2001 FA Cup Final 2001 FA Cup Final The 2001 FA Cup Final was a football match between Arsenal and Liverpool on 12 May 2001 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. It was the final match of the 2000–01 FA Cup, the 119th season of the world's oldest football knockout competition, the FA Cup, and the first in the competition's history to be staged outside England, due to the ongoing reconstruction of its usual venue, Wembley Stadium. Arsenal appeared in their fourteenth final to Liverpool's twelfth. Given both teams were in the highest tier of English football, the Premier League, they entered the competition in
1990 FA Cup Final seven FA Cup triumphs. In contrast, this was the first time Crystal Palace had appeared in an FA Cup final, and they had just completed their first season back in the top flight after nearly a decade away. This was the first FA Cup final to be played in front of an all-seater crowd, as Wembley's remaining standing areas had been converted to all-seater in the autumn of 1989. The month before the final, UEFA had announced that the ban on English clubs in European competitions would be lifted for the 1990–91 season, provided that England fans behaved well at