Chapter 727 FA Cup Manchester Derby
The FA Cup is definitely the most difficult cup competition to win. In its 148-year history, even Manchester United, which has won the most championships, has only won 14 championships. Compared with the cup competitions of other major European leagues, this number is really not worth mentioning.
In the Spanish King's Cup, which was held 30 years later than the FA Cup, Barcelona won 30 championships, Athletic Bilbao won 24 championships, and Real Madrid won 19 championships.
The Italian Cup, which was held later, has only been held 71 times so far, but Juventus, which has won the most championships, has won 14 championships, tying Manchester United.
The German Cup, which was only held in 1935, has also been held 71 times so far, and Bayern Munich, which has won the most championships, has won 19 times.
As for events such as the Dutch Cup and the Portuguese Cup, they are monopolized by a few domestic giants.
And this year's FA Cup final is destined to be another battle between dragons and tigers. After all, the two sides are extremely powerful Manchester City duo. Therefore, this FA Cup final has also attracted the attention of the world.
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On May 18, at 5 pm, in the 138th FA Cup final, Manchester United faced Manchester City at the new Wembley Stadium.
This was the first "Manchester City Derby" since the establishment of the FA Cup 148 years ago. Manchester United has advanced to the final 21 times in history and won the championship 14 times, while Manchester City has advanced to the final 10 times and won 5 of them.
Before this, Manchester United had completed three consecutive FA Cup titles and was the third team to achieve this feat. However, the teams that won the FA Cup three times in a row before were all in the early days of the FA Cup.
The first team to win the FA Cup three times in a row was Rangers. This team, which has disappeared in the long river of history, was the early overlord of the FA Cup. They not only won the first FA Cup championship, but also defended the title. Then they won the FA Cup three times in a row in the 1875-1876 season, the 1876-1877 season, and the 1877-1878 season.
That is to say, this team won five of the first seven FA Cups!
The second team to achieve three consecutive FA Cups is Blackburn Rovers. This team, which has won the Premier League and is currently playing in the Championship, won three consecutive FA Cups in the 1883-1884 season, the 1884-1885 season, and the 1885-1886 season.
Blackburn Rovers is also one of the most successful teams in the history of the FA Cup. They have won the FA Cup six times, ranking seventh after Manchester United (14 times), Arsenal (12 times), Tottenham (8 times), Chelsea (7 times), Liverpool (7 times) and Aston Villa (7 times). The six teams ahead of them are all traditional strong teams in the history of English football.
In the following 130 years, no team was able to achieve three consecutive FA Cups until Manchester United broke this history last season.
If Manchester United can beat Manchester City today, they will become the first team in history to win four consecutive FA Cups.
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Before the game, Manchester City coach Guardiola said in an interview with the media that Manchester City would not hold back in the game.
"The FA Cup is the oldest event in history and a highly anticipated event. Whether it is to win the sixth championship in Manchester City's history or in the spirit of professionalism and sportsmanship, we will do our best to show our strongest strength at the new Wembley Stadium. This is not only a respect for the game, but also a respect for our fans."
In this game, Manchester City once again lined up a 433 formation, which is also their most commonly used formation this season.
Manchester United is not at all careless. Coach Mourinho said before the game that Manchester United has played 6 games in the past three weeks, which is a huge pressure for the players, but he believes that the team can overcome this pressure well because everyone wants to win another championship.
In this game, Manchester United also played a very strong offensive lineup.
The goalkeeper is De Gea, the back line is Luke Shaw, Van Dijk, Maguire and Cancelo, Kante is in the back, Gundogan and Bruno are in the midfield, Rashford is on the left, Harry Kane is the center forward, and Mbappe is on the right.
From this starting lineup, it can be seen that Manchester United is the best and is determined to win the game. Although this game is Manchester United's sixth game in the past three weeks, after the final game of the Premier League last weekend, Manchester United has had six days of rest, and the players' physical fitness has been well restored.
