CHELSEA manager Jose Mourinho finally got his hands on the FA Cup trophy and didn’t want to let go.

Didier Drogba scored during extra time Saturday to give Chelsea a 1-0 victory over Manchester United in the first FA Cup final at rebuilt Wembley stadium.

The teams had played to a scoreless tie in regulation and were four minutes from a penalty-kick shootout before Drogba exchanged passes with Frank Lampard and shot past goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

Chelsea now has four cup titles and joins Arsenal (1993) and Liverpool (2001) in becoming the third club to win both cups in the same season.

Mourinho was the last to go up the 107 steps to collect the famous trophy after the first final at Wembley in seven years. The Portuguese manager received a bigger cheer from the Blues fans than his players did when it was his turn.

“That one I don’t throw away,” said Mourinho, who famously threw his Premier League medal to the fans after Chelsea’s second straight league triumph last season.

“It means a lot. The FA Cup, it’s the first time for me,” Mourinho said. “We have won every title in English football in my three years in the club and it’s something that the players deserve so much because of the season they’ve had and the way they’ve fought.”

The crowd of 89,826 was the largest at an FA Cup final for 19 years. This was the third straight final to go to extra time.

For only the third time in FA Cup history, the league champion and runner-up met in the final and that took much of the element of surprise out of the game.

The result meant that two weeks after surrendering the Premier League title to Manchester United, Mourinho collected the one English trophy that had eluded him in his three years in charge at Stamford Bridge. He had won two Premier League titles and two League Cups and now has an FA Cup.

(SD-Agencies)