This weekend in five of the top European football countries (England, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France), the season's final matches will take place - cup finals. This time Eurofootball.com provides you with a preview of the FA Cup and "Coupe de France" finals happening on Saturday. FA Cup: "Manchester United" - "Crystal Palace" The road to the final: "Manchester United": 3rd round: vs "Sheffield United" - 1-0; 4th round: vs "Derby County" - 3-1; 5th round: vs "Shrewsbury Town" - 3-0; Quarterfinals: vs "West Ham United" - 1-1, 2-1; Semifinals: vs "Everton" - 2-1. "Crystal Palace": 3rd round: vs "Southampton" - 2-1; 4th round: vs "Stoke City" - 1-0; 5th round: vs "Tottenham Hotspur" - 1-0; Quarterfinals: vs "Reading" - 2-0; Semifinals: vs "Watford" - 2-1. Team Form: "Manchester United" finished the Premier League season last – on Tuesday. In the final match, they beat "Bournemouth" 3-1, but it wasn't enough for them to qualify for the next year's Champions League tournament. A defeat against "West Ham United" midweek left them in fifth place in the final league standings. "Crystal Palace" suffered a 1-4 defeat in their last match against "Southampton" and finished the season in fifteenth position in the English championship. In the final stretch of the Premier League season, they celebrated victory only once in their last six matches. Team Injuries and Returns: "United" will have four players returning to the lineup - Matteo Darmian, Morgan Schneiderlin, and Marcos Rojo who have recovered from injuries, and Marouane Fellaini who has completed his suspension and will also be able to help the team. However, "Manchester United" still has some losses - Bastian Schweinsteiger and Luke Shaw are not ready to return, and Memphis Depay and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson did not travel to London, so their participation in the match is also doubtful. Adnan Januzaj and Timothy Fosu-Mensah, who have rarely appeared on the field this season, are expected to miss the match. "Crystal Palace" will be missing midfielder Joe Ledley on Saturday. This means that Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako will also be ready for the match. Pre-match quotes from coaches: "Your initial goal is always to surprise and show well. This depends on many factors, including your opponents' game. If successful, it will be a fantastic match. Our initial goal is to win by playing well and scoring beautiful goals. But if we win 1-0, that will also be a sufficient result. Victory in the final is the most important thing because without it, you end up with nothing", said "Manchester United" coach Louis van Gaal. "They maintain possession of the ball well, so sometimes we will have to be patient. We are the team that needs to fight harder to win, and I don't think anyone would argue with that. We have areas on the field where we, in my opinion, are a bit stronger and we need to take advantage of that", said "Crystal Palace" manager Alan Pardew. Predicted line-ups: "Manchester United": De Gea; Rojo, Blind, Smalling, Valencia; Fellaini, Schneiderlin; Martial, Rooney, Lingard; Rashford. "Crystal Palace": Hennessey; Souare, Delaney, Dann, Ward; Jedinak, Cabaye, Bolasie, Puncheon, Zaha; Wickham. Key facts before the match: These teams have met twice in the FA Cup, and neither time was a winner determined. However, both times "Manchester United" celebrated victory in the replay matches; In the last 20 matchups between these teams, "United" has only lost once - in the 2011 League Cup quarterfinal; If "Palace" wins, they would secure their first major trophy and for the first time in history, qualify for European competition; By winning today, "Crystal Palace" would become the 44th team to win the FA Cup; In the FA Cup, "Crystal Palace" eliminated four Premier League teams, having beaten only two teams in the league this year; In the five FA Cup matches this season, Alan Pardew's proteges have conceded only three goals; "United" reaches the FA Cup final for the first time since 2007. This is the 19th FA Cup final for the team, a record in the competition - "Arsenal" has reached the final the same number of times; With a victory, "red devils" would match another FA Cup record, which belongs to "Arsenal" - winning this match, "United" would be fighting for this cup for the twelfth time; With a victory, Louis van Gaal would win his first title as a "Manchester United" coach. Throughout his career, the Dutchman has won cup titles in the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany; If he shines today, Marcus Rashford would become the second-youngest goalscorer in FA Cup final history. The absolute record belongs to Norman Whiteside, who scored a goal at the age of 18 years and 19 days in the 1983 final. Rashford will be 18 years and 203 days old on the day of the match.
