Leicester celebrate historic FA Cup win – The Irish News

Triumphant Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers hailed his fantastic Foxes following their historic FA Cup victory over Chelsea on this day in 2021.

Leicester lifted the trophy for the first time after Youri Tielemans’ second-half wonder secured a 1-0 win at Wembley.

Tielemans settled a tight game that was dramatic late on with two fine saves from Kasper Schmeichel and former Leicester left-back Ben Chilwell having a goal ruled out by VAR.

Rodgers said: “I’m very proud, it’s a historic day for the club. Winning the FA Cup for the first time is clearly a special day.

“We were playing against the Champions League finalists and we knew at times we would have to suffer, but we deserved to win.

“For a club like Leicester to be in the final with a great club like Chelsea, people would have hoped, from a neutral point of view, that we could go on and blow the odds.”

Rodgers has won seven of the seven finals he has reached as a manager, but insisted it is not about him.

“Every trophy won is special. This is my seventh final and luckily I managed to win all seven. You can do that with players who have guts,” he added.

“I’m proud personally, but it’s about everyone else, seeing the happiness on the fans’ faces.”

Around 21,000 fans were at Wembley, with 6,250 official Leicester supporters watching their team live for the first time in over a year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s been such a tough year for the fans,” Rodgers said.

“It was a fantastic atmosphere and I’m so happy the Leicester fans were able to be there to see us win it.”