The 2002 Football League Cup final was played between Blackburn Rovers and Tottenham Hotspur at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, on Sunday, 24 February 2002. Blackburn won the match 2–1 in what was the club's first appearance in the competition's final.
Tottenham were forced to produce a one-off yellow shirt for the final when The Football League decided both of their home and away strips, respectively white and light blue, clashed with Blackburn's blue-and-white home strip.
Blackburn were without defender Craig Short and midfielders Gary Flitcroft and Tugay Kerimoğlu due to suspension. This led to 38 year-old veteran striker Mark Hughes starting in central midfield. Blackburn were also without injured back-up goalkeeper Alan Kelly and cup-tied right-back Lucas Neill.
Blackburn opened the scoring with a goal from Matt Jansen, but Christian Ziege soon equalised for Spurs. Andy Cole scored the winner in the 68th minute with a typical instinctive strike after mistakes in the Spurs defence, mainly from Ledley King. Les Ferdinand could have made the match square after a close one-on-one chance with Friedel, but failed to make anything of it. In the final minute Teddy Sheringham had a claim for a penalty turned down by referee Graham Poll.
Road to Cardiff
+ Blackburn RoversRound 2Clubs in the Premier League receive a bye to the second or third round Blackburn 2–0 OldhamRound 3 Blackburn 2–1 (a.e.t.) MiddlesbroughRound 4 Blackburn 2–0 Manchester CityQuarter-final Blackburn 4–0 ArsenalSemi-final (1st leg) Sheffield Wednesday 1–2 BlackburnSemi-final (2nd leg) Blackburn 4–2 Sheffield WednesdayNote:(Blackburn won 6–3 on aggregate)
+ Tottenham HotspurRound 2 Tottenham2–0TorquayRound 3 Tranmere0–4TottenhamRound 4 Fulham1–2TottenhamQuarter-final Tottenham6–0BoltonSemi-final (1st leg) Chelsea 2–1TottenhamSemi-final (2nd leg) Tottenham 5–1 ChelseaNote:(Tottenham won 6–3 on aggregate)
Match
Details
GK 1 Brad FriedelRB 28 Martin TaylorCB 4 Henning Berg (c)CB 14 Nils-Eric JohanssonLB 5 Stig Inge BjørnebyeRM 18 Keith Gillespie CM 12 Mark HughesCM 8 David DunnLM 11 Damien DuffCF 9 Andy ColeCF 10 Matt Jansen Substitutes:GK 27 Alan MillerDF 2 John CurtisMF 15 Craig Hignett MF 16 Alan MahonFW 17 Yordi Manager: Graeme Souness GK 1 Neil SullivanRWB3 Mauricio Taricco CB 26 Ledley KingCB 6 Chris Perry CB 18 Ben ThatcherLWB23 Christian Ziege CM 7 Darren AndertonCM 8 Tim Sherwood AM 14 Gustavo Poyet CF 10 Teddy Sheringham (c)CF 9 Les FerdinandSubstitutes:GK 13 Kasey Keller DF 30 Anthony Gardner MF 29 Simon Davies FW 11 Serhii RebrovFW 16 Steffen Iversen Manager: Glenn Hoddle
Man of the match Brad Friedel (Blackburn Rovers)Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary Penalty shootout if scores still level Five named substitutes Maximum of three substitutions
References