As for the upcoming Champions League final, it will be two weeks later, and Manchester United still has plenty of time to prepare.
The same is true for Manchester City, who also got six days of rest.
Both sides can be said to be resting and swearing to win this championship trophy.
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Not only the two sides, but also the new Wembley Stadium is full. The stadium can accommodate 90,000 fans. According to official news, all tickets were sold out at the end of the Premier League last weekend.
However, according to the published data, Manchester United fans bought slightly more tickets, about 50,000 tickets, while Manchester City fans bought about 40,000 tickets.
Manchester United fans came not only for the FA Cup championship, but also hoped to be lucky enough to witness the historic moment when the team won the FA Cup for the first time in its 148-year history.
Media attention, fans' expectations, support from the club, all of these are invested in Bruno.
For him, this is both motivation and pressure.
As the captain and core of the team, he has no choice but to face the challenge.
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"The two teams entered the stadium one after another."
Amid the roar of 90,000 fans in the stadium, the players of the two teams entered the stadium under the leadership of the referee.
"The referee walking in front is Anthony Taylor. This is his second time to officiate the FA Cup final. The last time was in 2017, when Manchester United beat Arsenal 5:1 and won the 13th FA Cup in team history, surpassing Arsenal to become the team with the most FA Cup titles in history."
"This is a 40-year-old referee born in Manchester. This season is his ninth season officiating the Premier League. Relatively speaking, Taylor's enforcement is still relatively strict, but it has also caused a lot of controversy. Both Manchester United's head coach Mourinho and Manchester City's head coach Guardiola have criticized Taylor's enforcement more than once."
After introducing the referee, the commentator immediately introduced the starting lineups of the two teams, focusing on Manchester United's lineup, and finally the live camera was aimed at Bruno for a long time.
"Many Manchester United fans at the scene held up slogans and banners supporting Bruno. They are obviously full of confidence in Bruno and hope that he can continue his outstanding performance in the previous games in this game and help the team win the FA Cup for four consecutive times."
After guessing the side, Manchester City won the right to kick off.
Manchester United players began to line up in their own half, preparing for the last domestic game of the season.
Mourinho clapped hard on the sidelines and shouted loudly, signaling the players to focus and play hard.
It can be seen that he, the head coach, is not at all relaxed.
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As soon as it was five o'clock, the referee Anthony Taylor immediately blew the whistle to start the game.
Although Manchester City took the lead, Manchester United was not ambiguous at all and quickly pressed forward. The trident led by Harry Kane immediately put pressure on Manchester City's defense line and was aggressive.
This is also in line with Manchester United's consistent characteristics. In the Premier League, they have never been afraid of any team.
Manchester City chose to control the ball.
In the first ten minutes of the game, the two sides competed very fiercely, but they never got a good chance to score.
Manchester United had three shots in the first fifteen minutes, but none of them hit the target. Two of them were long shots from a long distance, but none of them threatened the goal guarded by Ederson.
"Manchester United players still look a little impatient, which is not their previous style."
"Of course, we can understand their current mood. After all, such an important game would make anyone impatient, but they must try to stabilize their emotions and calm down now."
Bruno obviously knew the current situation of the team and immediately signaled his teammates to slow down the pace.
After more than ten minutes of trial at the beginning, everyone clearly saw that Manchester City had indeed made sufficient preparations, especially on the defensive end, and it was indeed very stable. Manchester United would find it difficult to get a chance for a while.
In this case, continuing to maintain a fast-paced attack would not only consume too much physical energy for the players, but also easily expose their own defects and shortcomings.
Instead of doing so, it would be better to slow down the offensive and let Manchester City take a proper breath, or even let them press out a little.
But Manchester City obviously had already figured out Manchester United's wishful thinking. They did not take the initiative to press forward, but continued to control the ball and did not give Manchester United any chance.
