Fulham 0 Chelsea 1
Defender John Terry guided Chelsea into the FA Cup final tonight after scoring the winner in a scrappy 1-0 victory over west London rivals Fulham at Villa Park.
Terry, playing with a bandage over a head injury, bundled the ball home in a goalmouth melee in the 42nd minute to line up a London derby with Arsenal in the final at Cardiff on May 4.
Chelsea failed to produce their best form but were still simply too good for a Fulham side that showed plenty of willing but lacked any real bite moving forward and only once looked like scoring.
The Blues got off to an unfortunate start when they lost defender Graeme Le Saux to a calf strain after only three minutes, and then struggled to find their usual fluency.
A fine volley on the turn from Terry which forced a flying save from Fulham 'keeper Edwin Van Der Sar was the best Chelsea had to offer for the opening 20 minutes.
Fulham showed plenty of hustle and bustle and were nearly rewarded in the 28th minute when Sylvain Legwinski finished a clever solo run and one-two with a stinging shot that Carlo Cudicini did well to turn round the post for a corner.
But the match turned Chelsea's way shortly before the break when Mario Stanic beat two players and tried to side-foot the ball past Van Der Sar.
The Dutchman did well to turn the ball round for a corner, but when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink floated it back over seconds later, Terry prodded the ball home off Saha in a goalmouth melee.
Fulham shrugged off the setback and showed far more conviction in the second half, spearheaded by the sheer pace of Saha and the midfield work of Legwinski and Steed Malbranque.
However, the Cottagers were let down by their finishing and, more often, by the final pass in a performance that was gutsy -- but underlined the problems which have taken them down towards the relegation zone in recent months.
Despite all the pressure, Fulham were nearly caught out in the 67th minute when Eidur Gudjohnsen curled an acutely-angled shot from the right which left Van Der Sar rooted to the spot but cracked against the left-hand post.
The Icelander had two more glaring opportunities to kill the tie in the closing minutes, but ballooned his first-time shot to Jesper Gronkjaer's cutback, and then mis-hit when Gronkjaer picked him out on the break with only Van Der Sar to beat. -Reuters