It’s Chelsea v Liverpool in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday and one man who’s been there, felt the atmosphere and got his hands on the cup is Paddy Power ambassador Peter Crouch.
And, ahead of what could be a thrilling spectacle on Saturday, the big man’s opened up about his memories about one of the best FA Cup Finals ever, the Liverpool v West Ham barnburner in 2006.
CROUCHY: I think we always believed we were in the game and I never actually thought we were going to lose, despite being 2-0 down.
At half time we had a big rallying call, I remember Stevie (Gerrard) getting us all together saying ‘we can’t lose this’ and then took it upon himself to make sure we didn’t get beaten by scoring two absolute beauties, the cleanest strikes you’ll ever see.
When I look at my medal now I do think of Stevie and that team talk.
GET A FREE £5 BET BUILDER ON THE WOMEN’S FA CUP FINAL
In the lead up, Alan Pardew was dancing around in the quarters and the semi, doing a jig with Anton Ferdinand and a few others like Nigel Reo-Coker.
Steve’s team talk at halftime was actually, “We can’t have them dancing around the cup, it will make us sick.”
We won on penalties in the end and I definitely would have put myself forward to take one if I’d still been on the pitch. It’s one of those things you just have to do.
I’ve started in some really big games and when you come off, to be honest with you, you’re thinking ‘It’s quite nice watching it from the bench!’
But there is a part of you that knows it’s what you’re there for, the big moments in big games in high pressure situations. Especially as a forward, you’ve got to take responsibility.
CROUCHY’S FA CUP FINAL BET BUILDER
NEW TO PADDY POWER NEWS?
THE PADDY POWER GUIDE TO SAFER GAMBLING – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
