Good afternoon and welcome to coverage of Louis van Gaal’s last game in charge of Manchester United. Reportedly.
The 11-time winners take on a side who’ve never won a major trophy in their long history in Crystal Palace.
The game, of course, is a repeat of the 1990 decider in which Eagles boss Alan Pardew lined out. After a thrilling six-goal draw, United won a drab replay under floodlights.
How do you see this one playing out?
““It would be nice to say ‘fuck you’ to a few people, people who never believed in me. I believed in myself. But we’ll only cherish it if we win it. We had a meeting earlier this week and spoke as a group about what the Palace team did back in 1990. I have huge respect for what they achieved, getting to that final and then to the replay against United, but they didn’t win it. It’s important to remember that. They’re still talking about that team after 26 years, so imagine if they’d actually won it.”
Looking for some before-kick-off reading? This Dominic Fifield interview with Corkman Damien Delaney is excellent. Let’s hope he does himself justice this evening.
Oh no!
Former Manchester United winger Wilfriend Zaha is rumoured to be out of the game because of an injury picked up in the warm-up. He left the pitch in tears.
Ooof! Fellaini starts. Here’s the United team:
And Zaha will, in fact, start. He’s been named in the XI despite that injury rumour. The Guardian report that he was crying because of emotional messages he received.
Crystal Palace: Hennessey; Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare; Zaha, Cabaye, McArthur, Jedinak, Bolasie; Wickham. Subs: Speroni, Mariappa, Sako, Puncheon, Gayle, Adebayor.
Fergie and Steve Coppell have arrived, continuing the 1990 nostalgia.
Scholesey looks in good form already.
LVG is talking about the decision to drop Jesse Lingard on BT. It is very, very tough, he admits.
We’re about to start the 10-minute pre-game stuff. Steve Coppell and Fergie are about to walk out with the cup and the volume is getting cranked up by the supporters, with the Palace end impressively coordinated as always.
Alex Ferguson’s advice to the players? “Go out there and enjoy it… but you can only enjoy it if you win.”
Somewhere in the east midlands, John Giles is spitting his tea across his living room. Tinie Tempah emerges from the tunnel in a nice spaceman bomber jacket to perform an atmosphere-killing medley of his hits.
The singer who was to perform the British national anthem missed her cue and joined in halfway through like fellas on the Hill with Amhrán na bhFiann.
And, at last, we’re up in and running in the 2016 FA Cup final.
First corner ball of the afternoon goes to Palace, who’ve started well.
Cabaye plays it to the near post and it’s too close to De Gea.
Fellaini could well be the key to success and failure this evening.
The Belgian was lurking with intent on the back post there and was found with a diagonal ball from Blind but his header was tame enough.
Rashford tests Damien Delaney by playing the ball past the Corkman and challenging him to a foot race.
The Turner’s Cross man launched a vital last-ditch tackle and conceded a corner. It’s been an open start to the game.
Chance! Another Man Utd corner and Fellaini is again the target. The Belgian gets a good header on it, after getting in front of his man marker Jedinak, but it goes wide again.
Rojo has a shot on target but he might have done better putting it across the six-yard box. Wayne Rooney picked him out with a lovely ball from deep.
What have you made of this first 15 minutes or so?
Palace have the ball in the net but it’s ruled out!
Conor Wickham gets past Chris Smalling who falls. Wickham drives into the box and tucks it away but Mark Clattenburg calls it back for a free in. Weird one.
Howard Webb says the ref should well have played advantage there and he’ll be disappointed.
Big save! Juan Mata pops up for the first time to shoot after a poor clearance from inside the box. Hennessy got down to get a strong hand to it and the danger is gone.
Fellaini again comes close! He’s the target for another corner after getting in front of Jedinak, put he can’t steer it home. Another corner.
Palace get two shots off in successive attacks; first from Bolaise and then Wickham. We’re half an hour in and it’s still scoreless, but there’s goals here.
Who had 32 minutes in the Giggsy-off-the-bench pool? Collect your prize at the back of the hall.
Great chance for United! Damien Dempsey dives in a little and is done by Rashford out wide.
He heads goalwards squares for Martial and the French forward’s shot is blocked.
Penalty shout!
Daley Blind loses the ball in a bad position and Zaha is in on goal. Rooney slides in and doesn’t seem to make any contact with the ball as his former teammate hits the deck. Clattenburg waves play on.
Rojo’s booked for a tussle with Zaha, and he’ll have to be very careful if he doesn’t want to pull a Kevin Moran.
