Man city vs wigan, Good afternoon. Fans of both sides have managed to make it down to London from the north, either by using the method of travel travel or automobile propulsion, and so it's time, ladies and gentlemen, to put your hands together for the 132nd FA Cup final. Sorry, the 132nd FA Cup final with Budweiser. At 5.15pm. Mustn't upset the sponsors or anyone from the football family or the makers of Britain's Got Talent. Even so, it's the FA Cup final - the FA Cup final!!! - and they're not going to ruin our fun, not this afternoon.
After all, and this bears repeating, it's the FA Cup final! In no particular order that means Abide With Me, Keith Houchen, John Aldridge v Dave Beasant, Lawrie Sanchez, Norman Whiteside, Kevin Moran, Bert Trautmann, Alan Sunderland, a White Horse, Stanley Matthews, Ian Rush, Ricky Villa, Jim Montgomery, Alan Taylor, Eric Cantona, David Elleray, Ray Parlour, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Roberto di Matteo, Roberto di Matteo again, Didier Drogba, Didier Drogba again, Didier Drogba again, Didier Drogba again (didn't he ever get bored?) and now Manchester City and Wigan Athletic. There, now you're in the mood.
Actually you should have been in the mood since roughly 8am. ESPN have been on air since then and haven't stopped jabbering away for the last eight hours. Seriously. It all began with Football Weekly stars James Richardson and Kevin Kilbane having a breakfast-off, setting a new high in the history of sport on TV.
Anyway this promises to be a doozy of a match. This is Wigan's - Wigan!!! - first ever FA Cup final and at the very least they're aiming to make sure it doesn't go the same way as their previous appearance in a major final, when they were beaten 4-0 by Manchester United in the League Cup in 2006. But that was in Cardiff. This is Wembley and they've already got experience of winning at Wembley, having beaten Millwall in their semi-final last month. This is going to be rather more difficult though. Not only do they still have a relegation battle to think about, to seal their place in history, they're going to have to beat Manchester City, who saw off Chelsea to get here. It's only Yaya Toure, David Silva, Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero standing in the way of a Wigan side potentially missing a number of their key players. But still, what a journey it's been since they made their league debut 35 years ago.
It's going to be a tall order against this City side though. Although Wigan were unfortunate to lose against them in the league last month, going down to a moment of magic from Carlos Tevez, overall their record against City is miserable. Wigan have lost their last seven matches against City, failing to score a single goal, and haven't beaten them since a 2-1 victory in September 2008. Antonio Valencia and Amr Zaki got their goals that day. Vincent Kompany scored for City.
In typical City fashion, though, this hasn't been the perfect build-up. Last night there were reports that they're close to parting company with Roberto Mancini in order to appoint Sir Alex Ferguson the Malaga manager, Manuel Pellegrini, which hasn't given off the impression that all is well at City. It doesn't matter that Mancini is on the verge of winning his second FA Cup in three years, or that he won the title last season, he's on his way out. It's going to be interesting watching him this afternoon.
But not as interesting as watching Wigan. Wigan! Wigan! WIGAN! WIGAN! THE FA CUP FINAL!
Kick-off: 5.15pm, the optimal time for all classic football matches. Just another 75 minutes to go!
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Man city vs wigan
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