Sports

Iheanacho, Ndidi make history as Leicester win FA Cup

Published

4 years ago

May 16, 2021

Leicester City Nigerian duo Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi made history on Saturday as The Foxes defeated Chelsea 1-0 in the final of the FA Cup at the Wembley Stadium..

The Foxes finally won the FA Cup for the first time in five attempts, since they first appeared in the final in 1969.

While Iheanacho was replaced in the 67th by James Maddison, Ndidi, who has been a consistent performer for The Foxes since joining from Belgian side Genk four years ago, played the full 90 minutes and was instrumental as Brendan Rodgers side kept a clean sheet at Wembley.

Youri Tielemans produced one of the greatest FA Cup final goals to settle a closely contested encounter with a spectacular right-foot drive that flew past Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga into the top corner from 25 yards in the 63rd minute.

It sent Rodgers down the touchline in celebration, although Leicester City’s fans -inside Wembley as 21,000 supporters formed the biggest attendance since lockdown-had to survive a nerve-jangling closing phase before they could celebrate the win in their first final since 1969.

The Foxes were indebted to two crucial saves from keeper Kasper Schmeichel, who turned former Leicester defender Ben Chilwell’s header on to a post, before producing an even better stop to turn Mason Mount’s powerful shot wide.

And in a final act of drama, Chilwell thought he had equalised in a last-minute goalmouth scramble before it was ruled out by the barest of margins, following the intervention of VAR.

Leicester closed out the win to spark emotional scenes as those inside Wembley rejoiced in a landmark victory.

With the win, Iheanacho and Ndidi join Daniel Amokachi, Celestine Babayaro, Nwankwo Kanu, John Utaka, Mikel Obi, Alex Lwobi and Victor Moses as Nigerian footballers who have won football’s oldest competition.