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Event | 1969–70 FA Cup | ||||||
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Chelsea won after a replay | |||||||
Final | |||||||
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After extra time | |||||||
Date | 11 April 1970 | ||||||
Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
Referee | Eric Jennings (Stourbridge) | ||||||
Attendance | 100,000 | ||||||
Replay | |||||||
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After extra time | |||||||
Date | 29 April 1970 | ||||||
Venue | Old Trafford, Manchester | ||||||
Referee | Eric Jennings (Stourbridge) | ||||||
Attendance | 62,078 | ||||||
The 1970 FA Cup final was contested by Chelsea and Leeds United. The match took place on 11 April 1970 at Wembley Stadium and ended 2–2, making it the first FA Cup final to require a replay since 1912. The replay was staged at Old Trafford and played on 29 April; after four hours of fiercely contested football, Chelsea eventually won 2–1. To date, this is the last time both the final and replay were scheduled to be played in April; all subsequent FA Cup final ties have been scheduled to be played in May, with only the 2020 FA Cup final delayed and played later due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leeds and Chelsea were two of England's top teams that season, having finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the First Division. The match marked a clash of footballing contrasts: Chelsea were regarded as "flamboyant"[1][2] southerners, whereas Leeds were seen as uncompromising northerners. Neither had won the FA Cup before, though both had recently been runners-up, Leeds in 1965 and Chelsea in 1967.
It was the only time between 1923 and 2000 that an FA Cup Final was played at a stadium other than Wembley. The replay attracted a British television audience of more than 28 million, the second highest UK audience for a sports broadcast (behind the 1966 World Cup Final), and the sixth highest audience for any UK broadcast.[3] It has been ranked among the greatest ever FA Cup finals,[4] and named as the "most brutal game" in the history of English football, due to the large number of fouls committed by both teams.[5]
The match was the first FA Cup final to be reported on by a woman, as Mary Raine provided a match report for Radio 4’s 6 o'clock news.[6]
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