Pep Guardiola has confirmed an early Man City lineup for the FA Cup final against Manchester United.
Pep Guardiola’s next task will be to prepare Manchester City for a derby FA Cup final against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has announced that goalkeeper Stefan Ortega would be given the opportunity to keep his perfect FA Cup record and keep the gloves for the final. The German joined City from Bundesliga 2 side Arminia Bielefeld last summer as a backup to No. 1 Ederson, but he will start in City’s all-Manchester FA Cup final game at Wembley on Saturday, with Guardiola having a plethora of choices to choose from.
This season, Ortega has maintained five clean sheets in the competition, and it is apparent that he has the full faith of his manager Guardiola, who believes he has no worries Ortega will do the job against Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United at Wembley.
“Stefan plays as he has played really good in the FA Cup and the last games to have a little bit of rhythm that Eddy has,” he said at a news conference. “It has always been like that – even in Barcelona, Bayern Munich – that the keeper who has played FA Cup plays. Eddy plays the final of the Champions League.
Guardiola has been accused of tampering with his team on the biggest stages, like as leaving out Fernandinho for the 2021 Champions League final against Chelsea.
On that time, City were defeated 1-0 by Kai Havertz’s score in Porto, handing the Catalan his first defeat in a Champions League final.
But Ortega has impressed this season, surrendering no goals in five FA Cup rounds and only three in 11 outings across all competitions.
When City were eliminated from the Carabao Cup at the quarter-final stage in January, the goalkeeper was caught off his line and lobbed by Moussa Djenepo. That can be considered an outlier, as the 30-year-old has proven to be a reliable number two when Guardiola has chosen to rest Ederson.
Guardiola has a fully healthy squad to choose from as he prepares for the most significant eight days of his Manchester City career, which begins next weekend with the Champions League Final in Istanbul.
City, who have already won the Premier League by five points over Arsenal – their fifth domestic crown in six seasons – are aiming to become the first English team to win the Treble since 1998-99. The team that stands in their way is, ironically, their opponents at Wembley, with United wanting to inflict double damage by destroying their chances of a hat-trick this season.
But City, armed with the ravenous 52-goal marksman Erling Haaland and the creative threat of Kevin De Bruyne, will be favorites to defeat Erik ten Hag’s side before facing Inter Milan in the Champions League final on June 10.
Man City’s predicted lineup to face Man Utd (3-2-4-1): Ortega; Akanji, Dias, Ake; Stones, Rodri; Bernardo, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Grealish; Haaland.
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