"Coupe de France": "Marseille" - "Paris Saint-Germain" The road to the final: "Marseille": 3rd round: vs "SM Caen" - 0-0, after an 11-meter penalty shootout 3-1; 4th round: vs "Montpellier" - 2-0; 5th round: vs "FC Trelissac" - 2-0; Quarterfinals: vs "US Granville" - 1-0; Semifinals: vs "FC Sochaux" - 1-0. "Paris Saint-Germain": 3rd round: vs "ES Wasquehal" - 1-0; 4th round: vs "Toulouse" - 2-1; 5th round: vs "Lyon" - 3-0; Quarterfinals: vs "Saint-Etienne" - 3-1; Semifinals: vs "FC Lorient" - 1-0. Team Form: Struggling through a poor season, "Marseille" did not experience any defeats in their last four matches in "Ligue 1" and eight points earned helped them stay in thirteenth place. The last time they finished in such a low position in the league was in the 2000-2001 season when they finished in fifteenth place in the French championships. Having secured the champions title in record time, "Paris Saint-Germain" has no intention of stopping, and in their last seven matches, they lost points only once, drawn with "Bordeaux" footballers. They ended three of their last four matches by crushing their opponents with a score of 4-0. Team Injuries and Returns: "Marseille," after the news that Georges-Kevin Nkoudou has already traveled with the team to the last matches of the season, heads to the final without any injured players. Nkoudou has been the only one recently who was recovering from an injury. PSG coach Laurent Blanc hopes that Blaise Matuidi will be able to help his team in tonight's match. However, the Paris team will still be without Marco Verratti, who is recovering from a knee injury. Quotes from coaches before the match: "We fear nothing. We are not the favorites of this match, and we will simply have to fight. This season does not reflect the strength of the "Marseille" team. We have often said that one or two victories would put us back among the strongest teams in "Ligue 1". The difference between the teams in this league is not that great, and we are determined to prove it in the final", said "Marseille" coach Franck Passi. "Not only our team will feel the pressure before the match. "Marseille" will also feel it because only victory in the cup final can save their season, so both clubs will play under pressure. But that pressure never affects us", confidently said "Paris Saint-Germain" coach Laurent Blanc. Predicted line-ups: "Marseille": Steve Mandanda; Brice Dja Djedje, Nicolas Nkoulou, Rolando, Javier Manquillo; Mauricio Isla, Lassana Diarra; Florian Thauvin, Remy Cabella, Romain Alessandrini; Michy Batshuayi. "Paris Saint-Germain": Salvatore Sirigu; Serge Aurier, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Maxwell; Adrien Rabiot, Thiago Motta, Blaise Matuidi; Angel Di Maria, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani Key facts before the match: In both of their "Ligue 1" matches this season, PSG defeated their opponents by the same score of 2-1; Paris Saint-Germain have won their last nine matches in a row against "Marseille" club. In all of these matches, they scored at least two goals each; "Marseille" team has not conceded any goals in their five French Cup matches this season; "Marseille" holds two "Coupe de France" records - they have reached the final for the nineteenth time and celebrated ten victories. However, if they lose tonight, they would be required to share one record with their current opponents - "Paris Saint-Germain" have won the tournament nine times, and a victory would match "Marseille's" achievement; By winning tonight, "Paris Saint-Germain" would have secured all titles in France for the season - until now, they have already won the Super Cup, the League Cup, and the "Ligue 1" championship; These matches will be the 180th and final in Zlatan Ibrahimovic's career with the PSG team. He has scored 154 goals in the games played so far; During his entire career, Ibrahimovic has scored more than one goal per match on average in French Cup matches - in 12 played matches, he scored 14 times. This season, in five Cup matches, he scored five goals.
This weekend's cup finals: Saturday: 19:30 FA Cup: "Crystal Palace" - "Manchester United" 21:00 DFB Pokal: "Bayern" - "Borussia" 21:45 Coppa Italia: "Milan" - "Juventus" 22:00 Coupe de France: "Marseille" - "Paris Saint-Germain" Sunday: 22:30 Copa del Rey: "Barcelona" - "Sevilla"
Tautvydas Sakalauskas
