Manchester City won their seventh FA Cup title with this 2-1 victory over Manchester United at Wembley. Part II of their quest for the treble is complete.
Manchester City moved one step closer to the treble with this FA Cup final victory over rivals Manchester United at Wembley.
It couldn’t have started any better for City, with the excellent İlkay Gündoğan scoring the fastest goal in FA Cup history after just 12 seconds – an exquisite volley from outside the box with what was just the fourth touch of the ball by a Man City player. His goal broke the previous record set by Everton’s Louis Saha in the 2009 final (25 seconds) against Chelsea. That final saw Chelsea recover to eventually win the final 2-1, but there would be no such recovery come full-time for Man Utd this afternoon.
Erik ten Hag’s side did equalise in the first half with a soft penalty awarded against Jack Grealish for handball. Bruno Fernandes dispatched the spot-kick, which was his 28th taken and 25th scored since his debut for the club in February 2020 – both are records by a Premier League player in that period. That penalty did ruin Man City’s impeccable defensive display in the competition this season, denying them the chance to become just the third team to win the FA Cup without conceding a single goal, after Preston North End in 1889 and Bury in 1903.
Gündoğan’s recent form for Man City was a major reason behind winning a third successive Premier League title, so it was apt that the German won the game for Pep Guardiola’s side. His second goal – another volley from outside the box – was his sixth in his last six games for City, and he was denied a hat trick thanks to an offside flag. Had that goal stood, Gündoğan would have become only the second player to score a hat trick in an FA Cup final at Wembley after Stan Mortensen in the 1953 FA Cup final for Blackpool versus Bolton. But it wasn’t to be.
Both of his goals were assisted by Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian has now assisted 28 goals in all competitions for Man City across 2022-23, with just the UCL final versus Inter Milan to come next weekend. To put his feat into context, no other Premier League player has assisted more than 16 goals for their club in all competitions this season – 12 fewer than De Bruyne.
City’s victory means they lift the FA Cup for the seventh time and Guardiola has now won all six of his domestic finals in charge at the club. In doing so, it also denied United the chance to move within one of Arsenal’s all-time record of 14 wins.
Man Utd were unable to stop City today, so now only Inter Milan stand in City’s way of becoming the only side to replicate the Red Devils’ historic League/FA Cup/UCL treble from 1998-99. It’s on.
On this page below, you’ll find the Opta chalkboard tool, which enables you to do your own analysis on this year’s FA Cup final. From kick-off, you’ll see all the match data populate in the chalkboards, allowing you to analyse metrics from goals, assists, shots, passes, tackles and interceptions for every player in both line-ups.
Underneath the chalkboards, you can also see our live match coverage from the 142nd final in the history of the FA Cup, as it happened.
Man City 2-1 Man United: As It Happened
17:35: The Post-Match Opta Facts
OptaJoe has been hard at work and sent over the very best post-game Opta facts for the FA Cup final…
• Manchester City have won the FA Cup for the seventh time, the joint-sixth most in the competition’s history. This is also the second time they’ve completed a league and FA Cup double, after 2018-19.
• Ilkay Gündogan’s opener for Man City after 12 seconds was the fastest ever goal scored in an FA Cup final, beating Louis Saha’s strike after 25 seconds in 2009.
• Manchester United have lost more FA Cup finals than any other side in the history of the competition (9). The Red Devils have now lost four of their last five final appearances in the competition.
• Manchester City have now scored 150 goals in all competitions this season, the most of any team in Europe’s top five leagues. It’s the fourth time an English top-flight side has scored as many in a single campaign, with the Citizens also responsible for the other three (156 in 2013-14, 169 in 2018-19, 150 last season).
• With Ilkay Gündogan (Man City) and Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd) finding the net, this was the first time in FA Cup final history that the starting captains for both sides scored in the match.
• Bruno Fernandes has scored 25 penalty goals in all competitions for Manchester United, five more than any other Premier League player since he joined in February 2020. He became the fourth different player to score a penalty in an FA Cup final for the Red Devils (excluding shootouts), after Arnold Muhren (1983), Eric Cantona (1994) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (2004).
• Man City’s Ilkay Gündogan became the third captain to score twice in an FA Cup final in the 21st century, after Steven Gerrard (2006) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (2020). He’s also the first player on record (since 1963) to score twice from outside the box in a single FA Cup final.
• Kevin De Bruyne has provided 28 assists for Manchester City in all competitions this season, setting up both of their goals today. It’s at least eight more than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues this season (before their league games this evening).
• Manchester United had just three shots on target in this match, with two of those coming five seconds apart in second half injury time, and the other being Bruno Fernandes’ penalty goal.
• Manchester United midfielder Fred committed six fouls in this match, the most by a player in an FA Cup final since Dean Ashton against Liverpool in 2006 (also 6).
16:59: Part II of the Treble Completed!
Manchester City have sealed the League/FA Cup double. They are the 13th team to do this in a season.
Pep Guardiola has now won all six of his domestic cup final at Manchester City, with this the club’s seventh FA Cup title overall.
Just Inter Milan stand in Man City’s way of becoming only the second English team to win the main treble, after Man Utd’s feat in 1998-99. Game on.