Alan Pardew is furious the ref didn’t leave them play on again, meanwhile.
Juan Mata’s booked now too to become the third United player in the ref’s book after Snalling and Rojo. We’re into injury time.
Half-time! Man Utd 0 Crystal Palace 0
What have you made of that?
Mark Clattenburg — who officiates the Champions League final next week — is getting dog’s abuse on social media. The consensus on BBC is that he’s not had a good first period.
Finish those drinks and get back to your seat. The second half has kicked off.
Scott Dann’s booked for taking out Rashford, who’s been United’s brightest player if you ask me.
Fellaini hits the post!
The Big Belgian Battering Ram is getting closer.
Rashford again is the key. He’s been brilliant and again he picks out a teammate — this time with a flick. Fellaini takes it early but his shot canons off the woodwork.
The game is frantic enough now.
Martial headed goalwards from 15 yards or so out after a Valencia cross but it came off the post again.
Meanwhile, Damien Delaney’s been booked. He went through Marcos Rojo after a heavy touch and the Argentine is still on the ground.
Matteo Darmian is introduced in place of Rojo who leaves the fray with Damien Delaney’s stud-prints as a souvenir.
Jason Puncheon is preparing to come on for Palace. From the shadows will come heroes as Sam Torrance was wont to say in his Ryder Cup pomp.
Ashley Young is togging out as Rashford leaves the dray with a knock. That’s a blow for United’s chances.
It’s Cabaye who trots off to make way for Puncheon. Young goes into Rashford’s central role rather than Martial.
LVG loves to play people in the wrong places doesn’t he?
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1 Man Utd 0, Puncheon 78′
What a goal from the south London favourite.
After a Palace corner is cleared, Delaney lofts it back in to Puncehon. The sub takes one touch and blasts it past De Gea.
They’re level. Wayne Rooney beat three Palace players at least before cutting the ball back. It falls to Mata via Fellaini’s chest and the Spaniard drills it home.
I’ve been trying to find a gif of Alan Pardew’s dad-dancing which clearly angered the football gods. United equalised three minutes later.
He’s gonna look pretty stupid if he ends up on the losing side.
Mata’s off in place of Lingard, meanwhile.
A downcast and apparently injured Scott Dann’s been replaced by Adrian Mariappa.
Wilf Zaha’s had a pop at goal under pressure from Valencia, meanwhile, but it fizzes wide.
Full-time: Manchester United 1 Crystal Palace 1
Extra time!
Both sides have made all their changes and we’re set for another half hour of this.
Palace get their first sight of goal in extra time.
Bolaise plays a lovely ball to Zaha on the half turn. The United defence get back in numbers and sniff out the danger.
Bobby won’t be hugely impressed by the fare in extra time so far. It look like both sides have their eyes on penalties already.
Rooney leaves his foot in on Puncheon to prompt calls of ‘off’ from the Palace fans. He’s already been booked and Mark Clattenburg looks in no mood to dismiss the England skipper.
Moments later Fellaini has his name taken for one of those elbow-first aerial challenges. Had to happen.
Save from De Gea! Bolaise volleys a ball goalwards and the Spaniard has to get down to the corner and palm it behind. Great effort too.
RED CARD! Chris Smalling picks up his second yellow card for dragging down Bolaise. Stupid stuff.
What do these managers say to their teams now?
Rio Ferdinand on BT says Pardew needs to gamble on the win in his period.
Is this the last quarter of an hour of Van Gaal’s tenure?
We’re off in the second period of ET.
De Gea save again! Gayle was played in and should have scored but the legs of the Spaniard are in the way. Massive let off.
Michael Carrick — who’s never won the FA Cup — arrives late in the box to meet a cross but he heads wide!
GOAL! Man Utd 2 Crystal Palace 1, Lingard
What a volley! Another sub gets his name on the scoresheet. Valencia plays a ball across the face of goal, it’s half cleared but pops up for the young winger and he lashes it home first time.
Van Gaal goes nuts on the sideline.
Damien Delaney’s playing at centre forward now. It’d be some story if he got an equaliser.
The Selhurst Road brains trust are looking pretty downbeat now with a couple of minutes left.
MAN UNITED WIN THE 2016 FA CUP!
Louis van Gaal has led United to their first trophy in the post-Fergie era while Palace lose another FA Cup final. Their wait for a major trophy goes on.
With the Galzer family looking on, will this this victory be enough to save LVG at Old Trafford?