Because Manchester City's three lines were very meticulous and compact, Manchester United's pressing still failed to create opportunities.
Time passed bit by bit. In the 30th minute, Manchester United launched another wave of attacks, but still failed to break Manchester City's goal, which was somewhat depressing.
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As the game progressed, Bruno gradually calmed down.
He was indeed a little anxious at the beginning of the game and wanted to eat up the opponent in one bite, but gradually, the opponent's tenacity was beyond his expectations. After hitting the wall, he gradually calmed down.
At this time, Manchester United's overall formation pressed forward, patiently organizing passes and penetration, constantly testing, waiting for opportunities.
Everyone firmly believed that with Manchester United at the gates and facing strong offensive pressure, Manchester City's defense could not be without any mistakes. And as long as there are cracks in Manchester City's defense, as long as they expose gaps, that is Manchester United's opportunity.
Both sides competed with patience. Although Manchester City had the advantage of ball possession, the advantage was not obvious. Even in terms of shooting data, Manchester United, which had a lower ball possession rate, had the advantage.
This also made the Manchester United fans at the scene still maintain a high level of enthusiasm, because they knew that the team was just waiting for an opportunity.
And this opportunity really came, in the second minute of stoppage time in the first half!
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"Manchester United passed the ball to the right and gave it to Mbappe."
"Mbappe got the ball in the right corner of the penalty area, one-on-one!"
"Beautiful, Mbappe went down the bottom line and passed it into the penalty area!"
"Manchester City's captain Kompany controlled the front point and passed the ball to De Bruyne."
"De Bruyne passed the ball to David Silva again..."
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After two consecutive passes, Manchester City quickly passed the ball to the vicinity of the center line.
At this time, Kante completed the interception and immediately passed it back to Manchester City's half and handed it to Cancelo on the right.
When Cancelo just received the ball, he looked up at the penalty area in front and found that the situation in the penalty area had changed.
After Kompany cleared the ball, he did not immediately focus on Harry Kane, which made the English center forward face another Manchester City center back Laporte.
Although Laporte is 1.91 meters tall, he is relatively thin and is known for his footwork and passing. He does not have an advantage in defending high balls.
Cancelo realized this, and when he saw Harry Kane staying in the penalty area, he immediately adjusted the ball path and quickly passed the ball to the penalty area at a 45-degree angle, sending the ball to Harry Kane's head.
The English center forward understood and directly approached Laporte, jumped high, overpowered the Manchester City center back, and headed the ball directly to the lower right corner, trying to catch the opponent's goalkeeper Ederson off guard. But Cancelo's pass was a bit far away, not to mention Ederson, even Kompany had already reacted.
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Ederson flew and punched the ball out.
This was a header from the left side in front of the goal. After Ederson saved it, the ball was bent and bounced to the right side of the penalty area.
As early as when Cancelo passed the ball, Bruno was ready to rush into the penalty area to respond. After seeing Ederson save Harry Kane's header, he quickly chased him, and without waiting for Kompany to react, he swung his right foot and hit it!
For safety reasons, he still hit it with the inside of his foot. The football was almost in a straight line, passing the fallen Ederson and hitting the goal behind him!
"GOAL!!!!"
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLL!!!!"
"In the stoppage time near the end of the first half, Bruno calmly seized an opportunity and finally broke through Manchester City's goal. This was his third shot of the game, and he finally scored a goal!"
After scoring the goal, Bruno was so excited that he rushed out of the court, jumped over the billboards on the sidelines, and rushed directly to the fans in the stands, opened his arms, and cheered loudly.
1:0!
He finally scored a goal!!!
The Manchester United fans in the stands also shouted his name crazily, and many fans even reached out to grab Bruno, wanting to hold him tightly.
"It's wonderful!"
"This goal came very suddenly, but we must say that Manchester United's efforts in the first half finally paid off! Bruno finally scored a goal in his third shot of the game!"