Lakshay Khurana
Manchester United look forward to their only hope of winning a title this season. Going against Crystal Palace is comparatively easy for Louis Van Gaal’s men as they’ve recently defeated them in the Barclays Premier League. Manchester United and Crystal Palace will meet at Wembley Stadium on Saturday in English football’s showpiece match – the FA Cup final.
The spirit of players is high as they have come really close to winning the cup, which hasn’t been achieved for 12 years now.
Crystal Palace will be hoping to trouble the odds and achieve a remarkable victory in what is their first final appearance since 1990, when they were beaten by United in a replay.
Let’s look at the main key battles for the final game:
- Wayne Rooney vs Yohan Cabaye
After failing at PSG, Cabaye returned to the Premier League and has since then he has been back in his old form scoring five goals and having one assist to his name this season at Crystal Palace, the French midfielder can pose a real threat to United. Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney has been in an incredible form at the center of the midfield since his return from injury. It will be great to see both of them go against one another in the upcoming FA Cup Final match.
- Marcus Rashford vs Joel Ward
Very few would disagree with Rashford being the best striker in the team since his debut. The youngster has scored important goals and is yet to succeed further. His performance against the Eagles in their last meet was tremendous and he is bound to repeat the same in the upcoming fixture. Joel Ward has to rise to the occasion to stop the 18-year-old striker if he wants his team to win the cup.
- Marcos Rojo vs Wilfried Zaha
In the last meeting, we witnessed Zaha dominated at the Argentine defender, making a complete fool out of him. With Borthwick-Jackson ruled out and doubts about Matteo Darmian’s fitness, Marcos Rojo will be set to start the game again despite having a horrific season. We would expect to see him play better than he has this whole season and take his revenge. Zaha, on the other hand, has gone from United sulk to a star at Crystal Palace. The English striker has had a good season at Crystal Palace in terms of individual stats and efforts. It will be be exciting to see how the battle against these two will turn out this time.
