FA Cup
United and City legends, Sir Alex Ferguson and Mike Summerbee to take match ball to field at FA Cu final
The Football Association has confirmed details of the pre-match and half-time entertainment at Wembley on Saturday.
The Football Association has confirmed that the match ball for Saturday’s all-Manchester FA Cup final at Wembley will be walked out by former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and City legend Mike Summerbee.
The two Manchester giants will go head-to-head in the first-ever all-Manchester final on Saturday afternoon, each looking to taste success in the final game of the domestic season.
United will have ambitions of winning their second trophy of the season while City will be hoping to keep their hopes of clinching a famous treble alive.
City have already scooped the Premier League title, beating Arsenal to the gong last month, and face Inter Milan in the Champions League final in Istanbul just seven days after facing United. The Reds, meanwhile, won the Carabao Cup in February to end their six-year trophy drought.Ferguson and Summerbee’s involvement in the pre-match pageantry will be just a small part of what will happen ahead of the 3pm kick-off, with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who is the President of the FA, leading the pre-match presentation. He will be joined by the national governing body’s Chair, Debbie Hewitt MBE, among others.
Ahead of the pre-match presentation, the pre-match show will consist of performances from Massed Bands of the Royal Corps of Army Music and the BBC Radio 1 DJ, producer, and host of Radio 1’s Soundsystem Party and 1Xtra’s Rave Show, Jeremiah Asiamah. The FA Cup final’s traditional pre-match hymn – Abide with Me – will also be played.
The military band, who will perform Abide with Me, will also contribute towards Asiamah’s bespoke DJ set that will feature City’s and United’s respective club anthems of Blue Moon and This is the One. Just before kick-off, the national anthem will be performed by the international soloist soprano Jasmine Faulkner, and a British Sign Language interpreter will provide translations of this and other moments during the afternoon.
At half-time, inspirational youngster Edward Simpson, who is attempting to raise £100,000 for brain tumour research following his own diagnosis, will take a penalty as part of his plan to take 100 penalty kicks in 100 different locations. Edward, who is also an avid United supporter, will take his Wembley penalty against United mascot Fred the Red.
Following the full-time whistle, in addition to the trophy being presented to the winner by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the tournament’s top scorer will be presented with the Golden Ball Award in partnership with Mitre. Wrexham striker Paul Mullin is currently the leading marksman in the FA Cup this season, bagging eight goals.
City ace Riyad Mahrez is his nearest challenger, so far scoring five goals in the competition this term, meaning he would need to repeat the hat-trick he scored against Sheffield United at the semi-final stage to match the former Cambridge United ace’s tally.
Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick as Manchester City crushed Liverpool 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday to cruise into the FA Cup semi-finals.
Champions Liverpool played well in the opening half-hour with Mohamed Salah wasting an early chance, but once Haaland had scored from the spot in the 37th minute after a foul on Nico O’Reilly, their resistance crumbled.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk conceded the penalty with a rash challenge, and there was little the Dutch defender could do as City played scintillating attacking football for the remainder of the game.
His blond hair swinging behind him in a ponytail, Haaland netted his second two minutes into first-half stoppage time with a well-placed header from an excellent Antoine Semenyo cross.
Semenyo got on the scoresheet himself five minutes after the break, latching on to a ball in behind from Rayan Cherki and chipping it beautifully past Giorgi Mamardashvili, and Haaland completed his treble with a shot off the underside of the crossbar in the 57th minute.
Liverpool’s woes continued when Mohamed Salah, who is set to leave the club at the end of the season, capped off a poor performance by having his penalty saved by James Trafford, snuffing out any faint hopes Liverpool might have had of a comeback
As the game turned into a victory parade, many Liverpool fans started heading for the exits, and City manager Pep Guardiola rang the changes, replacing Haaland with Omar Marmoush, the Norwegian striker receiving a standing ovation as he left the field.
In the other quarter-finals, Chelsea take on Port Vale and Southampton host Arsenal later on Saturday, with Leeds United travelling to West Ham United on Sunday.
The semi-finals will take place at Wembley, and Haaland is relishing a return to the stadium.
“First half, we struggled a bit, but then we after around 30 minutes we kept going and in the end it’s an amazing game. Another Wembley trip for us is amazing and important,” he told broadcaster TNT.
“I think (my form this season) has been a bit too much up and down, which is not good enough. I cannot keep on thinking about what I could have done differently or what didn’t happen, or what happened. I have to think about the next game.”
-Reuters
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Arsenal will be without injured England attacker Noni Madueke when they face Southampton in Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final, but Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber may return from injury, manager Mikel Arteta said.
Madueke was among the 11 Arsenal players who withdrew from international duty last month over injuries and fitness management, as the club eye their first Premier League title since 2004.
“When you have to communicate the state of every player, we are always honest and a medical decision had to be made. That was clear what the conclusion was,” Arteta told reporters on Friday.
“It makes us so proud that we had that many players in the national team. Players are desperate to play for their nation. I know how important it is to them. We are fully supportive of that and when we can do it, we do it.”
Madueke picked up a knee injury during England’s friendly with Uruguay, missing the game against Japan. But Arteta said his condition was not as bad as a knee injury that kept him out for six weeks.
Martin Zubimendi, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Timber, Leandro Trossard, Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice were unavailable for their countries.
Arteta did not disclose how many of them will be available for Saturday’s game, as Arsenal look to shake off last month’s League Cup final loss to Manchester City with a return to Wembley in the FA Cup semi-finals.
“We’re in a position right now where we need to make the strongest line-up we possibly can to win every competition,” he said. ” We are two or three games away from the FA Cup and we know how important that competition is for us.”
-Reuters
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Manchester City will look to secure a historic eighth straight semi-final appearance in the FA Cup when they face Liverpool on Saturday, manager Pep Guardiola said.
City beat Arsenal to win the League Cup before the international break, and Guardiola is hoping his team maintain the momentum as they fight to add the FA Cup and Premier League to this season’s trophy haul.
“Once you finish one, it is the next one,” Guardiola told reporters on Friday.
“Tomorrow we have the chance to reach an incredible milestone, to make eight semi-finals in a row. It’s never happened… it is a prestigious competition, and one of the toughest, special opponents for all of us, Liverpool.”
City have dominated English football with six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and five League Cups since Guardiola joined in 2016, but Liverpool have been a constant thorn in his side throughout his coaching career.
As a coach, Guardiola has only nine victories and seven draws in 26 matches against Liverpool, his worst win rate against a Premier League club.
City have beaten Liverpool twice in the Premier League this season, but had to dig deep for a late comeback when they won 2-1 at Anfield in February.
“So many times they have been the rival, the biggest, biggest one… top contender, top class players, all of them. Hopefully we have to perform in the level we did against Arsenal to reach the next step,” Guardiola said.
The manager also praised Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah, who has announced his departure in the summer.
“Absolutely. One of the greatest. The numbers, the consistency. What a player… absolute legend, of course for Liverpool, but (also) for the Premier League,” Guardiola said.
Guardiola, however, avoided commenting on his own midfielder Rodri, who said he was open to a move to Real Madrid when his contract with City runs out at the end of this season.
“No clue, no opinion… because I know the intention of the club, I know the intention, I think, of him, but I don’t know,” Guardiola said.’
-Reuters
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