The 1997–98 FA Cup (known as The FA Cup sponsored by

Littlewoods Littlewoods was a retail and football betting company founded in Liverpool, England, by John Moores in 1923. By the 1980s, it had grown to become the largest private company in Europe, but subsequently declined in the face of increased com ...

for sponsorship reasons) was the 117th staging of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

. The competition was won by

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

with a 2–0 victory against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East En ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

Calendar

First round proper

Teams from the Football League Second and Third Division entered in this round plus four non-league teams were given byes to this round:

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as D ...

Stevenage Borough Stevenage Football Club (known as Stevenage Borough Football Club until 2010) is a professional association football club based in the town of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, League Two, the fourth tier o ...

and

Hednesford Town Hednesford Town Football Club is a football club based in Hednesford, Staffordshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Keys Park. History The club was established in 1880 as a merger of the Red & Whites and Hill Top.

. The matches were played on 14 November 1997. There were fourteen replays, with four ties requiring a penalty shootout to settle them.

Second round proper

The second round of the competition featured the winners of the first round ties. The matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 6 December 1997, with nine replays and three penalty shootouts required, each of which featured a team who won on penalties in the previous round.

Third round proper

The third round of the season's FA Cup was scheduled for Saturday, 3 January 1998, although six matches were postponed until later dates. This round marked the point at which the teams in the two highest divisions in the English league system, the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

and the

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

(now known as the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

). There were eight replays, with two of these games requiring a penalty shootout to settle it. Emley AFC of the then

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

made national headlines, when, after coming through the non-league qualifying, and seeing off Morecambe F.C. and Lincoln City Football Club in the previous rounds, they only lost narrowly to a

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

team containing the likes of

Rio Ferdinand Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for BT Sport. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and w ...

David Unsworth David Gerald Unsworth (born 16 October 1973) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who is currently the manager of Oldham Athletic. Prior to this, he was most recently academy director and under-23's head coach at Pre ...

Eyal Berkovic Eyal Berkovic (or Berkovich, he, אייל ברקוביץ'; born 2 April 1972) is an Israeli former professional association footballer, football coach, team owner and television talk show presenter. As a player he was an attacking midfielder ...

John Hartson John Hartson (born 5 April 1975) is a Welsh former professional association football, footballer, coach and sports television pundit for S4C, Sky Sports, Premier Sports TV and BT Sport. As a player he was a striker (association football), stri ...

and

Frank Lampard Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Everton. He is widely regarded as one of Chelsea’s greatest ever players, and one of the greatest midfielde ...

Fourth round proper

The Fourth Round ties were played with the thirty-two winners of the previous round. The matches were originally scheduled for Saturday, 24 January 1998. There were five replays, with one penalty shootout.

Fifth round proper

The Fifth Round matches were scheduled for Saturday, 14 February 1998. There were four replays, with one penalty shootout. The biggest surprise of the round was arguably Barnsley's 3–2 win (in the replay that followed a 1–1 draw) over Manchester United. Barnsley were in their first season as a top division side (and ended it with relegation), while United were defending league champions and were also in contention for the league title and the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

at this time, although they ended the season trophyless.

Sixth round proper

The Sixth Round ties were scheduled for the weekend of 7 and 8 March 1998. Two replays were played on the 17th, both of which went to penalties. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield United, Division One sides, both progressed to the semi-finals at the expense of Premier League sides. Wolverhampton Wanderers were particularly impressive in doing this, as the side they eliminated from the cup (Leeds United) went on to finish fifth in the Premier League.

Replays

''Sheffield United won 3–1 on penalties''. ''Arsenal won 4–3 on penalties''.

Semi-finals

The two semi-final matches were played on Sunday 5 April 1998. Both ties were played at neutral venues, and resulted in a clear victories for Arsenal and Newcastle United, who went on to meet in the final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. The losing sides were both non-Premiership teams, who endured further disappointment over the next few weeks by being pipped to promotion from Division One. ----

Final

The 1998 FA Cup Final was contested by

and

on 16 May 1998. Arsenal won 2–0, with goals by

Marc Overmars Marc Overmars (; born 29 March 1973) is a Dutch former professional footballer and director of football at Belgian Pro League side Royal Antwerp FC. He was previously director of football at Ajax. During his football career, he played as a win ...

and

Nicolas Anelka Nicolas Sébastien Anelka (; born 14 March 1979) is a French professional football manager and retired player who played as a forward. As a player, he regularly featured in his country's national team, often scoring at crucial moments. Known f ...

to complete their second league title/FA Cup double. They joined Manchester United as only the second English team to achieve this, although Arsenal did so with an entirely different set of players (their first double was in 1971, whereas United's doubles were in 1994 and 1996).

Media coverage

In the United Kingdom, ITV were the free to air broadcasters taking over from the BBC while

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

were the subscription broadcasters for the tenth consecutive season. The matches shown live on

ITV Sport ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.Everton 0–1

(R3);

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

1–2

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

(R4);

0–0

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

(R5);

1–1

(QF);

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club' ...

0–1

(SF); and

2–0

(Final)

References

External links

The FA websiteBBC Sport FA Cup pageResults at Soccerbase
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fa Cup 1997-98

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

1997–98 domestic association football cups 1997–98 in English football