Key events
Can Nottingham Forest end the Big Six’s dominance of the FA Cup final by springing a surprise against Manchester City at Wembley today? Ever since Portsmouth played Cardiff in 2008 there’s always been at least one team from the traditional ‘Big Six’ in the cup final, with only Wigan (2013) and Leicester (2021) winning it from outside that cabal.
For City, it’s a chance to rescue some silverware from a disappointing season, but Forest may feel this is their year, as they eye an incredible cup and Champions League qualification double.
As an aside, City have failed to sell out their allocation for today’s semi-final, with Pep Guardiola calling for grounds other than Wembley to host the games. Preferably some in the north, maybe.
Another Liverpool comment incoming, this one from Aintmuch in the comments section:
Outside Rotterdam nobody expected Slot to do this. We know his magic, know he could do this. Feyenoord is a historic club but when he took over, Feyenoord was on its arse, no money, no confidence, just the name and the fans. He changed the mentality and with no bravura just got to work with the players that were there. [Be]cause he has a vision and knows how to inspire players.
And thats exactly what he did at Liverpool too. Great players, why spend a billion. The team that was looking tired last season, he got them inspired again. Salah in one of hist best seasons. Nobody is talking about missing Klopp, maybe thats his biggest compliment cause Klopp was great. And look at Gravenberch, back on his feet again. Such an amazing player.
Now, keep Slot for three seasons and then send him back. Oranje needs him to win the World Cup in 2030.
The first Copa de Rey clásico final in 11 years did not disappoint last night.
And with four minutes left and the time long after midnight in Seville, with everyone readying themselves for a penalty shootout, Jules Koundé found a scorching winner for Barcelona to send their fans into raptures.
Sid Lowe was our man on the ground in Spain as Real Madrid’s difficult season took yet another body blow. They couldn’t go trophyless this term, could they?
There are lots of excited Liverpool fans in the comments below, but plenty of goodwill for Arne Slot’s side and the club’s fans from other fans too. I can’t imagine much work will get done on Monday in Merseyside if the team do lift the trophy today.
Congratulations to Liverpool, a City full of lovely lovely people whom I’ve met on many occasions at Anfield and Goodison Park. I hope the Liverpool fans celebrate long into the night, and if no one is working tomorrow on the Red side of the City, it was a very long night ;).
Here’s some morning reading for you previewing the two biggest games of the day:
Arne Slot will not be going crazy even if Liverpool win the title today. The Dutchman would every right to celebrate vociferously – he’s done a wonderful job to turn the Reds back into league winners without a significant signing. But that’s not his style … others around Anfield I’m sure won’t be holding back today.
“I enjoyed it a lot when Feyenoord won the title – but I don’t go crazy,” Slot said. “It wasn’t like I ran three times around the stadium. I was just very, very happy inside and I shared my emotions with the people around me and the fans. But I will never be the one who is the loudest nor the weirdest in the moment. I’m not like that.”
On the achievement itself, Slot said: “It is for other people to judge. It would be a bit weird to judge myself, but I can judge the performance for my staff and the medical staff – and they should get a lot of credit over the course of the season.”
Today’s main headlines
-
Liverpool will be crowned Premier League champions (a 20th league title and second in the post-1992 era) with a point or more at home to Spurs
-
Chelsea and Arsenal Women both face uphill tasks to overcome first leg deficits in the Women’s Champions League semi-final second legs
-
Manchester United are looking for their first win against Bournemouth since the 2022-23 season – and just their fifth away victory in the league this term
Don’t forget, matchday.live@theguardian.com is the address to use to get in touch!
Where to begin? Well, Liverpool will dominate today’s blog for sure, but it’s worth recapping everything that happened yesterday on a sizzling Saturday of football. There were ups and downs galore.
Crystal Palace stormed into the FA Cup final with a dash of Ebere Eze genius and two Ismaïla Sarr goals, Barcelona lifted Spain’s Copa del Rey after a thrilling extra-time victory over Real Madrid, there were Premier League wins for Newcastle, Chelsea, Brighton, Fulham and Wolves, Celtic claimed a 55th (yes, really) Scottish league title and there was an almighty changing of the guard in Welsh football as Wrexham sealed promotion to the Championship – a third successive promotion for them – and Cardiff dropped into League One.
Did I miss anything there? Probably. It was one heck of a day.
Preamble
Good morning and welcome to the second of our matchday live blogs, teeing up all the day’s action and bringing you insight from our various reporters across the grounds, as well as reaction from yesterday’s action. Today all roads lead to Anfield and a likely 20th league title for Liverpool – if they can get at least a point against Tottenham Hotspur. At the same time (4.30pm BST) Manchester City and Nottingham Forest lock horns in the FA Cup semi-final to see who will meet Crystal Palace at Wembley next month. What a win it was for the Eagles over Aston Villa yesterday by the way …
There’s also Bournemouth v Manchester United in the league at 2pm, plus the Women’s Champions League semi-final second legs (Chelsea 1-4 Barcelona and Lyon 2-1 Arsenal is how they stand on aggregate) plus a smattering of other games. We’ll be having a Q&A with our women’s football correspondent Tom Garry later on.
Get your questions and emails in wherever you’re soaking in today’s football. On Friday we had Liverpool fans touching base from Bolivia. It’s certainly a seismic day Reds all across the globe.
