Man City vs Manchester United LIVE: FA Cup final result and final score after Ilkay Gundogan double

Bruno Fernandes believes Manchester United are building something special under Erik ten Hag, who the skipper feels a debt of gratitude to having stood by him amid intense criticism following the Liverpool debacle.

The meticulous Dutchman has helped drag the Old Trafford giants up from a low ebb, leading them back into the Champions League having won the Carabao Cup in his first season at the helm.

Ten Hag now has the chance to end a positive campaign by completing a domestic cup double with a statement victory at Wembley, where United take on treble-chasing Manchester City on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola’s side could win a Premier League and FA Cup double for the second time in their history, after first doing so in the 2018/19 season.

City have reached the final without conceding a goal.

They have scored 17 times in five matches beating Chelsea 4-0 and Arsenal 1-0 in rounds three and four before seeing off Championship sides Bristol City (3-0), Burnley (6-0) and Sheffield United (3-0).

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, speaking to BBC One: “We have spoken about what we have to do to try and win the game. It’s two teams from the same city and that makes it very nice for the first time in the history of the FA Cup.

“I’m not thinking about next Saturday, it’s just about today and then we see what happens.

“It’s the FA Cup final, it’s so attractive. The players could be thinking about the Champions League if we were in the Premier League and had already won the title but this is the FA Cup final.”

There were already too many echoes of 1999 for Manchester United’s liking. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City could emulate Sir Alex Ferguson’s immortals, the only team to do the treble of the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League. Yet that side reached the final game of a marathon season famously depleted, with Roy Keane and Paul Scholes suspended for the date with Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp.

Now United head to Wembley for the 62^nd and last match of their season almost certainly without two of their first-choice front three. Anthony Martial is definitely out, Antony almost certainly. “He has a very small chance,” said Erik ten Hag, who had been more upbeat about his biggest buy’s fitness a few days earlier. Lisandro Martinez, his other signing from his former club is already sidelined: Ten Hag marked the Carabao Cup final victory over Newcastle by dancing on the Wembley pitch with his Ajax allies, and the two South Americans looked more natural movers, but presumably there will be no repeat this weekend.

Erling Haaland says a historic treble with Manchester City would be his “biggest dream” and hopes to fulfil his purpose and help deliver the Champions League.

Pep Guardiola’s side have won their fifth Premier League title in six seasons and play Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup final before facing Inter Milan in the Champions League final on 10 June.

United are the only English club to have completed the treble, under Sir Alex Ferguson in 1999, and while Guardiola’s City have dominated the domestic scene, they have yet to be crowned champions of Europe.

Haaland told BBC Sport: “It would be unreal to make this history. This is why they bought me of course, to get this, we don’t have to hide that.

“It would mean everything. I will do everything I possibly can to try to make it happen. It’s my biggest dream and hopefully dreams do come true.”

But the 22-year-old Norway striker warned both United and Inter will be “motivated” to “destroy” City’s treble chances.

“But as well it’s not easy,” Haaland said. “It’s two finals against two good teams that will do everything they can to try to destroy that.”

The rival Manchester United and Manchester City fans heading to Wembley for today’s final have been urged to use separate routes and motorway service stations to help minimise disruption.

Major congestion is feared with another train strike planned and woeful rail operator Avanti West Coast operating a reduced timetable on Friday and no services on Saturday.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has advised City supporters to travel via the M62 and M1; M6 and M1; or M6, M6 Toll and M1.

United fans are urged to travel on the M6, M42 and M40, which is a near-identical distance of about 200 miles (320 km).

Pep Guardiola makes 10 changes to the Manchester City team that started the final Premier League game of the season last weekend. Only Kyle Walker keeps his place as the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland all return.

Stefan Ortega starts in goal.

Erik ten Hag meanwhile makes four changes to the Manchester United side that defeated Fulham 2-1 last time out. Raphael Varane, Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka slot into defence ahead of Harry Maguire, Tyrell Malacia and Diogo Dalot.

Christian Eriksen replaces Alejandro Garnacho in midfield.

Man City XI: Ortega; Walker, Stones, Dias, Akanji; Rodri, De Bruyne, Gundogan; Bernardo, Grealish, Haaland

Man Utd XI: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Lindelof, Shaw; Fred, Casemiro, Eriksen; Sancho, Rashford, Fernandes

When Manchester City won the Premier League, Erik ten Hag was not one of the first on the phone to Pep Guardiola. Perhaps that is unsurprising: he is, after all, manager of their rivals. But he is also an old ally, a man who worked with Guardiola at Bayern Munich, one who, just before he took the job at Manchester United, the Catalan had said could succeed him at the Etihad Stadium. They are part of a mutual admiration society.

“The way in winning the title is a demonstration of football, everyone likes the way they play: so attractive, so brilliant,” Ten Hag said. “But their season is still not finished as our season is still not finished.” If Guardiola is denied a historic treble, it may be by a man he took under his wing.

The man who liked Guardiola’s football so much that he took a backward step to team up with him, leaving a manager’s job at Go Ahead Eagles, who he had led to promotion, to take charge of Bayern’s second team in the German fourth division in 2013, has progressed rapidly. If Ten Hag was playing the long game, looking to further his education, now they meet as peers; at the Etihad Stadium and then Old Trafford this season, at Wembley in the FA Cup final on Saturday. Guardiola has the more storied CV, but Ten Hag is in charge of the bigger club. If, for much of this season, Guardiola could look up the league table and see one of his proteges, Mikel Arteta, above him, now he may be denied the FA Cup by another from his footballing family tree.

And yet the sense is that Ten Hag is looking to topple Guardiola, not emulate him. They can come from the same school of thought, but they have attended different classes. Ten Hag is the former Ajax manager and yet Guardiola is more of the Ajax purist. Guardiola is the Johan Cruyff disciple, the man whose thinking was shaped by the man indelibly associated with Dutch football. He was the slow, inelegant reserve-team player parachuted into Barcelona’s Dream Team, who then became a European Cup winner as a player; in 2008, Cruyff advocated giving the untried Guardiola the manager’s job. A spectacular success only enhanced his own legacy. “Without him, I wouldn’t be here,” Guardiola reflected in 2016.

By Richard Jolly

This is the first time in 12 years the FA Cup final will kick-off at 3pm BST with the previous occasion being Manchester City’s 1-0 win over Stoke City in 2011.

Last season’s final between Liverpool and Chelsea started at 4:45pm

The reason for it?

London’s Metropolitan Police has categorised the derby match as high risk and objected to a later kick-off time on security grounds.

It is also the first time the FA Cup final, traditionally played in May, has taken place in June, as a result of fixture congestion caused by the World Cup in Qatar last November and December.