Manchester United turned the tide when first-half goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo saw them beat rivals Manchester City to win the FA Cup.
In what could become Erik ten Hag’s final game as United manager, as the club searched for potential replacements should they share tactics with the Dutchman after two years, his side put in arguably their most productive performance of the season to finish. A complicated period. 2023-24 with a trophy record.
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Pep Guardiola’s four successive Premier League champions put pressure on in the second half and halved the deficit thanks to replacement Jeremy Doku, but United held on and won the FA Cup for the 13th time.
Carl Anka, Mark Critchley, Dan Sheldon and Sam Lee summed up a dramatic afternoon at Wembley.
As dark clouds hung over the safety of the task, Erik ten Hag was ambitious in his tactical choice.
The 4-2-2-2 that has seen Manchester United win against Newcastle United and Brighton
Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were prized on the wings, while Scott McTominay and Bruno Fernandes operated up front as separate strikers. The United manager’s game plan seemed to be to engage and then counter-attack Manchester City. Twenty minutes into the game, things seemed to be working; United’s form without possession is more compact and sturdy. The “great divide” spoken of by opposition analysts is a thing of the past.
When United lost the ball, they would counter-press for five seconds in one attempt before retreating into their shells. Ten Hag’s men comfortably channelled City’s attacks, confident that their centre-backs could clear all the crosses to Erling Haaland. When United regained possession, they temporarily moved to break away.
If there was a problem, it became apparent when Kyle Walker beat Rashford in a race. United’s attempts to win back City’s 4 defenders met with limited success. Every time they discovered a crack in the armour of Pep Guardiola’s team, the Premier League champions made an adjustment.
Then it happened.
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A superb long pass from Diogo Dalot and Garnacho chased down United’s right. The 19-year-old lost the race to Josko Gvardiol, but the City defender ate the head of goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. Garnacho took his chance to bring in the ball house and give United the lead at the 30-minute mark.
“They press a lot, but we can still locate the box and dominate the game,” Dalot said before the final.
United kept their word with their second goal nine minutes later. In a brief period of established ownership, the ball returned to Garnacho on the right, who teamed up with Fernandes and sent a clever ball to Kobbie Mainoo at the post to make it 2-0.
In difficult circumstances, Ten Hag seemed to have done things right. Guardiola’s performances of Jeremy Doku and then Julian Alvarez tried to stretch United’s compact form, but they managed to do so despite the former’s comfort goal.
Carl Anka
If history remembers that this was Ten Hag’s last game in charge, at least United scored one of the best goals of their two seasons – a testament to what they set out to achieve.
It was a test of how the United manager needs his players to attack: with intensity at the start, then with composure to finish in the box. This may seem counterintuitive. This has seemed counterintuitive and often completely unsustainable this season. But when it works, it’s exciting.
The play ended, with Kobbie Mainoo making an undeniable pass to Marcus Rashford in the box down the left flank, halfway through his own half.
Playing a cross-field pass from that position was ambitious, and the ball probably wouldn’t have had enough speed to really reveal City’s incredible top line, but Rashford’s thinking was still quick enough to catch them on the back foot anyway.
What stood out, however, was the speed and ingenuity to think about technique and the inside of the penalty area, something United have sorely lacked this season. Alejandro Garnacho first slowed the movement, allowing Bruno Fernandes to take a look at Mainoo’s forward position, and then sped it up.
Fernandes’ impeccable dismissal echoed Teddy Sheringham at Wembley, not only for England against the Netherlands at Euro 96, but more clearly in a United blouse in the 1999 FA Cup final to allow Paul Scholes to score the decisive moment against Newcastle. Uni. There is only one difference. Sheringham is looking in the right direction.
And that was Mainoo applying the first touch, with all the composure we’d expect from the teenager who graduated from United’s academy in his decisive season, fitting, and not just because he started the move in the most sensible place.
