While top UK bookie and dyed-in-the-wool Man U fan Fred Done (BetFred.com) is licking his wounds and paying out his latest cash back offer due to Drogba’s late extra-time FA Cup winner, canny Irish bookie Paddy Power has extended his TOO CLOSE TO CALL Money-Back Special.
Having escaped a cash back payout on the FA Cup, Paddy Power will now refund your bets on the following games:
– Champions League Final (AC Milan v Liverpool)
– Championship Playoff Final
– League 1 Playoff Final
– League 2 Playoff Final
Here’s the deal: If you back a team to win in 90 minutes and they fail to win in normal time but lose on a penalty shootout, then Paddy Power will refund all win-draw-win bets on that team only.
Applies to win-draw-win (1X2) single bets placed before kick-off only with a maximum refund of €300/£200 per customer.
May 19th, 2007
Jose Mourinho gave Chelsea supporters double cause for celebration after their dramatic FA Cup triumph over Manchester United by moving to quash any lingering suspicion that he could leave London this summer.
Speculation that the Portuguese would quit or be forced out this summer has swirled around Stamford Bridge throughout Mourinho’s third season in charge, fuelled by a mid-season breakdown in his relationship with the club’s Russian owner, Roman Abramovich.
But after watching Didier Drogba’s extra-time winner secure the only English trophy to have eluded him in the first final at the new Wembley, Mourinho insisted he would be staying on. “I am moving house, because you (the media) have shown my address to the whole world, but I am not going back to Portugal,” he said. “I love this club, I love living in this country and I don’t want to leave,” Mourinho said after adding an FA Cup triumph to the two Premiership titles and two League Cup trophies he has won with Chelsea.
“If you have doubts, what can I do. I can’t do anything about it. I have a contract, I want to stay, the club told me they want me to stay. I look at them as honourable people, not as liars, so when they say publicly they want me to be manager next season, I have no reason to doubt. “The only way to stop this (speculation) will be on July 9 in Los Angeles (when Chelsea begin a pre-season tour) and I will be there.”
Although United had enjoyed the better chances in the 115 minutes that preceded Drogba’s winner, Mourinho insisted that Chelsea had deserved their victory and could not resist a jibe at Sir Alex Ferguson’s side. “My feeling was that we could be here three hours and they would not have scored a goal,” he said. “We controlled the game so well defensively. We know the way they want to play and we did not give them that game.”
Mourinho’s interpretation was disputed by Ferguson, who described the contest as a “stalemate” while admitting that some of his players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, had looked jaded at the end of a hard season. “You can’t do much about goals when they come as late as that,” he said. “We were too tired to mount any challenge but that is football. “I didn’t think we played well. We didn’t deserve to win the game, or lose it — it was one of those games. There was not enough attacking momentum from either side to deserve to win the match. “We had the better chances but it was a stalemate really. The pitch was slow which didn’t help and we had two or three players who looked tired. They have played a lot of matches and it is understandable. Cristiano looked a bit tired, he has had a long season for a young lad.”
In a match of few clear chances, United came agonisingly close to taking the lead at the end of the first period of extra-time, when Ryan Giggs slid in to meet a low Wayne Rooney cross. Petr Cech saved but Giggs’s momentum carried him into the goalkeeper and the ball crossed the line in his arms.
Ferguson acknowledged that the linesman would have been unable to see clearly that the ball had crossed over, but he insisted referee Steve Bennett should have awarded a penalty for what he saw as a foul on Giggs by Michael Essien. The United boss went on to suggest that Mourinho had succeeded in influencing the official with his pre-match comments. “He does it before every big game. There’s 22 players out there and he’s talking about the referee all week — maybe it works for him. I was disappointed with the referee, for an FA Cup final I would have expected better.”
Despite his disappointment at missing out on a fourth league and cup double at the helm of United, Ferguson said the club had had a fantastic season and achieved their main goal of reclaiming the Premiership title. “To lose so late in the game is very hard to take but I have seen it time and time again in football. You can’t be surprised. The thing is to accept it and get on with it. I want to wake up tomorrow and get on with life.”
Even Ferguson, whose sides have always made a habit of producing late winners, was resigned to penalties when Drogba collected a pass Mikel John Obi, played a slick one-two with Frank Lampard and then beat the sprawling Edwin van der Sar with the deftest of clipped finishes. It was Drogba’s 33rd goal of the season, a tally that also includes the winner in the League Cup final against Arsenal in February. But the Ivory Coast forward had to share the plaudits with Cech, who pulled off a superb double save to deny Wayne Rooney and Giggs at the start of the second-half before coming to his side’s rescue again in extra-time.
May 19th, 2007