Wayne Rooney’s actually speaking really well to Des Kelly about this — his first FA Cup final — and what it means to him.
The Palace fans are traipsing up the famous Wembley steps to collect their medals.
As the Stone Roses’ This Is The One comes on the PA, Carrick and Rooney lift the cup.
Thanks for your company. We’re off to do the Pardew.
Think it’s worth mentioning that Spain are currently European champions U21, U19, U17 and now the senior champions.
Holyyyyyyyyyy shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………………..
Speaks of the state of other countries football…massive disaster and fail.
Glad they don’t play hurling
The beautiful game , played beautifully.
Well Done Spain.
Congrats Miguel, a well deserved win for Spain,.
Where are the detractors now? Feel privileged you have seen just one of the greatest teams of all time if not the greatest. .As for the Liverpool team of 88 a good side but not in Spain’s class.
Agree Tom the reds were far higher ☺
What a great game of football, and the refs were good too
The liverpool team of ’88 would have beaten them.
Jesus people really do love Liverpool.
only team i would put with them is Brazil 1970.
delighted the Italians were crazy/brave enough to play that way as it afforded us all the opportunity to see an all time great team with some all time greats do the absolute business. magnificent, all of it, 4 goals in the euro final. we may never see the likes of it again. these guys are why i love football, and it is a beautiful game once more. viva espana!!!
It’s actually worrying there is 1 team in Europe that is so much above anybody else.
I very much like in football spirit of competition and head to head rivalry. This final was just one team show and brutal execution on Italians. No matter how much I can admire Spanish football master class this game was IMHO boring, boring because of lack of real connection between teams, bit of spark, the competition, emotions..
Also 4:0 in the final where two equal teams should meet is a lot, that should make all of them think what they’re doing playing football, England, France, Germany, Italy… those teams look like last decade amateurs next to today’s Spain. Hopefully this can change as I have no problem watching one team winning spree, but really can’t enjoy watching one team outclassing everyone else.
But in the long run it is a good thing. It forces other F.A to look at the way they run themselves, their methods and ways in which they nuture their young players.Therefore in the end football wins.
We can only dream our FA will implement a proper player and management development system
It’s a Barcelona thing , they might be the best ever if they had Messi.
I really expected a closer match, switched off after Italy went to 10 men
Very disappointing final contest to an overall excellent tournament
Not a football fan obviously…
It’s not even midnight yet and this already happened last night? Did I lost a day? ;)
I’m going to guess that he was at the game and with the time difference, he made the mistake.
I was indeed at the game, aye! To really stretch my defence it is intended for people reading after 12am… I suppose, ha! It’s 3am here. Spanish team just all left stadium. Sergio Ramos came through with the trophy at the end.
Thanks for the updates Miguel, I’d say you will have a sore ceann in the morning
last night history was made, great team, hopefully they can continue from last night, have I stressed enough yet that it was last night.
Without doubt da best team ever, even without their captain and their first choice striker they still walked it, world class players on bench didn’t even get a game
Why can’t TV pundits not admit that sometimes, just sometimes, teams come alone that are better than the past greats. It’s as if they feel admitting it, results in driving Pele and company a kick in the rox. Personally, this is the best all round team I have had the pleasure of witnessing past/present. New things CAN be better……..well except hangovers and monster munch!
That headline is way off the mark if you’ve been watching it on bbc or ITV.
He’s a bad writer is Mr. Miguel.
Had the privilege of watching almost every tournament match this Spanish team have played since Euro 2008 in the actual stadiums, including tonight. As such, wasn’t watching BBC or ITV and they’re way off the mark for me!
You can only argue that they are the greatest European team of all time. They have after all only won one World Cup. Only beating the best that South America has to offer only the once is not nearly enough to justify your claim as best of all time.
Also, the European Championship only started in 1960, so previous European teams that won the World Cup never had the opportunity to win something else in between them.
In short, it’s a ridiculous claim.
By all measurable criteria, they’re the greatest. That’s certainly fair to say.
I wouldn’t call it a ridiculous claim Anthony,
take a look back at their results from 2008 to today, what’s ridiculous is their record in competitive games:
33 wins
3 draws
1 defeat
http://www.soccerway.com/teams/spain/spain
And if you still want to filter that down to the bigger occasion competitive games, well that’s 3 tournaments in a row (10 matches) where they’ve not even conceded a goal in the knock-out stages.
As for the Euro Championships only starting in 1960, well the only European team to win the World Cup in the previous two decades to that was West Germany in 1954, a shock result against the best team in Europe at the time, Puskas’ Hungary.
