennett during the buildup to the game.

"I think that the pressure that Mourinho put on the referee before the game has certainly worked and I'm disappointed about that," Ferguson said. "To lose the game and see the replay of that, it's disappointing, I must say."