Defiant stance

ALAN PARDEW - C. PALACE AND LOUIS VAN GAAL - MAN UTD

What you need to know:

ENGLISH FA CUP FINAL. Head-strong Louis van Gaal determined to win a trophy for Manchester United fans and keep his job against all odds, but Crystal Palace adamant they can end troubled season with a surprise prize.

Crystal Palace and Manchester United are set to bring down the curtain on the English football season as they compete for the FA Cup at Wembley today.
For both managers, the showpiece final, has plenty riding on it. Alan Pardew, part of the 1990 team that fell to Man Utd in their only other Cup final, can etch himself even more firmly into Palace folklore if he claims his club’s most significant trophy. After a frustrating league run in 2016, victory at Wembley would sooth the disappointment of recent months.
Louis van Gaal may well be about to manage his final match for the Red Devils, as the spectre of Jose Mourinho lurks over England’s fifth-placed side. Whether vice-chairman Ed Woodward will bow to supporters’ demands or not three years on from the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, the pressure to win a major trophy is mounting at Old Trafford.

Utd’s preparation for the final may have been disrupted by Sunday’s bomb scare, which saw their final Premier League game of the season postponed to Tuesday, but they remain odds-on favourites to win their 12th FA Cup. Will they emerge victorious or will it be Palace fans partying down Wembley Way?
I’m sure the place will be packed out and the fans will be behind us as they have been all season.

“I came here to win a title and the FA Cup is a big title in England,” said Man Utd’s Dutch boss Van Gaal.
Ander Herrera is pleasantly surprised when reminded that it was Crystal Palace who were defeated in the 1990 FA Cup final, handing Sir Alex Ferguson the first of his 38 trophies as Manchester United manager. “Hopefully your words can be a prediction,” Herrera says.
“With them we have to feel more confident.” “It’s not going to be easy but we are Utd and have to deliver.”