16:15: 2-1 Man City! KDB to Gündoğan x2
Another Gündoğan goal. Another De Bruyne assist.
The German scores his 11th goal and Man City’s 150th of the 2022-23 campaign. He also becomes the first player to score two goals in an FA Cup final since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for Arsenal in the 2020 final. His next aim will be to become the just the second hat-trick scorer in an FA Cup final at Wembley after Stan Mortensen in the 1953 FA Cup final for Blackpool.
Kevin De Bruyne’s assist was his 28th of the 2022-23 season in all competitions.
15:58: 1-1 at Half-Time
It’s level at half-time in the 2022-23 FA Cup final. Manchester United did well to recover from falling behind after just 12 seconds, with Bruno Fernandes’ equalising from the penalty spot in the 33rd minute.
It’s been a quiet half for Erling Haaland, who has managed just one touch in the opposition box so far in this final, but he is the only player to have attempted more than one shot in the first half for Man City (two).
15:35: Manchester United Equalise! 1-1 in the FA Cup Final.
Bruno Fernandes rolls home his penalty, as Manchester City concede a goal for the first time in the FA Cup this season. It was a rather fortuitous penalty, following a VAR intervention, giving the spot-kick against Jack Grealish for a soft handball, but Man Utd and Fernandes won’t care about that.
Fernandes has now scored 25 of the 28 penalties that he’s taken for Manchester United in all competitions (excluding shootouts) – both of those tallies are more than any other player for a Premier League side since his debut on 1 February 2020.
2 – This is the first time in FA Cup final history that the starting captains for both sides have scored in the match. Skip. pic.twitter.com/163dJYAPMO
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 3, 2023
15:23: 27th Assist for Kevin De Bruyne in 2022-23
Amidst the carnage following the Gündoğan goal, we didn’t realise that it was Kevin De Bruyne who assisted the strike. That was his 27th competitive assist for Manchester City in 2022-23, which is 11 more than any other player has managed at a Premier League club this season. Some player.
15:16: Blistering Start for Man City
We’re just about getting over that Gündoğan goal. His recent form has been exceptional, with the German scoring five goals and assisting two more in his last six appearances in all competitions.
A fact to give hope to all Man Utd fans – after Louis Saha scored after 25 seconds in the 2009 FA Cup final for Everton (the previous quickest goal in an FA Cup final), opponent’s Chelsea recovered to come from behind and lift the trophy with a 2-1 victory. A long way to go in this game yet.
15:00: OH MY WORD. 1-0 MAN CITY.
İlkay Gündoğan scores for Manchester City after just 12 seconds of the game and it’s the quickest goal ever scored in an English FA Cup final. It was just the fourth touch of the ball by a Man City player in the game, too. Unbelievable.
Which goal did it beat? Sorry, Louis Saha.
14:45: Erling Haaland’s Goal Hunt
Erling Haaland’s already broken all sorts of records within his first season as a Manchester City player – we’ve listed the majority of them here. He’s already scored 52 goals in 51 games this season, but how many can he add to his tally in his final two games? After the FA Cup final today, he’s got the UEFA Champions League final against Inter Milan next weekend in Istanbul.
His 52 goals this season have come from shots worth 42.2xG, which is an incredible over-performance, but something we’ve come to expect from his time at Borussia Dortmund before moving to Manchester last summer.
No Norwegian player has ever scored in an FA Cup final. Will he become the first this afternoon?
14:15: Man City vs Man United Line-ups Announced
The 2022-23 FA Cup final line-ups are in.
Arguably Pep Guardiola’s biggest call was who would start as goalkeeper today. He sticks with the man that’s played – and not yet conceded a single goal – in every round up to the 2023 final: Stefan Ortega Moreno. That means Ederson warms the bench ahead of next weekend’s UCL final versus Inter Milan.
Erling Haaland starts (of course), looking to add more goals to his ridiculous tally of 52 from 51 appearances in 2022-23 before today. Kevin De Bruyne has assisted 26 goals in all competitions for City this season – that’s 10 more than any other player for a Premier League club in 2022-23.
Manchester United start with seven of the XI that started in the EFL Cup final victory over Newcastle at Wembley in February – the four differences from that game being Victor Lindelöf, Christian Eriksen, Jadon Sancho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (although the latter two came on as subs in that League Cup final win).
21 – Manchester United are featuring in the #FACupFinal for the 21st time, the joint-most of any side in the competition’s history. This is the first time they’ve ever faced neighbours Manchester City in a major final. Showdown. pic.twitter.com/ymYUy6lg8Q
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 3, 2023
13:30: Man City vs Man United H2H in 2022-23
This will be the third Manchester derby of 2022-23, with both Man City and Man Utd enjoying one win each in the two Premier League encounters.
At the beginning of October in the Premier League, a hat-trick from both Erling Haaland and Phil Foden saw Manchester City run riot at the Etihad Stadium, before late consolation goals from substitute Anthony Martial made the scoreline somewhat more respectable for Erik ten Hag’s side. Not only was this the highest scoring Manchester derby match of all time (nine goals), the 187th meeting between the clubs also saw Haaland and Foden become the third and fourth hat-trick scorers for Man City in the derby match history.
