Cardiff City

0-1

Portsmouth

 

 

Kanu 37

The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON
The Final
3pm, Saturday 17 May 2008
Wembley Stadium
Winning clubs will receive £1,000,000 from The FA



Portsmouth midfielder Niko Kranjcar said it was a 'great honour' to lift The FA Cup at Wembley on Saturday.

The Croatian, who was a member of his national team which beat England at the same ground back in November, praised his side for using their quality to win the game.

"It is a great honour to come to Pompey and win an FA Cup," he said. 

"It is the biggest moment in the club's history and I am very happy for myself, my team and everyone.

"I don't believe in favourites in final games, we knew that if we were on top in the game, the quality would come out and I think we showed that today.

"They gave us a big match and we are just lucky that we came out on top and got the winning goal."

Defender Sylvain Distan, who was imperious alongside skipper Sol Campbell in defence added: "It was just amazing to go up to collect my medal.

"I came here for a challenge, but I never expected the team to do so well and go so far.

"Even though I am really happy I am still a bit upset about missing out on fifth place in the league, but nobody can take this away from us. It is brilliant."

Match-winner Kanu was also happy to have lifted The Cup and claimed: "I have to deliver and hopefully I did.

"I have to thank God - God made it possible for me to score.

"This is the best moment of my life. I started the game and I won The Cup for Portsmouth. I have felt nothing like this."

Kanu hit the post with an earlier chance, but added: "I kept going, I kept my head down and I scored.

"You have to take your chance and that's what I did.

"Portsmouth is not one of the four big clubs, no-one could believe we were going to do it and we did it."

Teams

Cardiff City
1 Peter Enckelman, 2 Kevin McNaughton, 3 Tony Capaldi, 4 Gavin Rae (18 Trevor Sinclair 87), 6 Glenn Loovens, 7 Peter Whittingham (30 Aaron Ramsey 62), 10 Stephen McPhail, 11 Paul Parry, 12 Roger Johnson, 16 Joe Ledley, 36 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (20 Steven Thompson 71)

Subs
13 Michael Oakes, 5 Darren Purse

Portsmouth
1 David James, 5 Glen Johnson, 6 Lassana Diarra, 7 Hermann Hreidarsson, 11 Sulley Muntari, 15 Sylvain Distin, 17 John Utaka (10 David Nugent 69), 19 Niko Kranjcar, 23 Sol Campbell, 27 Nwankwo Kanu (9 Milan Baros 87), 30 Pedro Mendes (8 Papa Boupa Diop 78)

Substitutes Not Used
21 Jamie Ashdown, 16 Noe Pamarot

Attendance: 89,874

Match Officials
Referee: Mike Dean (Cheshire FA)
Assistant Referees: Trevor Massey (Manchester FA) & Martin Yerby (Kent FA)
Fourth Official: Chris Foy (Liverpool FA)