It may have only been one day since Liverpool and Arsenal contested an engrossing 2-2 draw in the Premier League, but it has been exactly 24 years since they last met with the FA Cup trophy on the line.
The first of several showpiece matches to take place at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff while Wembley was undergoing reconstruction, Arsene Wenger‘s Gunners and Gerard Houllier‘s Liverpool battled for supremacy in the Welsh capital; never before had two non-British coaches collided in the FA Cup final.
The contest lived up to the hype too, albeit only in the final 20 minutes, as Arsenal winger Freddie Ljungberg – a perennial nemesis of top teams during his playing heyday – broke the deadlock after an error from Reds goalkeeper Sander Westerveld.
However, Houllier’s number one was bailed out by that year’s Ballon d’Or winner, as Michael Owen turned the tie on its head with two goals in the space of six minutes during the dying embers of normal time, thus completing one part of their memorable treble.
Liverpool had already sealed EFL Cup glory in 2000-01 and would go on to conquer the continent in the UEFA Cup, and to mark their memorable FA Cup triumph, Sports Mole challenges you to name the Reds’ squad from that day.