I think the only valid debate would be the Brazil team of 1970 but they didn’t do much in any of the years either side of that tournament. This Spanish team certainly have either side of their World Cup in 2010
If there was no such thing as time there would be ppl out there who’d say Ronnie Delaney was the greatest miler or Carl Lewis the greatest 100mtrs of all time. The greatest is the one who holds the present record. When it comes to football the Brazil of ’70 wouldn’t be in the same class as that Spanish team we’ve witnessed today. At that pace they’d be lucky to last 60 mins, and comparing the’88 Liverpool, they would be mid table Spanish premier, and I follow the Pool. How many times a country won the W/C is irrelevant as to who is the greatest team to walk on a football pitch. Barca are going to dominate Europe for at least the next 5years.
Great performance from Spain this afternoon now for a walk before dinner.
Undeniably accurate headline miguel. The greatest team of all time. This victory proves that reaching the top like Brazil In 1970 is one thing sustaining it like Spain have shows that they are the greatest VAMOS TOTAL FOOTBALL!!
Rodger your dead right Vamos Las Rojas
I actually agree that this makes football that bit more boring. Although its unbelievable to watch, one teams utter dominance takes away the attraction of football. The Scottish league next year will not be worth watching, they should give Celtic the trophy now. And F1 ratings a few years back struggled because schumacher was unbeatable. I’d prefer to see a tight, end to end game between two very good teams, than see one outstanding team dominate their opponents. Eg Man United 4:3 Man City, or Liverpool 4:3 Newcastle, unbelievable football games because they were so tight. 4:0 win against the second best team in Europe makes a bit of a mockery of the competition, even though it was good overall. The only sport were outright dominance is enjoyable is horse racing.
If Spain played hurling they would be Kilkenny in a class of their own if Irish team played hurling they would be ..think better leave that blank.
They have beaten Germany, holland and Italy in last 3 finals, do they not count as great footballing teams/countries. Who are these great south American teams? Brazil and Argentina are no world beaters these days.
The whole ‘of all time’ tag is bit sensationalist and simplistic. There’s no way to verify it, so why even put it on the table? Okay, for the sake of the debate maybe, but then sticking ‘undeniably’ in there is just dictatorial.
Football has evolved, like anything else, over time. Things improve. Undoubtedly, most international teams’ fitness, mentality, strategy, youth development, technical application etc, have improved since the 70s, because of the resources invested into improving these elements, so naturally, the reliance on natural talent and physicality has lessened.
To compare Spain 2012 and Brazil 1970 is to compare Messi and Richard Dunne. Different environments, different methods, different level of hype.
Niall, you can’t compare teams across different eras. But the key point I’ve always made in this debate is that you can compare the extent of dominance a team enjoyed across their cycle.
For example, Hungary had an 85% win record between 1951 and 1955. They didn’t however win every trophy they came across. They lost when it mattered. That is a mark against them.
Over four years, Spain have produced the longest winning run in international history, the longest unbeaten run in international history, have won 90% of all games, have produced the best defence in any tournament and, in two of three tournaments, been the most prolific scorers.
Most importantly of all, they’ve won all three major trophies they’ve entered.
No team has ever matched that level of utter domination.
I just think too much emphasis is placed on their domination of Europe. They’re kicking major European butt and it’s teams like ourselves that make up the vast majority of their stats. How many times have they played the other great nations of the world?
Honestly, how can a team be called the best after only beating the best of South America once? They’ve demolished everyone in Europe for 3 tournaments, so they’re arguably the best ever here. But, for me, they have to win the next World Cup to “undeniably” claim best ever.
Italy and Brazil have both won the World Cup twice in a row. Surely that’s a better achievement than one World Cup and two continental cups?
Probably because the (usual) best of South America wasn’t good enough to reach as far as Spain did in the last World Cup:
- Germany beat Argentina 4-0 in the quarters (who then got beaten by Spain in the semis)
- Holland beat Germany 2-1 in the quarters ( who then got beaten by Spain in the final)
Italy 34-38 isn’t even worth considering when only a small number of nations competed in the qualifiers to the finals
Huh? Please re-read my comment. You’ve obviously misunderstood it. All I’m saying is that you can’t say they’re undeniably the best, when they’ve only won one World Cup.
The South Americans have only had one crack at them (even if they didn’t meet) . Hardly enough to run around claiming to be the best ever.
No Ireland team 88-94 the Jackie chartlon years