Winner of Manchester City this Saturday in the FC Cup final (1-2), Manchester United lifted the trophy for the thirteenth time in its history in the competition.
Some monuments may be in poor condition, but they never completely collapse. This is the case of Manchester United which, despite the end of its glory days more than a decade ago, continues as best it can to remember its opponents in good stead. Authors of a terribly disappointing season, the Red Devils managed to win on Saturday against Manchester City, in the FA Cup final (1-2). Their thirteenth title in the competition. And as a gift, a totally unexpected place in the Europa League for next season.
Outclassed by their opponents of the day in the Premier League (the Cityzens finished champions, with thirty-one points ahead of United, eighth), Erik ten Hag’s players were strangely able to find the recipe to win this weekend. And as is often the case this season, it was Alejandro Garnacho who served as the detonator. The Argentinian thus caused panic and misunderstanding between the defense and the Manchester City goalkeeper, recovering a ball to score alone against the empty cage (0-1, 30th).
Less than ten minutes later, it was another strong man from the Red Devils, in this case Bruno Fernandes, who served Kobbie Mainoo on a plate for the break goal (0-2, 39th). Stupor among the City supporters, indescribable joy in the opposite camp, but above all the inability of the Skyblues to come back and reduce the gap before the break. As a result, Pep Guardiola made two changes from the restart, then a third ten minutes later. Enough to strengthen an attack-defense totally in favor of his team which will still find the fault at the very end of the match thanks to Jérémy Doku (1-2, 87th).
But that will not be enough and at the final whistle, it was all of Manchester United who burst into joy. A double joy since beyond the trophy, the club is offered a place in the European Cup, under the eyes of Sir Alex Ferguson, present in the stands at Wembley. For one afternoon, United returned to their best days.
