Pre-match Michael Ball sang the national anthem, "
God Save the Queen", on the pitch before the game, with
Lesley Garrett singing the traditional cup final hymn, "
Abide with Me". Before the match, both teams received a boost as Ashton and Etherington for West Ham and Alonso for Liverpool were deemed fit enough to start the final.
First half West Ham kicked the match off, as both teams lined up in a 4–4–2 formation. West Ham committed the first foul of the match in the first minute as
Paul Konchesky brought down
Steven Gerrard, but Liverpool were unable to capitalise on the resulting free kick. A few minutes later, West Ham midfielder
Yossi Benayoun advanced down the right hand side of the pitch and passed the ball into the penalty area, but Liverpool defender
Sami Hyypiä was able to intercept the ball before Ashton or Harewood received it. Harewood had the first shot on goal for West Ham in the 12th minute, but it was deflected out for a corner. A few minutes later, West Ham scored the first goal of the match; Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso gave the ball away to Benayoun, who played it inside to Ashton. Ashton then played a through-ball to
Lionel Scaloni on the right flank, before the Argentine's low cross was put into his own goal by Liverpool defender
Jamie Carragher to give West Ham a 1–0 lead. Seven minutes later, West Ham extended their lead, when Liverpool goalkeeper
Pepe Reina fumbled a shot from Etherington into the path of Ashton, who squeezed the rebound under Reina into the far corner to make it 2–0. Liverpool looked to have reduced the deficit in the 30th minute, but
Peter Crouch's shot from a Gerrard free kick was disallowed as Crouch was
offside. However, Liverpool did score from their next attack. Gerrard played a ball into the West Ham penalty area, which went over the head of defender Scaloni and was met by striker
Djibril Cissé, who scored to make it 2–1. Ashton came close to extending West Ham's lead in the 37th minute, but his effort went wide of the post after beating goalkeeper Reina. The last chance of the half came in the 44th minute when Liverpool defender
Steve Finnan sliced a clearance straight to striker Harewood, however his shot went out for a
throw-in.
Second half Liverpool got the second half under way, but it was West Ham who had the first attack of the half. Etherington advanced down the right hand side of the pitch and passed to Harewood, whose shot was saved by Reina, who also saved a subsequent shot from Benayoun. Liverpool had a chance immediately afterwards as Cissé passed to Alonso, but his shot was blocked and went out for a corner. A minute later, Liverpool made the first substitution of the match, as the injured
Harry Kewell was replaced by
Fernando Morientes. Liverpool equalised in the 54th minute, when Gerrard volleyed home a knock-down header from Crouch. The first yellow card of the match went to Ashton after he fouled Finnan in the 60th minute. Three minutes later, Carragher also received a yellow card for a foul on Ashton. A minute later, West Ham went ahead again; defender
Paul Konchesky received the ball on the left flank, and played a ball into the Liverpool penalty area, only to see it sail over goalkeeper Reina and into the goal. Three minutes later, Liverpool made another substitution, as Alonso went off with an injury to be replaced by defender
Jan Kromkamp. Minutes later, West Ham captain
Nigel Reo-Coker had an attempt to score, but his shot went over the Liverpool goal. West Ham subsequently made their first substitution of the match, as Ashton was replaced by fellow striker
Bobby Zamora. Liverpool also replaced Crouch with midfielder
Dietmar Hamann. West Ham made their second substitution of the match in the 77th minute, as they replaced Fletcher with
Christian Dailly. They also changed formation to a 4–5–1 in an attempt to hang onto their lead. Morientes headed a Cissé pass wide in the last 10 minutes as Liverpool looked to score an equaliser. West Ham made their final substitution of the match in the 85th minute, as striker
Teddy Sheringham replaced Etherington. Sheringham's first involvement in the match was to concede a free kick for handball, which was subsequently put wide by Gerrard. With the match entering injury time, Liverpool's Riise played the ball into the West Ham penalty area, where it was cleared but only as far as Gerrard, from goal; the Liverpool captain hit the ball on the volley and it flew along a low trajectory past goalkeeper
Shaka Hislop into the bottom corner of the West Ham goal. West Ham had another chance before full-time, but Konchesky's shot was saved by Reina. With the scores level at 3–3, the match went into
extra time after the referee brought an end to the 90 minutes of play.
Extra time Liverpool got the first half of extra time under way, but the start was slow as players suffered with
cramp, Carragher in particular. In the 97th minute, Liverpool won a corner, which West Ham cleared to Liverpool defender
John Arne Riise on the edge of the penalty area, but his shot went over the crossbar. Liverpool won another corner in the 99th minute, which was cleared by West Ham; the ball came back into the penalty area and Morientes headed down for Cissé, but he was unable to control the ball. Before the end of the half, Hyypiä had a chance to score after running past Scaloni and Harewood, but his shot went wide of the West Ham goal. Just after the start of the second half of extra time, Liverpool had the first chance. Kromkamp advanced down the right wing, but his shot went wide of the West Ham goal. West Ham won a corner in the 109th minute, but it came to nothing as Zamora was penalised for a foul on Reina. Players continued to struggle with cramp as Gerrard,
Mohamed Sissoko, Finnan and Harewood all went down in quick succession. West Ham won a free kick in the 114th minute, after Zamora was tripped by Hyypiä, but Benayoun's effort was cleared and almost resulted in a chance for Liverpool, before Morientes was tackled by
Anton Ferdinand from the West Ham goal. Two minutes from the end, Hamann was booked for a foul on Zamora; the subsequent free kick was met by Reo-Coker, whose shot was turned onto the post by Reina. The ball rebounded to Harewood, but his shot went wide of the goal. Neither team scored before the end of extra time, and the referee brought the match to an end with the scores level, resulting in a penalty shoot-out.
Penalty shoot-out The shoot-out took place at the end where the West Ham fans were seated, with Liverpool taking the first penalty. Hamann stepped up first and scored high to the right of Hislop. Zamora took the first penalty for West Ham, but his shot was saved by Reina. Hyypiä took the next penalty for Liverpool, but he also missed, as Hislop saved his shot. Substitute Sheringham took West Ham's next penalty and scored, his shot beating Reina high to his left to level the shoot-out at 1–1. Liverpool captain Gerrard took their next penalty and scored to make it 2–1, while Konchesky's shot was saved by Reina. Riise took the next penalty for Liverpool and scored to extend their lead to 3–1. Ferdinand was next and needed to score to keep West Ham in the shoot-out, but his penalty was saved by Reina, which meant Liverpool won the shoot-out 3–1 to win the FA Cup for the seventh time.
Details Statistics ==Post-match==