Chelsea have been the overwhelming favourites heading into the 1997 FA Cup ultimate, however that did not assist settle the nerves of sure people earlier than the match at Wembley.
Having completed sixth within the Premier League desk that season, Chelsea confronted a facet in Middlesbrough who have been relegated to the second tier of English footbal after coming nineteenth within the league.
Regardless of that, Boro nonetheless had gamers who may trigger Chelsea issues in Juninho and Fabrizio Ravenelli. Blues boss Ruud Gullit managed to impart his big-game knowledge on his squad forward of the Cup ultimate, although, serving to his gamers cope with the massive event.
Chelsea hero recollects 1997 FA Cup ultimate strike
Chelsea received the 1997 FA Cup ultimate (Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
Coming off the again of a positive first season at Stamford Bridge and in English soccer, Roberto Di Matteo felt a considerable amount of stress at Wembley earlier than going through Middlesbrough.
He needn’t have, with the Italian midfielder scoring a shocking strike simply 43 seconds into the sport. Gullit helped settle his nerves beforehand, with Di Matteo incomes hero standing amongst Chelsea followers as he struck from 30 yards.
Di Matteo bagged after simply 43 seconds (Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
“I keep in mind we had dinner collectively the evening earlier than the match and I used to be fairly nervous,” Di Matteo completely tells FourFourTwo . “It was my first main ultimate and an enormous event for the membership.
“Ruud came to visit to me and stated, ‘Don’t fear, beautiful boy, we’re going to win tomorrow!’ That actually calmed me down.
“I keep in mind getting goosebumps throughout the nationwide anthem. Wembley was fully offered out – half blue, half crimson. Clearly it was unbelievable to attain a objective like that so early.”
Eddie Newton bagged a second late on to make sure Chelsea would triumph within the Cup. Reliving his reminiscence of the objective, Di Matteo explains what compelled him to drag the set off from up to now out on such a giant event.
Di Matteo when he signed for Chelsea (Picture credit score: Alamy)
“I dribbled into the Middlesbrough half and Mark Hughes made a run that dragged the defenders backwards,” he explains. “They simply saved backing away and I believed, ‘I might need a go right here’, and it got here off my foot sweetly.
“It was loopy when the ball struck the crossbar after which the online – I began working in direction of the followers. We later scored a second objective and managed to recover from the road. Profitable the FA Cup was wonderful.”
