16 April 2008
VIDEO: Final second leg - Manchester City 3-1 Chelsea

Manchester City lift The FA Youth after a thrilling win over Chelsea at Eastlands. Coming from behind to win 4-2 on aggregate.

Manchester City

3-1

Chelsea

Mee 23, Weiss 34, Ball (pen) 86

(4-2 agg)

McGivern og 6

The FA Youth Cup Sponsored by E.ON
Final, Second Leg 
7.45pm, Wednesday 16 April 2008
City Of Manchester Stadium, Manchester City FC 

Manchester City lifted The FA Youth Cup for only the second time in their history on Wednesday night when they saw off opposition from Chelsea to seal victory in this competition and help erase the memory of their defeat to Liverpool in The Final two years ago.

City last won the competition back in 1986, whilst Chelsea were in their first Final for 47 years so both teams were understandably desperate to take the title for 2008.

With several members of the City team having been with the club for a number of years and raised locally, the team spirit of the home side was evident throughout and in the end, that courage helped them through a second half which saw Chelsea pile on the pressure in search of an equaliser.

Academy Director Jim Cassell, who has seen well over 20 players come through the City ranks to reach the first team in his 10 years with the club, had spoken before the game of his pride at how his players had come so far in the competition and he will have been delighted to have seen the young Blues succeed here in front of a home crowd.

Goals from skipper Ben Mee, who has been with the Blues for nine years, Vladimir Weiss and David Ball proved enough to see City lift the trophy in front of nearly 20,000 supporters at Eastlands.

It could have been so different too, as Chelsea made the perfect start to the game and took an early lead in only the sixth minute, when Jacob Mellis broke through from midfield and into the box. His shot was well saved by Greg Hartley, but the ball bounced off him and onto the unfortunate Ryan McGivern, who couldn’t prevent it from deflecting into the goal.

City could have found their way back level just four minutes later though, when Donal McDermott threaded a pass through the middle for Ball but his shot was well saved by Rhys Taylor in the Chelsea goal.

Robbie Mak then stung the hands of Taylor with a powerful shot from 25 yards after turning well on the left hand side and getting a sight of goal in the 12th minute.

Both sides were looking creative and Chelsea had another good opportunity after 15 minutes when Gael Kakuta slid a pass through for Morten Nielsen, whose effort was collected by Hartley.

At the other end, Taylor had to make a stunning one handed save in the 22nd minute when he turned over Andrew Tutte’s effort from the edge of the area.

When the resulting corner was only half cleared by Chelsea, City worked the ball across to Tutte on the right and his deep cross was met at the far post by Mee, who guided home a firm header to level things up.

Just over 10 minutes later and City were ahead. Weiss, who had switched from the right hand side to the left, was tripped by Seth Nana Ofori-Twumasi just 25 yards from goal for a free kick to be awarded. The Slovakian winger picked himself up and dusted himself down, before stepping up to guide a fine shot into the corner direct from the free kick.

As half time approached, City and Mak had two half chances as he was played through on the break, but firstly the Chelsea defence did well to recover and clear the danger, before Mak shot over on the second occasion.

There were no changes for either team at the break, but the attacking policies of both teams remained the same with plenty of open play and chances to attack.

With less than 10 minutes of the second half played, the visitors made the first change of the night when they introduced Adam Phillip in place of Nielsen up front. He almost made an instant impact as he got onto the end of a swift counter attack in the area, but saw his shot drift wide.

As the game drifted on, Chelsea began to enjoy the better of the possession and chances as they chased a way back into the game. They came closest in the 77th minute when substitute Frank Nouble’s cross from the right was met by Phillip but he didn’t get enough weight on his touch and City were able to clear the danger.

City were increasingly coming under more pressure, but with just five minutes of the game remaining, a Chelsea corner was cleared as far as Weiss just

outside his own area and he found the extra reserves of energy to race clear and into the Chelsea half. His fantastic run saw him advance into the box, only to be sent tumbling by Sergio Tejera Rodriguez and referee Peter Walton had little choice but to point at the penalty spot.

The hard working Ball stepped up to send Taylor the wrong way and rolled home the crucial third goal to all but seal the victory for City and kick-start the celebrations.

Unfortunately the match ended in a sour note, when Mellis was shown a red card for a clumsy late challenge on Kieran Trippier, as he tried to clear up a Chelsea attack. After lengthy treatment, Trippier had to be stretchered off which took an element of gloss off a terrific night for Cassell’s team.
 
Manchester City: Greg Hartley, Kieran Trippier (Abdi Ibrahim, 90) Ryan McGivern, Dedryck Boyota (Angelos Tsiaklis, 82) Ben Mee, Scott Kay, Vladimir Weiss, Andrew Tutte, David Ball, Robbie Mak, David McDermott.

Subs not used: Alex Nimeley-Tchuimeni, Filip Mentel, James Poole.

Chelsea: Rhys Taylor, Seth Nana Ofori-Twumasi, Jeffrey Van Homoet Bruma, Patrick Van Aanholt, Benjamin Gordon (Frank Nouble, 72) Michael Woods, Miroslav Stoch, Jacob Mellis, Morten Nielsen (Adam Phillip, 54) Sergio Tejera Rodriguez, Gael Kakuta.

Subs not used: Haxhia, Thomas Taiwo, Jack Saville.

Attendance: 19,753