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On Saturday, in the legendary "Wembley" stadium, during the FA Cup final, where London club's footballers won 1-0 after extra time, the head coach of the club, Jose Mourinho, said that he will never give up this hard-earned gold medal.
Last year, at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea defeated the same Man Utd players 3-0, securing their second consecutive English champions title. During the award ceremony, Portuguese strategist J.Mourinho approached the stands, waved his jacket and the earned medal to the most loyal fans.
"I will definitely not give up this medal, as it means a lot to me: it's the FA Cup final medal, which is my first," said J.Mourinho after the winning final match. "It means that in the three years of my leadership at Chelsea, we won all English trophies."
The 44-year-old former Porto coach praised his players, especially this year's Premier League top scorer Didier Drogba from Ivory Coast, who scored the decisive goal of the match.
"My players deserved this victory after a very tough season," added the Portuguese. "This moment is very rewarding for everyone and we deserved to go on vacation with this trophy. I think we played very well and the players understood the plan of these matches."
Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech thanked his team-mates for showing character and spirit.
"We deserved this cup because we faced many problems this season," said the Czech goalkeeper. "It's always difficult when a team aims to perform well in all tournaments and gets eliminated, so I can't say what emotions I'm feeling right now. It was an incredible season for me. There was a very tactical game and I believe both teams were very tired, but we had great motivation."
"I heard a lot about the FA Cup and this feeling is incomparable. We could have won all four trophies. We were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League after the semi-finals, losing to Liverpool in a penalty shootout, and ultimately failed to win the Premier League cup again, so this FA Cup is a great achievement for me," added the goalkeeper.
Cech denied all suggestions that there should have been a goal scored during the first extra time after Ryan Giggs' shot, even though the ball was already in his hands.
"The ball was behind the goal line," admitted Cech. "But in any case, it was a mistake and the goal would not have been counted."
The author of the winning goal confirmed that the triumph in the FA Cup was a small consolation after the unsuccessful Premier League season and UEFA Champions League tournament.
"This won trophy does not make up for the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, so we want to take back our trophies next year," said Drogba after the victory. "But I love finals because you only fight for victory, and today was very difficult for us because we played against a truly fantastic team."
"I was eager to finally score against Man Utd in those two years, and it happened today," said the African. "Now we just want to celebrate well."
Chelsea's captain John Terry says that winning the FA Cup is just the beginning of the next season, where they will fight for the Premier League cup again.
"We finished the season on a high note and I am very proud of it," said the captain of the England national team. "We did not give up until the end of the match, which says everything about the Chelsea team. We are disappointed with the poorly ended English Premier League championship and UEFA Champions League, but next season we will be much stronger than we are now."
