The final Chelsea players to tell us about their first experience watching football in a stadium are left-backs Marc Cucurella and Lewis Hall...
Marc Cucurella
The first was Barcelona at home against Werder Bremen in the Champions League in 2006, when Ronaldinho scored the free-kick under the wall. It was not a bad one to start with! I was quite young, maybe seven or eight years old.
My grandfather had season tickets so I went with him, he took me quite a lot. Now I prefer to watch at home because you watch the game better, but if you go to the stadium it is good for the atmosphere and stuff like that.
Lewis Hall
I remember when I was younger the FA Youth Cup was one of the first ones I went to, at Stamford Bridge. I think it was the final or the semi-final against Manchester City. I think most of the Academy was there, because obviously the Youth Cup is one of the biggest Academy competitions, it’s what everyone wants to play in when they get older. I was watching players like Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah and Callum Hudson-Odoi. It was a big win as well, they won 5-1 to make it 6-2 on aggregate.
I was a lot younger so I didn’t know those players personally, but I knew of their names because of the Academy.
I went to Stamford Bridge obviously a lot to watch the Premier League games, but the one that I remember most was one of the Wembley FA Cup games. It was the one where Hazard scored the penalty against Man United in the final.
We got tickets most of the time for most games and then managed to get tickets for the Wembley one as well. It’s a cup final so you’re not going to turn it down, are you?! I was with my dad but all the Academy players were there with their own families, so your mates are there as well.