2006 FA Cup Final: Liverpool 3-3 West Ham United (won 3-1 on penalties)
The Gerrard Final

The footage

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2006

The match report

The 2006 FA Cup final closed the competition's 125th season and closed an era with it: the sixth and last final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff before the rebuilt Wembley opened.[2][6][17]

Liverpool arrived as strong favourites, in their 13th final and fresh from beating West Ham home and away in the league, but without the suspended Luis Garcia and the cup-tied Robbie Fowler. West Ham, in their first final since 1980 and a year after promotion, had their own worries - Dean Ashton and Matthew Etherington were doubts right up to the teamsheets, and both started. The referee was Alan Wiley, appointed late after the FA decided Mike Dean, from the Wirral, should not take charge of a Liverpool match. What followed is still widely called the Gerrard Final.[2][8][18]

West Ham were the sharper side from the start and led on 21 minutes, when Xabi Alonso's loose pass sent Dean Ashton away to release Lionel Scaloni, whose low cross was stabbed into his own net by Jamie Carragher at the near post. Seven minutes later it was two: Pepe Reina fumbled Etherington's tame shot straight to Ashton, who bundled home. Liverpool had a Peter Crouch volley chalked off for offside - the Guardian's Rob Smyth, watching live, thought him onside - before Djibril Cisse volleyed in Gerrard's raking diagonal on 32 minutes. Three goals in 11 minutes, and a final that had started slowly was suddenly alight.[1][7][12]

Reina began making amends within a minute of the restart, saving twice with his legs from Marlon Harewood and then Yossi Benayoun. Harry Kewell, limping again in a cup final, went off for Fernando Morientes. On 54 minutes Liverpool were level: Alonso's quick free-kick was headed down by Crouch and Gerrard smashed the volley high past Shaka Hislop. The game turned again on 64 minutes, when Paul Konchesky's hopeful cross from the left sailed over the back-pedalling Reina and in. Even Alan Pardew, the Guardian recorded, started laughing. Whether Konchesky meant it is one of the final's open questions.[7][1][13]

West Ham were still ahead as the match entered stoppage time. A headed clearance dropped to Gerrard 35 yards from goal, and the Liverpool captain, so cramped he could barely run, hit it first time. The volley flew low past Hislop into the bottom corner for 3-3. In extra time both sides ran out of bodies - Carragher, Cisse, Sissoko, Gerrard and Harewood all went down with cramp - and two minutes from the end Reina turned Nigel Reo-Coker's deflected effort onto the post, Harewood slicing the rebound wide with the goal open. It finished 3-3 after 120 minutes, and the last Cardiff final went to penalties.[1][6][7]

Liverpool took the first kick and Dietmar Hamann scored it. Reina then saved from Bobby Zamora, Hislop kept out Sami Hyypia, Teddy Sheringham scored high to Reina's left, Gerrard drove into the top corner, Reina stopped Konchesky's kick with his feet, John Arne Riise slammed down the middle, and Reina saved Anton Ferdinand's penalty to win the shoot-out 3-1. Reina, whose error had gifted West Ham a goal, saved three of their four kicks. Liverpool had their seventh FA Cup without leading the final for a single minute of it.[7][1][12]

Pardew's verdict became the final's epitaph: only a 35-yard Gerrard smasher was going to change it, he said, and his players had been magnificent. Rafael Benitez admitted no team deserved to lose after a season of 63 games. Gerrard, named man of the match, said Liverpool's best chance had been on penalties because his side had no energy left. Because Liverpool had already qualified for the Champions League through their league position, the UEFA Cup place that came with the trophy passed to beaten finalists West Ham. In a 2015 BBC Sport vote, Gerrard's equaliser was chosen as the best FA Cup final goal of the previous 50 years, polling 38.2 per cent against 14.6 for Ricky Villa's 1981 winner in second place.[4][3][5][16]

For a match this famous, the record is surprisingly untidy. The BBC's own match report printed an attendance of 74,000; the reference works record 71,140. The minute of Cisse's goal is given as 31 in the BBC's prose and 32 in its own goals line. And the Football Association's own retrospective on the final opens by placing Gerrard's equaliser at Wembley, a stadium the final was never played at, while the FA's official full-match upload titles it as the 2006-07 final. The final belonged to 2005-06, and it was played in Cardiff. The details above are where this page has tried to be careful.[1][11][9][10]

