It would now seem MAD to sack Erik ten Hag: OLIVER HOLT explains why this FA Cup final is different to Louis van Gaal’s Wembley last hurrah

In the minutes before kick-off, the DJ played one last song before the singing of Abide with Me and the words of the Manchester band, the Inspiral Carpets, rang around Wembley. 

‘So this is how it feels to be lonely,’ they sang, ‘this is how it feels to be small, this is how it feels when your word means nothing at all.’

In those moments before the football world was turned on its head at Wembley and everything we thought we knew was shattered to smithereens, those words felt like a dirge for Erik ten Hag. 

They felt like a sad farewell to a good man who tried his best but, like so many before him, came up short.

They felt like a goodbye to a manager who woke up on the morning of the final to read headlines suggesting Sir Jim Ratcliffe, United’s minority owner, had already decided to sack him and that Kieran McKenna, Thomas Tuchel, Thomas Frank and Mauricio Pochettino were in a beauty contest to replace him.

The comparisons with 2016, when Louis van Gaal led United to an FA Cup Final victory and was still fired the next day, were impossible to ignore. Ten Hag, it was said, was a dead man walking.

And then United scored two goals before half-time, the second of them a magnificent team goal finished by their youth team graduate and man-of-the-match Kobbie Mainoo. 

They played like lions, the whole team, and withstood furious City attempts to fight their way back into the game.

And when the final whistle went, Lisandro Martinez lifted Ten Hag into the air on the touchline and held him aloft for a few seconds. 

And Wembley turned into a sea of red and white flags and the City fans streamed for the exits and now the music had a different mood. ‘Take me Home, United Road,’ the voices sang, ‘to the place, I belong, to Old Trafford, to see United…’

And so Ten Hag had achieved one of the most precious things any United manager can achieve: he had led United to a victory over City in a Wembley final. 

He had led his team to a victory that was a small step, at least, to restoring hope that City’s hegemony in Manchester, and in England, might yet be challenged one day.

The burning question is this: what does Ratcliffe do now? Does this change everything. Does one result change everything. 

Does one result rescue a manager that stronger and stronger rumours suggested United had already decided to sack?

When Van Gaal was sacked the day after winning the FA Cup Final in 2016, United had beaten Crystal Palace in the final. Ten Hag just beat Manchester City. It makes a big difference.

To sack Ten Hag now after one of United’s best days in the last ten years would seem a little bit mad. To hand him a reprieve on the back on a game that does not carry the significance of old would look weak.

A strong ownership, an ownership that has a cogent plan, would stick with their decision if they have made it. 

This is the end of a long season for City, a season where they achieved their primary goal last weekend when they won an unprecedented fourth league title in succession. Ratcliffe and his cohorts have to bear that in mind, too.

Whatever happens, Ten Hag deserved this. He deserved this moment. He deserved 90 minutes and more of seeing his team play its heart out for him, knowing that this was their last chance to save him. If it was the end for him, it was a beautiful way to say goodbye.

United had achieved their first victory when they survived the first 13 seconds without conceding a goal. Ilkay Gundogan had scored after 12 seconds in last year’s final so this constituted progress of sorts.

In fact, United created the first threat when Marcus Rashford ran on to a ball over the top of the City defence and set off for goal from just inside their half. 

Rashford is quick but Kyle Walker is quicker and the City defender caught him and stole the ball away from him as Rashford reached the edge of the area.

City hit back straight away. They worked the ball up to the other end and when Bernardo Silva crossed to the back post, Erling Haaland fell under a challenge from Lisandro Martinez and claimed he had been pushed. 

Guardiola was a picture of indignation on the touchline. Referee Andrew Madley was unmoved.

City dominated possession but United held their own. In fact, Garnacho wasted the first clear chance of the game early on when he found space on the right side of the City area but hit his shot too close to Stefan Ortega, who saved it comfortably.

The next time Garnacho was offered a chance, he could not miss. He chased a long ball over the top and even though it seemed he was very much second favourite to reach it behind Josko Gvardiol, he did not relent.

Gvardiol was so busy concentrating on nudging Garnacho out of the way as the ball bounced that he took his eye off Ortega. When Gvardiol nodded the ball back to him, Ortega was right on top of him and the ball sailed over his head. 

Garnacho ran on to it and tapped it into the empty net. It was only the fourth goal City have conceded in the FA Cup in the past two years.

Eight minutes later, to general disbelief, United doubled their lead. It was a brilliant goal, too. Rashford found Garnacho on the right with a raking crossfield pass, Garnacho cut inside and laid a simple pass to Fernandes on the edge of the box.

And then Fernandes produced the kind of moment that makes him stand out as a player. Instead of shooting, he showed his vision and awareness by playing a first-time no-look pass to Mainoo, who was on his blind side. 

Mainoo did the simple bit but he did it well. He clipped it past Ortega to send United’s fans into the land of dreams.

Guardiola made two changes at half time, trying to kick-start his team into life. Jeremy Doku replaced Mateo Kovacic and Manuel Akanji came on for Nathan Ake. City’s un-City-like behaviour continued, though. Rodri tried to beat Andre Onana with a shot from 60 yards.

Doku began to make an impact and it was as a result of one of his incursions down the left that the ball reached Haaland ten minutes after the interval. Haaland hit it first time and, with Onana beaten, the ball crashed against the underside of the bar before it bounced out to safety.

City laid siege to the United goal. A pile-driver from Walker was brilliantly saved by Onana, Julian Alvarez, who had come on for Kevin de Bruyne, curled a shot too high when he should have done better and Alvarez, again, spurned a golden chance after Phil Foden had played him in with a brilliant pass.

The game was still in the balance. United had blown a three-goal lead in the semi-final against Coventry City. They could certainly blow a two-goal lead against a side that has won the Premier League four times in succession.

But the clock ticked down. The ball would not quite fall right for City. The bit of luck every team needs in a final eluded them. 

And United, with Martinez the rock at the heart of their defence until he was substituted just under 20 minutes from the end, remained resolute and solid.

Until four minutes from the end. Then, Doku stepped inside his marker and unleashed a right foot shot from the edge of the area. Onana got down to it and should have saved it. 

But instead of smothering it, or pushing it wide, he only succeeded in pushing the ball into the goal.

City’s fans cheered the board that showed seven minutes of added time. For United supporters, those seven minutes looked like a lifetime but their players, and Ten Hag, survived it.