Manchester City 2-1 Manchester United: Analysing FA Cup final’s Gundogan opener, treble talk, ‘keeper comparison

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 03: Ilkay Gundogan of Manchester City celebrates after he scores a goal to make it 1-0 during the FA Cup Final match between Manchester City and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium on June 03, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images)
By Oliver Kay, Mark Carey and more
Jun 3, 2023

Manchester City have taken another step towards the treble by beating Manchester United 2-1 in the FA Cup final.

Ilkay Gundogan scored after just 12 seconds to give Pep Guardiola’s team the lead before a Bruno Fernandes penalty, coming after a Jack Grealish handball, levelled the scores just past the half-hour. However, Gundogan decided it, with his second goal of the day from the outside of the penalty area, five minutes into the second half.

Here, our writers analyse the big talking points from a dramatic match.

Breaking down the Gundogoal

For all of the majestic, innovative football Manchester City have played this season, their opening goal was as route one as they come.

Not only that, among all 142 FA Cup finals this was the fastest goal scored in the event’s history. Six touches, 12 seconds, and a belter of a finish by City captain Ilkay Gundogan — who started and finished the sequence.

City have typically gone long when kicking off this season, with Gundogan this time passing directly back to goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, who calmly assesses his options as he gets the ball out of his feet.

As you can see below, City have overloaded the right-hand side of the pitch, for Ortega to look for a floated ball forward towards the head of Erling Haaland.

Haaland wins the first header against Casemiro, and you can already see Gundogan unmarked in the centre of the pitch, working out the scenarios so early on. It is a key strength of the German’s game to know when to pull away from the action and arrive onto a loose ball as it falls.

And didn’t he do it here!

As Victor Lindelof competes with Kevin De Bruyne for the second ball, a flick off De Bruyne lofts its trajectory higher, and it sits up perfectly for the onrushing Gundogan more than 20 yards from goal.

An ultra-critical view would be that United’s midfield of Eriksen, Fred and Casemiro are all behind the play as Gundogan shoots, but it is worth simply acknowledging the beauty of the strike.

With the outside of his foot, Gundogan elects to send the ball to the near post rather than across his body — which is a far more difficult technique to execute.

With his weight distributed more towards his right foot, goalkeeper David de Gea can do little but watch as the ball sails past to his left and into the top corner of his net.

Just 12 seconds. Barely enough time for all the fans to take their seats. Barely enough time for the match clock to appear on the TV coverage. Barely enough time for United manager Erik ten Hag to shout “Let’s keep it tight early doors, lads!”.

Mark Carey

De Gea’s distribution

One of the running threads through Manchester United’s 2022-23 season has been David de Gea’s distribution putting a cap on what is possible for them in possession. His discomfort when attempting to play out from the back has led to an unhappy compromise, particularly against opponents of City’s quality: kicking it long.

But you can’t just hit and hope. The ball still has to go in the right areas and expose the right weaknesses, as De Gea’s opposite number Stefan Ortega demonstrated when his route-one approach helped City score inside the first minute, isolating Erling Haaland against Casemiro out on their right.

By contrast, too often when De Gea went long, the ball either ran all the way through to Ortega or got swept away by one of City’s several physically imposing figures at the back, who routinely got the better of United’s attackers in their duels. That hampered United’s attempts to find a way back into the game until that award of a penalty.

It continued after half-time too, with a De Gea long ball straight out for a throw-in at the start of the second half that forced him to apologise to his team-mates. Arguably, he should have done better with Gundogan’s second strike after getting a hand to it.

The Spaniard’s immediate future is still up in the air, with his contract expiring at the end of the month as it stands, but one thing is certain: his ability with his feet is a limitation for which there is no easy workaround.

Mark Critchley

Pause for thought on penalties

It has been a week to remind us of the need to pause for thought before assessing refereeing decisions, given the appalling way in which Roma fans and their coach, Jose Mourinho, reacted to Anthony Taylor after their defeat by Sevilla in the Europa League final.

So many of the controversies in that match on Wednesday night related to decisions which, given the nature of the sport and the vagueness of the rules, were marginal. It was the same at Wembley today: a penalty appeal at either end and an ugly challenge from Casemiro on Manuel Akanji which, confusingly, resulted in a free kick for United rather than City.

