Arsenal win 5-4 on penalties

The FA Cup Final
Saturday 21 May 2005
£1,000,000 to the winning club



Ashley Cole believes it is right to use a penalty shoot-out to decide The FA Cup Final - especially now he's won one!

England star Cole was one of the Arsenal players to calmly score from the spot and hand his side a dramatic 5-4 shoot-out victory over Manchester United on Saturday.

The Gunners hero also scored in a penalty-kicks victory over Sheffield United earlier in the competition and is getting the taste for them!

He said: "I enjoyed my penalty. It was a big occasion but I just had to be focused and hit it where I wanted it to go.

"People complain about penalty shoot-outs but as long as you win then it’s the right decision to have them! But of course it’s disappointing for Man U who had a lot of chances and should have won in 90 minutes. But we defended really well and we’re happy that we won it like that.

"It was very important to win a trophy this season. We were very disappointed about the way it went for us in the league and the Cup Final was a chance to prove people wrong. And we did that."

Cole admits it was an extra special victory for the Gunners as it came against bitter rivals United - who had beaten them twice in the Premiership this season.

He added: "We owed them for what they had done to us before this season and we think we deserved it in the end. I’m very happy for us to have won another trophy.

"In the last 20 minutes they went all out and attacked us really well and we were grateful for Jens Lehmann's saves and for that header off the line from Freddie Ljungberg.

"We know we rode our luck but at times in football you have a lot of chances and don’t score – and we took advantage of that. We battled very hard and were happy to win it on penalties."