Key events
55 min United race away on the counter, only for Fernandes to mess up a simple through ball to Garnacho.
54 min Coventry have a nice spell of possession. Bidwell whips in a promising cross and Wan-Bissaka has to get a vital toe in.
53 min Onana takes his time over a goal kick, allowing the Coventry end to have some fun showering him in boos.
50 min Jim Ratcliffe has now taken his seat. He has quite a good excuse for being late: he was running the London Marathon, clocking up a PB apparently (4hrs 30) at the age of 71. He has yet to witness a United win as their part-owner, but may fancy his chances today.
49 min Fernandes slips the ball square for Rashford, whose rocket is well blocked.
48 min Coventry break down the right, but United counter and Rashford wins a free kick in the same zone that Fernandes just shot from. He’s on the ball again.
47 min Close! Fernandes with a fine effort from the corner of the box. He beats Collins but can’t curl it inside the post.
46 min Onana flirts with danger as Simms presses in, but United have been composed at the back with Casemiro there. Maybe this is now the best place for him.
46 min Coventry kick off, and look as if they’ve switched to a back four.
“Surely that is game over as United don’t let two-goal leads slip,” says Rick Harris. “Oh, wait a minute, yes they do! Coventry have been a bit too cautious with only Eccles prepared to break the lines, so they need to have a go in the second half.” They certainly do.
Coventry deserve better, but United have been right on it. Diogo Dalot has been the man of the match so far and United are now in the same driving seat as at this stage of last year’s Carabao Cup final against Newcastle: one goal in open play, one from a set-piece, and, for once, none conceded.
HALF-TIME! Coventry 0-2 Man United
Last summer United were quite prepared to sell Scott McTominay and Harry Maguire. Both opted to stay, both have had a good season, and now both have scored to put United in charge of this tie.
GOAL Coventry 0-2 Man United (Maguire 45)
From the resulting corner, Maguire steers a fine header past Brad Collins.
44 min Chance for Rashford! A long ball sends Dalot down the right. He cuts back to Rashford, in the inside-right channel, and the shot is a screamer, well saved. But …
44 min Coventry take the hint and try going long to Haji Wright. He has the pace but the ball is too close to Onana.
42 min Garnacho roams from right to left, teeing up Rashford, whose decent cross is turned into a tame shot by a deflection.
40 min Pressure from Coventry at last! Eccles does really well, beating two men on the right and keeping his low cross out of Onana’s reach. But again Dalot saves the day, sliding in ahead of Simms.
38 min Coventry play out stylishly from the back, all diagonals, and they’ve got four men forward, but Dalot gets a vital interception in.
37 min That free kick is Coventry’s only shot so far. They may need to give Casemiro a dose of his own medicine.
34 min Casemiro is going long and having fun. He launches the ball into the Coventry area again, forcing the keeper Bradley Collins to palm it away from the onrushing Garnacho.
33 min Bidwell takes it, left-footed, but can’t clear the wall.
32 min Coventry manage to go forward. Dalot gets United out of trouble but McTominay lands them back in it with a late challenge. Free kick, 25 yards out.
30 min After half an hour, not only are United winning: they haven’t let Coventry have a shot. Quite a change from the past few weeks.
28 min Credit to Erik ten Hag for playing Dalot on the right, where he and Garnacho have formed a good rapport since Christmas.
27 min If Willy Kambwala had been fit, McTominay would be sitting on the bench.
25 min McTominay started the move himself, feeding Garnacho, who slipped in Dalot on the overlap. McTominay just kept on running and Dalot, who often overhits his crosses, got this one just right – drilled in low, beating the keeper, so that McTominay just had to get something on it.
GOAL! Coventry 0-1 United (McTominay 23)
The breakthrough!
23 min Unite have had 77 per cent of the ball and all seven of the shots, but Coventry have blocked four of those and the other three have been wayward.
22 min Fernandes finds space for a shot that is blocked. United win a corner and Garnacho has a go from the D – spinning into Row Q.
20 min Before that the cameras found United’s top brass, with Jason Wilcox joining Dave Brailsford and co. They now have almost as many chiefs as owners. Jim Ratcliffe is expected after half-time – he’s just run the marathon in four and a half hours, at the grand old age of 71.
19 min Chance for Rashford! Casemiro sends him a glorious through ball and he runs onto it well, but then shovels his shot wide.
16 min “Coventry are setting the tempo,” says Lee Dixon. “Slowing the game down.”
