Man City vs. Watford
Venue: Wembley Stadium
Kick off: 5PM
The 138th FA Cup final takes place this evening as treble-chasing Manchester City face underdogs Watford at Wembley Stadium.
City have already won the EFL Cup at the national stadium this season, followed up by lifting the Premier League, and now only the Hornets stand between them and a place in history.
Since the introduction of the EFL Cup in 1960, no English side has ever managed to win a clean sweep of major honours on offer in a single season.
The debate as to whether City are the greatest Premier League side ever will continue to rumble on.
For all the hype surrounding the Citizens last season, it was arguably their ability to overtake and then hold off Liverpool this season that is deserving of more praise.
There was the disappointment of exiting the Champions League to Tottenham Hotspur, of course, denying them the chance of winning a quadruple, but three trophies out of four – four out of five including the Community Shield, as Guardiola insists – would not be a bad third campaign in English football for the Catalan coach.
After crushing Rotherham United 7-0 and Burnley 5-0 in rounds three and four respectively, the Citizens were made to work a little harder to see off Newport County, albeit with a final scoreline of 4-1, and they then required a huge slice of luck to beat Swansea City 3-2.
The Citizens trailed 2-0 at the Liberty Stadium with a little over 20 minutes to go but, thanks to some strange refereeing that day in March, they prevailed thanks to goals from Bernardo Silva and Sergio Aguero, either side of Kristoffer Nordfeldt’s own goal.
City then beat Brighton & Hove Albion in the semi-finals to reach the final for the 11th time, but this is their first since 2013 when losing 1-0 to Wigan.
The vast majority of City’s squad have still yet to lift this famous cup.
Watford were one down after 36 minutes and two behind with 62 minutes gone through goals from Matt Doherty and Raul Jimenez.
Those goals came either side of Troy Deeney’s penalty in the final seconds of normal time, providing Watford’s supporters with one of the most memorable afternoons in their history as they came out on top 3-2 in a battle between two of the Premier League’s overachievers.
Wolves gained a little revenge by holding off the Hornets to finish seventh in the top flight.
Man City possible XI: Ederson, Walker, Kompany, Laporte, Zinchenko; D.Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Aguero, Sterling
Watford possible XI: Gomes, Femenia, Kabasele, Cathcart, Holebas, Pereyra, Doucoure, Capoue, Hughes, Deulofeu, Deeney.