How the match unfolded

1. 1'West Ham kick off. Inside the first minute Paul Konchesky brings down Steven Gerrard with what the Guardian's minute-by-minute calls a scything tackle; the free-kick comes to nothing.[7][13]
2. 12'Marlon Harewood breaks from halfway and shoots, John Arne Riise making the block. West Ham have started the brighter.[7][13]
3. 21'West Ham lead. Xabi Alonso's loose pass lets Yossi Benayoun feed Dean Ashton, whose through-ball releases Lionel Scaloni on the right. Jamie Carragher, feet tangled at the near post, turns Scaloni's low cross into his own net.[1][7][12]
4. 28'Two-nil. Pepe Reina fumbles Matthew Etherington's tame low shot at the feet of Ashton, who bundles the rebound home from close range.[1][7][12]
5. 30'Peter Crouch volleys in Gerrard's free-kick but is ruled offside. The Guardian's Rob Smyth, watching live, thought the call wrong: on balance, he wrote, Crouch was onside.[7][13]
6. 32'Liverpool hit back. Gerrard's raking diagonal pass goes over Scaloni's head and Djibril Cisse, switched to the left, meets it with a volley past Shaka Hislop.[1][7][12]
7. 45'Half-time. West Ham lead 2-1; the half produced three goals in 11 minutes.[1][6]
8. 46'Reina makes a double save with his legs, first from Harewood's sidefoot and then from Benayoun's follow-up, atoning for his first-half error.[7][1]
9. 48'Harry Kewell, who has been limping, goes off injured and Fernando Morientes replaces him.[1][11]
10. 54'Liverpool are level. Alonso's quick free-kick is headed down by Crouch and Gerrard smashes the volley high past Hislop.[1][7][12]
11. 60'Ashton is booked for a late challenge on Steve Finnan.[11][7]
12. 63'Carragher is booked for a mistimed foul on Ashton.[11][7]
13. 64'West Ham lead again in freakish fashion: Konchesky's hopeful cross from the left sails over the back-pedalling Reina and into the far corner.[1][7][12]
14. 67'Alonso's ankle injury catches up with him; Jan Kromkamp comes on and Gerrard moves infield.[1][11]
15. 71'Double change: Bobby Zamora replaces the tiring Ashton, and Dietmar Hamann comes on for Crouch, giving Gerrard a free role behind Morientes.[1][11]
16. 77'Christian Dailly replaces Carl Fletcher as West Ham move to a 4-5-1 to protect their lead.[11][7]
17. 85'Teddy Sheringham, aged 40, comes on for Etherington in the final substitution of the match.[1][11]
18. 90'Stoppage time. A headed clearance drops to Gerrard 35 yards out, and the Liverpool captain, barely able to run with cramp, hits a first-time volley that flies past Hislop into the bottom corner. Three-all.[1][6][13]
19. 118'Hamann is booked for fouling Zamora. From the free-kick Nigel Reo-Coker's effort is pawed onto the post by Reina, and Harewood, crippled by cramp, smashes the rebound wide from six yards.[7][1]
20. 120'Full time after extra time. Still 3-3, so the last Cardiff final goes to a penalty shoot-out at the West Ham end.[7][13]

The shoot-out

Liverpool won 3-1 on penalties.[7][1][12]

Match facts

Date

Saturday 13 May 2006

Venue

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Attendance

71,140The figure recorded by 11v11 and LFChistory. The BBC's own match report printed 74,000; we publish 71,140 and keep the disagreement on the page.[11][12]

Referee

Alan Wiley (Staffordshire)[1][11][8]

Scorers

Jamie Carragher (own goal) 21'
Dean Ashton 28'
Djibril Cisse 32'
Steven Gerrard 54'
Paul Konchesky 64'
Steven Gerrard 90'[1][6][12]

Half-time

1-2

Competition

2005-06 FA Cup

Where they played

Both sides as they lined up. Choose any player to read what they did in this final.

Select a shirt for that player's note.

Route to the final

Line-ups

Trivia and detail

• Alan Wiley was not the original referee. Mike Dean was appointed first, but the FA replaced him because he lived on the Wirral, close to Liverpool, saying the fact might lead to comment and debate that would place him under undue additional pressure.[8]
• Teddy Sheringham came on aged 40 for his second FA Cup final, 7 years after scoring for Manchester United in the 1999 final. The Guardian's minute-by-minute noted he was the third-oldest man ever to play in an FA Cup final.[2][7]
• Nigel Reo-Coker captained West Ham the day before his 22nd birthday. Had West Ham won he would have been the youngest captain ever to lift the FA Cup.[7]
• Rafael Benitez said afterwards that no team deserved to lose, adding that after 63 games in Liverpool's season the effort had been really difficult.[3]
• Dietmar Hamann's converted penalty turned out to be his last act as a Liverpool player. The FA's own retrospective records him saying it was probably a game Liverpool should not have won, which made it a little bit sweeter.[9]
• In a BBC Sport vote in 2015, Gerrard's stoppage-time equaliser was chosen as the best FA Cup final goal of the previous 50 years with 38.2 per cent of the vote; Ricky Villa's 1981 winner was second with 14.6.[5]
• In the week before the match a block of 1,600 tickets for the Liverpool end was stolen from a Royal Mail van. The stadium refused to reissue them on safety grounds, and the 1,600 seats stayed empty. South Wales Police seized 100 stolen tickets before the match, and three people were arrested after 15 forged tickets were found.[14][15]
• The pre-match hymn Abide with Me was sung by Lesley Garrett, with Michael Ball singing the national anthem and Shane Warne bringing out the match ball.[7][13]

How well do you know the 2006 final?

Five questions. Every answer is sourced from the material on this page.

