First-half goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo saw Manchester United beat Manchester City 2-1 to win 2023-24 FA Cup.
Garnacho pounced upon a 30th minute headed blunder from Josko Gvardiol to fire United in front after City’s Stefan Ortega left his goal unmarked.
Mainoo doubled Man Utd’s lead in the 39th minute to seal a 13th FA Cup title after he turned in Bruno Fernandes’ pass.
Jeremy Doku pulled back a consolatory goal for City in the 87th minute but United held on to deny their neighbours a domestic double.
Their victory also meant that Man Utd will play in the UEFA Europa League next season in place of Chelsea, whose sixth-placed Premier League finish now qualified them for the UEFA Europa Conference League.
Newcastle United consequently missed out on European qualification despite having finished seventh in the league.
Speaking to BBC One post-match, Garnacho described Utd’s win as “incredible” after very few fans believed that they could win the title.
“Nobody believed in us. But we’re a team, all together. We fought, the game of our lives.”
A week shy of one year on from the first Manchester derby in a FA Cup Final won by Man City, Pep Guardiola’s Cityzens this time weren’t able to enjoy another lively start as Utd opted to play without a central forward and instead sat on a resilient defensively organised counter-attack.
Erling Haaland however was denied a third minute penalty by Video Assistant Referee (VAR) after he was fouled by Lisandro Martinez.
Utd saw their first shot in the eighth minute from Garnacho saved by Ortega on a quick counter-attack, but Mainoo saved Utd’s blushes in the 25th minute as he intercepted and cleared Haaland’s cutback pass across the box.
Defending though has been City’s Achilles heel this season and it haunted them on the half-hour mark as Gvardiol headed a pass beyond Ortega for Garnacho to calmly fire Utd in front with a crisp strike into an empty net.
Worse soon came nine minutes later for the toothless looking reigning champions as seven minutes later, Rashford put Garnacho’s square ball into the net but the Argentinean was offside.
That warning wasn’t enough for City as Garnacho two minutes later was free to feed a pass across to Fernandes, who flicked it across to his left for Mainoo to rifle in to double the Red Devils’ lead at half-time amidst rumours of Ten Hag’s sacking.
Pep Guardiola consequently hooked Mateo Kovacic and Nathan Ake at half-time for Jeremy Doku and Manuel Akanji, as Man City looked to find more attacking sparks to create a fight-back.
His gamble almost paid off if not for poor end product as Haaland rattled the crossbar from Doku’s 55th minute pass, before Walker unleashed a long-range strike which was punched behind by Andre Onana.
City though had found more energy and were comfortably on top of United in the second half but Ten Hag’s Red Devils weathered the waves of attacks with composure.
Haaland and City’s frustrations grew further in the 75th minute after the Norwegian was wrestled to the ground by Mainoo during a corner, only for referee – Andrew Madley to dismiss the penalty appeals much to Haaland’s annoyance.
As the remainder of the match wore on, Man City struggled to pull a goal back until Doku cut in from the left in the 87th minute, from which he calmly rifled a low shot into the near bottom-left corner.
Ultimately Utd kept City at bay through seven minutes of injury time to claim their first FA Cup title since 2016, and 13th overall crown in this competition to move to within one title of Arsenal – with the Gunners having won this tournament on 14 occasions.
Man Utd are now the fifth team to achieve the Men and Women’s FA Cup double in the same season after Southampton, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City, after Utd Women won this season’s Women’s FA Cup a fortnight ago.
Teams
Manchester City: Stefan Ortega, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Nathan Ake (Akanji 46′), Josko Gvardiol, Rodri, Mateo Kovacic (Doku 46′, Kevin De Bruyne (Alvarez 56′), Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Erling Haaland
Substitutes: Scott Carson, Ruben Dias, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku, Julian Alvarez, Manuel Akanji, Matheus Nunes, Oscar Bobb, Rico Lewis
Manchester United: Andre Onana, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez (Evans 73′), Diogo Dalot, Sofyan Amrabat, Kobbie Mainoo, Scott McTominay (Mount 90+3′), Alejandro Garnacho (Lindelöf 90+3′), Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford (Højlund 74′)
Substitutes: Altay Bayindir, Jonny Evans, Willy Kambwala, Victor Lindelöf, Amad Diallo, Christian Eriksen, Mason Mount, Antony, Rasmus Højlund
Referee: Andrew Madley
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