London (AFP)
They have changed the fate of their clubs: Chelsea and Leicester coaches Thomas Tuchel and Brendan Rodgers are aiming for a first English trophy on Saturday in the England Cup final (4:15 p.m. GMT).
Neck and neck in the league, Leicester (3rd) and Chelsea (4th with two points), will present themselves in very different states of mind on the lawn of Wembley whose stands will accommodate 21,000 spectators.
Chelsea is a regular as it will play its 4th final in the last five years.
He lost two to Arsenal in 2017 and 2020, but beat Manchester United in between, in 2018.
Fourth English club in terms of finals played (13) and won (8), Chelsea however remains far from the undisputed specialist, Arsenal, with 14 wins in 20 finals.
Leicester, surprise champion in 2016, is still awaiting his first success in this FA Cup where he reached the last step four times, falling each time.
The Foxes are currently third and virtually qualified for the Champions League next season.
They accept with detachment, and without complex, their image of outsider.
- No more "magnificent loser" for Rodgers?
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"We have won the right to play the final and we will come with a chance to write our own story. We feel we have a chance and, if we play at our level, we will have a great chance," said Rodgers.
For the Northern Irish coach, a victory in the FA Cup would be a revenge on his reputation as a magnificent loser, linked in particular to the title he had let slip with Liverpool in 2014, when the Reds were five points ahead three days from the end.
He had rebuilt a small reputation by taking Celtic Glasgow to two consecutive trebles in Scotland (2018, 2019), before putting Leicester back on the map of English football.
Arrived in February 2019 to replace Claude Puel, when the club was 12th in the Premier League, he had remade Foxes candidates for the podium, last season, before cracking in the last pitches (5th).
Cumulate qualification in C1 and first FA Cup would make Rodgers a coach "who counts", five years after the title of Leicester of Claudio Ranieri.
He has also been approached by Tottenham for next season.
- Chelsea must not weaken -
For Tuchel, a victory in the final would have political as well as sporting merits.
Fourth in the championship and not yet certain of his place in the next C1, the German must ensure that his team does not weaken in the home stretch which leads to a Champions League final on May 29 in Porto against Manchester City.
The defeat against Arsenal (1-0), Wednesday in the league, leaves the Blues within reach of West Ham, but a victory in the FA Cup would be a strong symbol, barely five months after the arrival of Tuchel in a club which swears by its titles.
Despite the spectacular recovery made within the club after replacing Frank Lampard, the German knows that this kind of match will determine his legitimacy to claim reinforcements this summer, while he intends to challenge both Manchester and Liverpool for the title. next season.
Winning the German Cup with Dortmund (2017) was not an achievement and, at the helm of Paris SG, any result other than a Coupe-Ligue 1 double bordered on humiliation, as for example in 2019 ( defeat in the final against Rennes).
Winning the most popular competition in English football would give additional relief to its record.
Waiting for better?
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