Top 5 FA Cup finals of all time

#2 2006: Liverpool vs West Ham United (3-3, Liverpool won 3-1 on penalties)

Liverpool came out on top in one of the most enthralling finals of all-time

The final of the 2006 FA Cup was contested between Liverpool and West Ham United. Liverpool were having a brilliant tournament and they reached their 13th FA Cup final by defeating Chelsea 2-1 in the semi-final at Old Trafford.

West Ham reached their first FA Cup final in 26 years and their fifth overall by beating Middlesbrough in the semi-final at Birmingham.

The final was held at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff and a crowd of 71,140 came to witness it.

Both teams had some brilliant chances during the start of the game but both teams fell short.

West Ham took the lead in the 21st minute as Jamie Carragher deflected a low cross from West Ham right-back Lionel Scaloni into his own net.

Seven minutes later, The Hammers doubled their lead when Liverpool custodian Pepe Reina fumbled a shot from Matthew Etherington and Dean Ashton tapped it in the back of the net.

Liverpool pulled one back in the 32nd minute thanks to Djibril Cisse who met Steven Gerrard's cross.

In the start of the second half, West Ham had a good chance to take a 3-1 lead but Marlon Harewood's shot was saved by Reina and the Spaniard also managed to save the rebound from Yossi Benayoun.

Nine minutes into the second half, Xabi Alonso sent a cross towards Peter Crouch who headed down the ball and Steven Gerrard scored from a fine volley to level the scores.

In the 64th minute, Paul Konchesky received the ball on the left and he hit what looked like a cross towards the Liverpool penalty area. However, the ball sailed over Reina and found the net to restore the lead for West Ham.

As injury time approached, all seemed lost for Liverpool. Then came a moment of magic. During injury time, John Arne Riise crossed the ball into the West Ham penalty area and it was cleared by Danny Gabbidon.

The ball then went towards Gerrard who hit a low-trajectory volley past West Ham goalie into the bottom left corner of the goal to bring Liverpool back.

With the scores level at 3-3, the match proceeded into extra time. Both teams had some great scoring opportunities in extra-time but neither found the end product and the match went into penalties.

This was the second successive FA Cup final which would be decided by penalties.

In the shootout, Liverpool converted their first attempt thanks to Dietmar Hamann. However, West Ham's Bobby Zamora saw his shot being saved by Reina.

West Ham saw some hope when Sami Hyypia's penalty was saved by Hislop and Teddy Sheringham converted his shot.

Liverpool were 3-1 up when Gerrard and Riise converted their spot kicks while Konchesky's shot was saved by Reina.

Anton Ferdinand had to score his kick to keep West Ham in the game but his shot was saved brilliantly by Reina and Liverpool won their seventh FA Cup title.