Manchester United got their revenge in January, however, beating City 2-1 at Old Trafford. They did it the hard way, coming from behind to cancel out Jack Grealish’s 60th-minute strike thanks to goals from Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford.
This defeat saw Manchester City attempt just one shot on target – their joint-fewest in a Premier League match under Guardiola, while it was the first time that Man City have opened the scoring in the second half and lost a Premier League match in over 10 years.
13:00: Man City vs Man United Prediction
The Opta supercomputer isn’t on its summer holidays just yet. The AI-powered beast has been hard at work crunching the important data throughout the week and it’s given us the pre-match prediction for the 2023 FA Cup final. I’m afraid it’s not great news for Man Utd fans.
Man City are expected to take one step closer to the treble, with a 63.4% chance of victory at Wembley today according to the supercomputer projections. Manchester United have a 16.5% chance of success this afternoon, while there’s a 20.1% chance of the final going to extra time and potentially a penalty shootout. Man Utd, of course, reached the final following a shootout victory over Brighton in the semis – no side have ever been involved in a penalty shootout in both the semi-final and final in a single season of the FA Cup.
12:45: The Pre-Match Opta Facts
Our award-winning UK data insights team have been hard at work and provided us with the very best pre-game Opta facts for the FA Cup final…
• This is the first ever major final between Manchester City and Manchester United.
• Manchester United have won five of their last six FA Cup meetings with Manchester City, most recently a 3-2 away win in January 2012. The only exception in that run was a semi-final victory for Man City in 2010-11.
• This will be the third meeting between Man City and Man Utd at Wembley Stadium, with the other two both coming in 2011. The Citizens won an FA Cup semi-final tie 1-0, while the Red Devils won 3-2 in the Community Shield.
• This is Manchester City’s 12th FA Cup final, winning six and losing five of the previous 11. They’ve alternated between losing and winning in their last four, most recently beating Watford 6-0 in 2019.
• Man United are contesting their 21st FA Cup final, the joint-most of any side in the history of the competition along with Arsenal. They’ve won the trophy 12 times, with their eight final defeats the joint-most of any side along with Chelsea and Everton.
• Following their Premier League title win, Manchester City could win the league and FA Cup double for the second time in their history, after 2018-19. They would be the third team to do so on more than occasion after Manchester United (1993-94, 1995-96, 1998-99) and Arsenal (1970-71, 1997-98, 2001-02).
• Having already won the League Cup against Newcastle this season, Manchester United are looking to win both major domestic cup competitions in a single season for the first time. They would be the fifth different side overall to achieve this, after Arsenal (1992-93), Liverpool (2000-01 and 2021-22), Chelsea (2006-07) and Manchester City (2018-19).
• Manchester City are yet to concede a goal in this season’s FA Cup. In the Football League era (since 1888-89), only two teams have won the trophy without conceding a goal – Preston North End in 1889 and Bury in 1903.
• Manchester City are the highest scorers in this season’s FA Cup (first round onwards) with 17 goals. The last team to score more in a single campaign were the Citizens themselves, netting 26 en route to lifting the trophy in 2019.
• Having won 3-1 in each round from the third to the quarter-final in this season’s FA Cup, Manchester United reached the final by beating Brighton on penalties after a 0-0 draw. No team has ever been involved in a shootout in both the semi-final and final within the same FA Cup campaign before.
• Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag will be the fourth different Dutch manager to take charge of a team in an FA Cup final, after Ruud Gullit (W1 L1), Guus Hiddink (W1) and Louis van Gaal (W1).
• Spanish managers have won the FA Cup on four occasions – Rafael Benítez with Liverpool in 2006, Roberto Martínez with Wigan in 2013, Mikel Arteta with Arsenal in 2020 and Man City’s Pep Guardiola in 2019. The only Spanish manager to lose an FA Cup final was Javier Gracia with Watford, who lost to compatriot Guardiola in 2019.
• In their 3-0 semi-final win over Sheffield United, Riyad Mahrez became the first Man City player to score a hat-trick at Wembley Stadium. Overall he’s scored four times at Wembley for City, with only Sergio Agüero netting more for the Citizens at the ground (six).
• Marcus Rashford and midfielder Casemiro were on target for Manchester United in their League Cup final win against Newcastle. There have been five players to score in both major domestic cup finals for the Red Devils – Norman Whiteside, Mark Hughes, Brian McClair, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jesse Lingard.
• Erling Haaland has scored 52 goals in all competitions for Manchester City this season – he could become the first ever Norwegian player to score in the FA Cup final.
• Kevin De Bruyne is the only Manchester City player who scored in their 6-0 FA Cup final victory over Watford in 2019 still at the club. He could become the second player to score in two different FA Cup finals for the club, after Bobby Johnstone (1955 and 1956).
• Since his FA Cup debut for the club in 2019, Riyad Mahrez has scored more goals in the competition proper than any other player (11). He’s scored five so far this season – the last time a Man City player scored more in a single season was in 1933-34 (Fred Tilson, nine).
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