FA Cup Final 2025 Today: History Calls Crystal Palace

WILL THE THIRD TIME BE DIFFERENT?

Crystal Palace have reached the FA Cup final twice, but both times they lost to Manchester United. In 1990, Palace led both in regular time and extra time, but only managed a 3-3 draw. Manchester United won 1-0 in the rematch. In 2016, Palace led Manchester United 1-0 again with 12 minutes left. But Manchester United equalised and won 2-1 in extra time.

Crystal Palace need to shut up Erling Haaland (centre)

PHOTO: AFP

This season, Palace reached the final and met an opponent from Manchester, but the "Man City". The FA Cup final between Crystal Palace and Man.City will take place at 10:30 p.m. on May 17 (Vietnam time) at Wembley Stadium. At the beginning of the season, Man.City was considered the strongest team, not only in English football but also in Europe. Now, coach Pep Guardiola's team can only rely on the FA Cup to salvage a disappointing season.

Meanwhile, the historic milestone is calling to Palace. Not only the glory of the first important title, Palace also has a "double" reward if they beat Man.City in the final. Standing only in the bottom half of the Premier League table, Palace will have a place in the Europa League next season if they own the FA Cup. Without having to look far, Palace can look to MU right now for inspiration to win. It was MU who unexpectedly defeated the "overdog" Man.City in the FA Cup final last year, thereby winning a place in the Europa League this season, and now MU is preparing to play in the Europa League final to compete for a place in the Champions League next season.

This is a season of rare complexity in English football, with more than half of the Premier League table hoping to compete for the three European Cups next season. If Man.City wins the FA Cup and also gets a Champions League spot, the 7th team in the final rankings will get a ticket to the Europa League, and a Conference League spot will also appear next, giving small teams like Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth hope. The result of the FA Cup final is even more important, for many teams.

"WE MEET AGAIN, IT WILL BE DIFFERENT"

Just over a month ago, Palace led 2-0 but lost 2-5 when visiting Man.City in the Premier League. Coach Oliver Glasner declared: If they meet again, he will definitely not let Man.City repeat the same style of play as in that match. Palace beat strong opponent Aston Villa 3-0 in the semi-finals, to meet Man.City again in the FA Cup.

With five goals in his last four games, Palace midfielder Eberechi Eze is in the best form of his career these days. And with Eze, Dean Henderson, Marc Guehi, Adam Wharton all part of the England squad for EURO 2024, Palace have never been as high-class as they are now. Ironically, a series of sources say Man.City could make an offer to buy Eze this summer. Many more stars will leave Palace, simply because the team cannot afford to keep them. Therefore, this is a "now or never" opportunity for Palace to win a title.

While Palace were full of determination and excitement to play the match of their life, Man.City's "monster" Erling Haaland admitted: "This is a season where all Man.City stars have played below their potential." Football is often like that, the name of a star or the popularity of a team sometimes does not bring victory. One of Man.City's biggest stars - Kevin de Bruyne - has announced that he will leave the team this summer. That means this is also a very special match, especially for De Bruyne.

It is not difficult to predict the match. Man.City scored 17 goals in the 5 matches leading up to the final. Palace kept a clean sheet 4 times and only conceded 1 goal in the remaining match. Obviously, the topic of the final will be whether Palace's solid defense or Man.City's fearsome attack will win.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/chung-ket-cup-fa-2025-lich-su-moi-goi-crystal-palace-185250516220444391.htm