Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes celebrates with the FA Cup Trophy after winning the Emirates FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, London, May 25, 2024
Manchester United 2-1 Manchester City
by James Nalton
at Wembley
THE UNLIKELIHOOD of the victory made the celebrations in the Manchester United end all the more boisterous, as the red half of this latest Wembley Manchester derby savoured a memorable FA Cup win.
This was supposed to be a walk in the Wembley park for United’s local rivals and final opponents Manchester City. Pep Guardiola’s side were heavy favourites to lift their second trophy of the season having claimed the Premier League title a week earlier.
Instead, United, in what was widely rumoured to be Erik ten Hag’s last game in charge, found a way to get at City, using wide attackers Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford to pierce holes in the City defence on the counter-attack.
As La Liga and Serie A plan overseas fixtures, loyal fans are left behind in a capitalist power grab Uefa claims to regret, but enabled anyway, writes JAMES NALTON
There are few more entertaining sports when played at this level, argues JAMES NALTON
Despite damning findings, Israel remains in World Cup contention - raising questions over football’s role in global accountability, writes JAMES NALTON