The penalty United were awarded for their equaliser was a case in point. It was harsh on Jack Grealish, who of course had no intention of handling the ball. As former United (and City) goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel said in the BBC studio at half-time: “A correct decision, but it’s just a silly rule. It shouldn’t be a penalty. A penalty should be something you do really, really wrong.”

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Grealish was unlucky. Fred was a little lucky. Casemiro certainly was in not getting at least a yellow card for that lunge at Akanji. But when the dust settles, this FA Cup final was not won or lost by the match officials.

Neither was the Europa League final, for that matter.

As on Wednesday, the better team won.

Oliver Kay

Gifting Gundogan a second?

In terms of open play, United largely kept City at arm’s length, which is why they will be so full of regrets over the two goals they conceded, switching off and allowing Gundogan to demonstrate both his anticipation and his technique with either foot.

It was careless enough for Fred to concede a free kick in a dangerous position for a needless challenge on De Bruyne, but United had 10 outfield players back to defend it: the six tallest of them positioned around the six-yard line, Jadon Sancho nearest the ball and Christian Eriksen, Fred and Luke Shaw — in theory, at least — defending the edge of the penalty area (below).

But when De Bruyne swung the free kick over, Fred went with Ruben Dias and Shaw went with Rodri and there was nobody within six yards of Gundogan when he struck the ball. In fact, the nearest red shirts to him were Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Raphael Varane, who had started on the six-yard line. It all looked remarkably disorganised, in contrast to United’s setup in open play.

Still, could and should David de Gea have done better to keep out Gundogan’s shot? United predecessor Schmeichel, part of the BBC TV commentary team, certainly felt so.

Gundogan’s strike was not as clean as the one for the first goal, but compared to United’s defending, it was a masterpiece.

Oliver Kay

United brave in the press but it wasn’t enough

A theme of Ten Hag’s United in this first season as their manager has been their increased tendency to press high out of possession — with their 5.4 possessions won in the attacking third per 90 minutes higher than in each of their previous four years in the Premier League.

With the quality City possess in their build-up play, United knew they would have to be brave in committing men forward to prevent Pep Guardiola’s men from dictating the tempo of the game throughout.

For long periods today, this method worked, with Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes blocking passing lanes into midfield, man-marking John Stones or Rodri and having team-mates back them up in the second press.

Sure, City played out from the back successfully at times — as they do so well with the quality they have — but United should be credited with their bravery when out of possession.

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United regained the ball in the attacking third on seven occasions, having done so just twice in the previous meeting with City in the Premier League at Old Trafford in January. There was a period in the second half where United were turning the screw by regaining the ball high up to maintain their territorial dominance.

In the end, it wasn’t enough, but the intent and bravery should be credited.

Mark Carey

City on the cusp of history

Twenty-four years after English football’s historic first treble, Manchester City are two down, one to go. As neighbours United did it in 1999, City were languishing in the third tier, bordering on an afterthought to their local rivals, powerless to prevent them from achieving their greatest feat.

The tables have not quite turned. United still came into this 190th Manchester derby, and first in a FA Cup final, with what City never had in 1999: a chance to make their mark on the course of history. They could not take it.

That is not exactly a surprise. If you spoke to United fans on their way to Wembley this morning, they were either resigned and pessimistic or at best, clinging to a faint and fragile hope. That hope never felt fully convincing but it built in the hours towards kick-off, in intoxicating Wembley sunshine that gradually made more and more of them believe. But they believed for all of 12 seconds.

What might frustrate Erik ten Hag is that, having already made the worst possible start, they then squandered their reprieve. United were solid, perhaps even the better side, between Bruno Fernandes’ equaliser from the penalty spot and half-time. The waves of sustained pressure that City overwhelm opponents with had not arrived. They never really did.

But they also did not really need to. City are not inevitable; they are simply better than just about every opponent they come up against — United included. Gundogan’s opener was sublime, his second preventable, but the manner of the goals hardly matter. What counts is where they have taken City: to the brink of history.

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Whatever happens in Istanbul next Saturday, they are 2022-23 double winners. But this team has long been capable of more than that and now, only a heavily unfancied Inter Milan stand in their way.

United failed to take the opportunity to protect the greatest honour in their history. And now, like City in 1999, they can only watch on.

Mark Critchley

(Photo: Robin Jones/Getty Images)