Month: May 2024

WEMBLEY: Manchester United chose the best moment to save their bad season when they shocked Manchester City 2-1 to lift the FA Cup for the first time since 2016 at Wembley Stadium, just a moment ago.

Victory over the English Premier League champions allowed the Red Devils to also book a ticket to next season’s Europa League after just finishing the league campaign in eighth place – their worst position since 1990.

Even sweeter, Erik Ten Hag’s men also managed to prevent the neighboring enemy from making history by becoming the first team to win the league and the FA Cup two seasons in a row.

When Ten Hag’s position was in shambles and the player was bombarded with criticism following his poor performance this season, the Red Devils line clearly did not pay attention to the issue, instead appearing with good defensive action to make up for the disappointment of losing in the same final action last season.

In fact, they surprised City when they took the lead in the 30th minute through Alejandro Garnacho who capitalized on a defensive error by Josko Gvardiol and goalkeeper Stefan Ortega.

Nine minutes later, City’s goal was conceded again when young player Kobbie Mainoo scored the second goal with an exciting move to strengthen United’s position.

Although substitute Jeremy Doku narrowed the gap for City in the 87th minute with a shot from outside the penalty box, the goal was too late for Pep Guardiola’s men to drag the action into extra time thus allowing United not to end the season empty-handed.

LIVERPOOL: Mohamed Salah paid tribute to Jurgen Klopp on social media after the manager’s last game with Liverpool this season.

The German manager ended his career at Anfield with a 2-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the last Premier League game, and gave an emotional speech.

Egyptian forward Salah, who worked with Klopp for several years at Liverpool, hopes they can clash again in the future.

The 31-year-old uploaded a photo of himself with Klopp in training and wrote: “It’s been great to share all the trophies and experiences with you over the last seven years.

“I wish you the best of luck and hope we meet again.”

Salah joined Liverpool in June 2017, two years after Klopp took over the club – and became one of the Premier League’s top scorers.

Together, they won the European Champions League in 2019, the Premier League title the following year, as well as five domestic and international championships.

Salah scored 32 goals in his first season, breaking the record for most goals in a campaign that featured 38 games, and a total of 211 goals during his time on Merseyside.

Liverpool confirmed that Feyenoord boss Arne Slot will replace Klopp from June 1, reportedly on a three-year contract.

Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk are among the Liverpool stars who still have a year left on their contracts, and it is not yet clear whether they will be part of Slott’s long-term plans at Anfield.

MANCHESTER, England: Manchester United face the risk of failing to qualify for European competition for the second time since the 1989-90 season.

Erik ten Hag’s men are eighth in the Premier League, 32 points behind Arsenal, after a 1-0 defeat to the Gunners at Old Trafford earlier this morning saw their 19th defeat in all competitions this season.

United have at least improved slightly compared to when they were beaten 4-0 at Crystal Palace earlier last week.

Ten Hag once again blamed a long list of injuries for his team’s struggles this season.

Captain Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire are among those not in action for the United squad.

“It’s like trying to swim with your hands tied behind your back,” Ten Hag said.

“If you want to improve as a team, you need agile players. You saw that in the team we played against today.”

United, who have never finished seventh and below in the EPL era, are three points behind Newcastle and Chelsea with two games remaining.

Failure to finish in the top seven or win the FA Cup final against Manchester City will see United miss out on European action.

“It would be terrible (if we didn’t qualify for Europe) but that’s the situation we’re in now,” said Ten Hag.

“If you analyze the performance you can see we are very competitive.

“It’s not the way we want it to be, United have to win, always! But right now as a club and this team, with the injury list we have, we’re not in that position.”