The 2005 FA Cup Final was held at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on 21 May 2005 between Arsenal and Manchester United. In a tense but surprisingly one-sided encounter, Arsenal ran out winners after 120 goalless minutes despite being outplayed throughout the game, becoming the first club to win the cup on penalties. It was the first goalless draw in an FA Cup final since 1912.

The match took place for the fifth consecutive year at the Millennium Stadium, due to the ongoing reconstruction of Wembley Stadium, the final’s traditional venue.

The match was the fifth meeting between the two clubs in the 2004–05 season. Despite finishing six points ahead of Manchester United in the league, Arsenal had lost both league fixtures between the clubs, as well as a League Cup quarter-final tie, which was played out by the clubs’ fringe and reserve team players. Arsenal had won the season’s first encounter, also at the Millennium Stadium, in the FA Community Shield by a 3–1.

On a grey day in Cardiff, the final failed to live up to expectations. The best chances fell to Manchester United when Wayne Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy hit the post and the bar while Rio Ferdinand’s first-half goal was correctly disallowed for offside. Paul Scholes then had a shot on the turn saved by the Arsenal goalkeeper, Jens Lehmann. Uncharacteristically, Arsenal’s first shot on goal came in extra time when Robin van Persie’s free-kick was saved by Roy Carroll.

Arsenal’s José Antonio Reyes received a second yellow card in the last minute of extra-time, to become only the second player ever to be sent off in an FA Cup Final, after Manchester United’s Kevin Moran in 1985.  The game finished 0–0 after extra time, and so became the first FA Cup Final in history to need a penalty shoot-out to decide the result.

Nine penalties out of ten were converted, Paul Scholes missed the only one, seeing it saved by Lehmann. Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira scored the winning penalty in his final appearance for the Gunners before his transfer to Juventus.

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