FA Cup Final: Man United Look To Scuttle City’s Treble Dream

Manchester United and Manchester City will compete in the 142nd FA Cup final inside the Wembley stadium on Saturday afternoon.

While City are seeking to lift the oldest Cup competition for the seventh time in their history, the United are hoping to land a 13th time.

Both city rivals have already won silverware’s this season with Pep Guardiola’s clinching the Premier League title for a third successive year and for a fifth time in six seasons, while United won the Carabao Cup.

A win for City in Saturday’s final will see them keep their hopes of a treble alive, a feat only achieved by United in the 1998/1999 season.

Under the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, United became the first and only English club to win the treble.

The Red Devils beat Arsenal to the top-flight, defeated Newcastle United in the FA Cup final, before rounding off with a dramatic 2-1 win against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final at the Nou Camp.

United will now hope to scuttle City’s dreams of becoming the second English club to win the treble.

Erik ten Hag’s side will head into Saturday’s final as slight underdogs having lost three of their last four derby clashes with City by an aggregate score of 12-4, including a heavy 6-3 Premier League defeat earlier this season.
However, they can take some inspiration from their FA Cup head-to-head record with the Citizens as they have won five of the last six meetings with their noisy neighbours.

Meanwhile, City quartet Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji all missed the defeat at Brentford due to minor injury or fitness concerns.

But Guardiola has since confirmed that they have all taken part in training this week and are “more or less fine” to feature on Saturday.

Guardiola has also confirmed that goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, who has kept five clean sheets in as many FA Cup games en route to this year’s final, will start between the sticks ahead of first-choice shot-stopper Ederson.

Nathan Ake started against Brentford and played for just over an hour on his return from a hamstring injury.

The Dutch defender is in contention to retain his place on the left side, while John Stones is set to return and take up his midfield role alongside Rodri.

As for United, Ten Hag has admitted that Antony is “unlikely” to play in the final after failing to make progress in his recover from an ankle injury, while Anthony Martial has been ruled out with a hamstring problem.

The expected absence of Antony is set to see Alejandro Garnacho and former City youngster Jadon Sancho occupy the flanks, with top scorer Marcus Rashford leading the line at the expense of Martial.

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