Whatever United’s future holds, Mainoo will be part of it and therefore lead devastating football like this.
Marc Critchley
From the first exchanges, it was clear that Manchester United would not try to dominate the match.
Erik ten Hag was content to let Manchester City have the ball, but he looked for his players to be in a position to exploit the opponent’s top line at the slightest opportunity. The Dutchman looked to take advantage of the speed of Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho to get City’s defence.
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And it worked, over and over again.
Although Garnacho’s first goal was the result of an omnipotent defensive confusion between Josko Gvardiol and Stefan Ortega, it would not have materialized without the Argentine who ran and forced the error.
United stayed away from City and got their reward with a quick transition. This time, Rashford faded in front of Garnacho, who had plenty of space. He then faced Bruno Fernandes, who passed the ball to Kobbie Mainoo to double his lead. .
It’s an exceptional team purpose and one that would have made Ten Hag lick his lips. It’s their game plan that plays out in the most devastating way possible.
Although Rashford consistently struggled to get past Kyle Walker, arguably the fastest right-back in football, Garnacho continued to beat Gvardiol.
Even in the second half, in which City dominated possession, United still looked like a risk on the counter-attack and Pep Guardiola was more than aware of that.
Daniel Sheldon
“In football, you’re going to lose games,” Pep Guardiola said last weekend, after watching his team win the Premier League once again. “You have to know how you lose games. That’s what defines the most productive teams.
Manchester City effectively lost in the second half and got a goal back to set up a tense final, which kept many from the front after the first forty-five minutes.
Had Julian Alvarez created a great chance in the middle of an attack with around 30 minutes remaining, the tide would have turned in City’s favour much sooner, but, in the end, it wasn’t enough to salvage a desperately disappointing first half for the champions. . .
City would have been pleased with their patient striker before the break, and that’s fine if you keep the back door closed, but confusion around the first objective rocked them: rushing things, leaving spaces that United took advantage of with their brilliant second.
Guardiola didn’t joke about his substitutions, he made two at half-time, added the arrival of Jeremy Doku, who brought danger long before his delayed goal, and then the useless Kevin De Bruyne, withdrawn just 11 minutes later.
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The next forty-five seconds looked much more like the kind of functionality we expected from City, but that first half rattled them out and, in the end, they couldn’t recover.
Sam Lee
“It can be organised,” Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola told BBC Sport as he spoke of Stefan Ortega’s mistake that led to the opener in a 2-1 FA Cup final defeat to neighbours United. “In the end, anything can do it. A lot of things, decisions, so many things and at the end (of the day) they scored two goals and we couldn’t score more.
“It’s a transition team; Array United, for 10, 20, 30 years; They’ve been a transition team. In the first half we struggled a little bit and (in) the second half we were bigger until we figured out our moment (to recover). a goal).
“We scored a bit late, with the chances we had with Erling (Haaland) and Jules (Julian Alvarez) and Jeremy (Doku)’s movements, especially down the left side, overall it was a smart performance, considering it was a final.
“All our congratulations to the team,” Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag told BBC Sport. “They played very well, with our identity, very strong. You’ll see that (when) we have on board, how we can play, in our philosophy.
“I say it all year round: when the players are fit, we can play smart football. (It was) a very smart performance, unlike any team in the world, I think.
Ten Hag also responded to complaints against him and his team this season, saying: “We didn’t have the players. We (he and the critics) saw the same things. There hasn’t been intelligent football, in fact not, but we’ve had to make concessions all the time. Then you won’t be able to play the football you need.
“I’ve been here for two years and probably (only) three or four times I had the whole team on board. Also today, some main players – Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Casemiro – were not on board.
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Ten Hag wondered if it will be his last game as United manager: “I don’t know yet, the only thing I do is prepare my team, expand my team, (try) my team and my individual players because that, for me, is a project. When I arrived, I can say it was a disaster. We’re bigger now, but we’re nowhere near where we need to be.