1. Who scored twice for Liverpool, including the stoppage-time equaliser?

   Steven GerrardDjibril CissePeter CrouchJohn Arne Riise
   Answer

   Steven Gerrard. Gerrard volleyed Liverpool level at 2-2 and then, barely able to run with cramp, hit a first-time shot from 35 yards in stoppage time to make it 3-3.[1][16]

2. Where was the 2006 FA Cup final played?

   The Millennium Stadium, CardiffWembley Stadium, LondonOld Trafford, ManchesterVilla Park, Birmingham
   Answer

   The Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. It was the sixth and last final staged in Cardiff while Wembley was rebuilt. The FA's own retrospective wrongly places the decisive goal at Wembley.[11][9]

3. How many of West Ham's four penalties did Pepe Reina save in the shoot-out?

   ThreeTwoFourOne
   Answer

   Three. Reina saved from Zamora, Konchesky and Ferdinand; only Sheringham scored. Liverpool won the shoot-out 3-1.[1][7]

4. Which Liverpool player scored the own goal that put West Ham ahead?

   Jamie CarragherSteve FinnanSami HyypiaXabi Alonso
   Answer

   Jamie Carragher. Carragher, his feet tangled at the near post, turned Scaloni's low cross into his own net on 21 minutes.[1][12]

5. Who scored West Ham's third goal with a cross that sailed over Reina?

   Paul KoncheskyMatthew EtheringtonDean AshtonYossi Benayoun
   Answer

   Paul Konchesky. Konchesky's speculative left-wing cross on 64 minutes floated over the goalkeeper into the far corner. Whether he meant it is one of the final's open questions.[1][6]

What is not settled

Honesty matters more than tidiness. These details are contested or unrecorded, and we have not guessed at them:

• The attendance is contested. The BBC's own match report printed 74,000; 11v11 and LFChistory record 71,140. We publish 71,140 and keep the BBC's figure on the page rather than silently choosing.
• The minute of Cisse's goal is given as 31 in the BBC's own prose and as 32 in the BBC's own goals line, the Guardian's minute-by-minute and the statistical databases. We publish 32.
• The minute of Gerrard's equaliser is recorded as 90 by the BBC, as the 90th minute by the Guardian's match report, as 90+1 by Wikipedia and as 91 by the Guardian's own live clock. We publish 90 and describe it as the first minute of stoppage time.
• The booking minutes disagree by one minute between sources. We follow 11v11 and the Guardian's live report (Ashton 60, Carragher 63); Wikipedia's table says 59 and 62, and Hamann's late booking is 118 in some records and 119 in 11v11.
• Accounts disagree on which way Hamann's opening penalty went: the reference work says high to Hislop's right, the Guardian's live report says high to Hislop's left. We record only that it was scored high.
• Whether Konchesky intended his goal is unknowable. The Guardian's match report records only that it was not clear what he had been intending.
• No footage has been verified for this final yet, so the television shows no signal rather than an unchecked embed. Official candidates are in the proposals file.

How we know

Every claim on this page is tied to a numbered source below. These are the contemporary records behind it, each one fetched and matched word for word before publication rather than taken on trust:

• Guardian match report, 14 May 2006 · The Guardian
• Rob Smyth's minute-by-minute report, 13 May 2006 · The Guardian
• The Guardian, 25 April 2006 · The Guardian
• The FA, 5 February 2016 · The Football Association

Where a primary record and a modern account disagree, we show both rather than choosing the tidier number.

Sources

1. Liverpool 3-3 West Ham (aet) · BBC Sport
2. Hammers look to upset Liverpool · BBC Sport
3. Benitez grateful to win thriller · BBC Sport
4. Cup loss hard to take for Pardew · BBC Sport
5. FA Cup final: The greatest goal from the last 50 years voted by you · BBC Sport
6. Reina transformed from zero to hero as Reds win rare classic · The Guardian
7. Liverpool v West Ham - live! · The Guardian
8. Wiley replaces Dean as final ref · The Guardian
9. Dietmar Hamann recalls classic Emirates FA Cup Final of 2006 · The Football Association
10. Full Match | Liverpool v West Ham | FA Cup Final 2006-07 · The Emirates FA Cup (The FA's official channel)
11. Liverpool v West Ham United, 13 May 2006 · 11v11
12. Matchdetails from Liverpool - West Ham United played on Saturday 13 May 2006 · LFChistory
13. How the FA Cup final unfolded · BBC Sport
14. Stolen Cup tickets 'not replaced' · BBC News
15. 100 stolen FA Cup tickets seized · BBC News
16. Liverpool win Cup final thriller · CNN
17. Millennium Stadium to host the 2017 Champions League final · Sky Sports
18. Classic Match: 20 years ago today - the Gerrard FA Cup final · Liverpool FC
19. Alan Pardew · West Ham United FC

Elsewhere in the encyclopedia

Other finals involving these clubs

• 1923 West Ham United: Bolton Wanderers 2-0 West Ham United
• 1971 Liverpool: Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool
• 1988 Liverpool: Wimbledon 1-0 Liverpool
• 2012 Liverpool: Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool
• 2022 Liverpool: Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool

Other finals at Millennium Stadium

• 2003 Arsenal 1-0 Southampton
• 2004 Manchester United 3-0 Millwall
• 2005 Arsenal 0-0 Manchester United

Elsewhere on WhatChan