BOSINGWA: 2012 FA CUP FINAL REVIEWED

Chelsea fans were excited with the appointment of Portuguese manager Andre Villas-Boas in the summer of 2012 as he was touted to follow in the footsteps of Jose Mourinho.

Jose Mourinhoenjoyed huge success during his time as the FC Porto managerwinning both the Champions Leagueand the UEFA Cup titles in addition to winning a lot of trophies on the domestic front. He went to win trophiesat Chelsea including a first league title in five decades.

Just like Mourinho, Villas-Boas won several trophies as the FC Porto manager on the domestic front, but he didn’t win any on the European football stage. The Blues fans were excited about his appointment as their manager and a lot of big things were expected from him. In the end, Villas-Boas could not emulate the level of success achievedby Mourinhoin his first managerial spell at Stamford Bridge. The failure to produce results led to the sacking of Villas-Boas in his first season at Chelsea thus leading to the appointment of former club midfielder Roberto Di Matteo as an interim manager.

Di Matteo stunned a lot of football stakeholders by winning two trophies namely the FA Cup title and theChampions League title at the end of the 2011/12 season. Chelsea beat Liverpool in the 2012 FA Cup final to win the competition before they added the Champions League title via the penalty shootout win over Bavarian giants Bayern Munich.

In the 2012 FA Cup final, Portuguesefull-back Jose Bosingwa started on the right side defence against Liverpool. Apart from Jose Bosingwa, the likes of Ashley Cole, John Terry and BranislavIvanovic.Jose Bosingwa and the other defenders were on from start to finish as goals from Ramires and Didier Drogba either side of the interval led Chelsea to a 2-1 victory.

Andre Villas- ,Jose Mourinho