Rodgers: Special To Give The Fans That
- Leicester City won the Club's first-ever Emirates FA Cup on Saturday
- Youri Tielemans netted the winner in a 1-0 win over Chelsea at Wembley Stadium
- Brendan Rodgers was thrilled for the Blue Army at full-time
Beaten in four finals - and 52 years since their last appearance in the showpiece - the Foxes overcame Thomas Tuchel's Blues in extraordinary fashion as Youri Tielemans' outrageous strike from 30 yards sealed the success, but late drama came to define the tie at the national stadium.
Premier League winner Kasper Schmeichel made two tremendous saves late on for City, while a late Chelsea goal was disallowed by VAR for offside, as the Blue Army proudly watched on. It was the first time an allocation of tickets was made available to Leicester fans since March 2020 due to COVID-19.
After winning his first major honour in English football, Rodgers told LCFC TV: "It feels amazing. My initial reaction after the game is that I’m just so happy. The courage they showed in the game was incredible, to produce that quality performance against a top level team.
"Secondly, obviously, for the supporters, for the first time in their history, they can now say they’re FA Cup winners. I’ve heard all the stories since I’ve been here, of the glorious failures and how unfortunate it’s been, so to be able to give them that moment was special.
"For Khun Top and his family and what they’ve given this club, I know this was a dream of Khun Vichai’s, so to be able to deliver that today is a good feeling."
Leicester withstood waves of pressure in the later moments and former Fox Ben Chilwell appeared to have rescued the tie and sent it to extra-time on 90 minutes, but a VAR call to disallow the goal handed the Foxes a first FA Cup triumph in 137 years of history.
"I don't know [whether I'd say it's] destiny, you just know you’re going to have to defend well when you’re 1-0 up with the last 15-20 minutes to go," the Northern Irishman added. "You’ve got to try and close the game out.
"These are the Champions League finalists, so you know they’re top, top players. You know you’re going to have to suffer. But we got the VAR [decision], it shows the line was good. We weren’t too deep, so Chilly’s offside, and Kasper [Schmeichel's] save… we talk about Youri’s goal, but in the same breath, you’ve got to talk about his save. It’s absolutely incredible. They were two big moments in the game."
Rodgers was pleased with the nature of Leicester's performance and tipped his hat to Tielemans' winning top - highlighting as it an FA Cup 'classic'.
"I thought, in the game, we were aggressive, our pressing was good," the 48-year-old added. "We looked a threat and we know Youri can do that. He’s a wonderful striker of the ball. We seen it hundreds of times. To score a goal of that level in a game like this, it was a classic FA Cup final-winning goal and it was a goal I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
"You can see the difference the fans make for us. The energy they gave us, it felt like there was 30,000 of them in here today. With the noise they made, we felt that energy and that really pushed us over the line."