14 min Coventry, now playing on the counter, have a three-on-three, but Mainoo and Maguire snuff out the danger.
12 min Rashford has another shot blocked. Coventry’s back five are doing their job so far. When they clear, Wright gets into a race with Dalot, which he loses.
11 min Rashford looks up for this. He wiggles inside and finds McTominay on the edge of the box, but Coventry deal with he danger.
9 min United’s midfield is more mobile without Casemiro. McTominay moves the ball quickly out of defence and pops up again to send the ball to the left wing, where Rashford gets a cutback in, to nobody.
8 min Coventry’s turn to break and it’s looking good until Wan-Bissaka puts in a typically neat tackle. The corner is headed clear by Casemiro, the new Steve Bruce.
Chance for Garnacho!
6 min Big miss! United go long, Fernandes heads the ball down … Garnacho gets his positioning all right, and his lunge all wrong, connecting only with thin air.
6 min Coventry are pressing hard, pinning United’s makeshift defence back. But when United break, they look dangerous, with Rashford beating his man and having a shot blocked, and then Garnacho winning a corner with a cutback.
3 min Kobbie Mainoo sets off on a slalom towards the D. Has nobody told him he’s the holding midfielder now?
2 min United have started better than on their last trip to Wembley, when they conceded to City after 13 seconds.
1 min The sun is out, the pitch half in shadow as Fernandes kicks off and United go back to Onana.
The managers have a friendly word. Mark Robins, in a tracksuit, makes Erik ten Hag, in a suit, look tall, but it’s Robins whose stock stands higher at the moment.
The teams are led out by Ben Sheaf and Bruno Fernandes. Of the two, Fernandes looks the more anxious.
The Coventry end of Wembley is a fabulous sight. A sea of sky blue.
An email! “A minor point, I know,” says Jason Jawando, “but Coventry beat United in the fourth round of the FA Cup in 1987. Alex Fergusson only lost once in the third round, against Leeds in 2010. Ah thanks, you’re quite right – in the third round, United had beaten Manchester City, as they surely won’t if they win today. I’ll make a correction.
Meanwhile, in the relegation six-pointer at Goodison … Everton have got a second against Forest, which should make them safe-ish. It’s good news for Burnley, who, as things stand, are breathing down Forest’s necks, only three points adrift. Daniel Harris is on the case here.
Blunt and to the point
The ITV pundits are having a chat on the pitch. Ian Wright is sporting orange specs, Roy Keane brown suede shoes, and Karen Carney a cream suit. When the conversation turns to United, Carney doesn’t hold back. “They’re not a good team,” she says. “They have good individuals.”
This is only the second FA Cup semi-final in Coventry’s history. For their opponents, it’s the 32nd (a record). United are pretty good at semi-finals, winning 21 of those 32 games, but Coventry are flawless. Their lone appearance came back in 1987, en route to a famous triumph (and in the wake of a win over United, in the third fourth round at Old Trafford). They beat Leeds 3-2 in the semi at Hillsborough with the winner coming in the 99th minute, then beat Spurs 3-2 in the final with the winner coming in the 96th minute. There seems to be a pattern here.
Full marks if you know the names on the United bench. It’s basically a school trip, with Christian Eriksen cast as the long-suffering teacher.
This is thought to be the 28th different back four Man United have fielded since the start of the season. And it will surely be the slowest pair of centre-backs, with the stately Harry Maguire joined by the even statelier Casemiro. Can they make up for that with their vast experience? And can Kobbie Mainoo, who has only ever played at Wembley for England, step into Casemiro’s shoes as the player shielding the defence?
Teams in full
Manchester United (probable 4-2-3-1) Onana; Wan-Bissaka, Casemiro, Maguire, Dalot; McTominay, Mainoo; Garnacho, Fernandes, Rashford; Højlund.
Subs: Bayindir, Ogunneye, Jackson, Amass, Eriksen, Forson, Antony, Amad, Wheatley.
Coventry (probable 4-3-1-2) Collins; Latibeaudiere, Thomas, Kitching, Bidwell; Van Ewijk, Eccles, Sheaf; O’Hare; Wright, Simms.
Subs: Wilson, Binks, Kelly, Dasilva, Allen, Torp, Tavares, Andrews, Godden.
Teams in brief: O’Hare and Eccles come in for Coventry
Mark Robins makes two changes, bringing Josh Eccles and Callum O’Hare in for Victor Torp and the suspended Kasey Palmer.
Teams in brief: United down to one fit centre-back
Willy Kambwals joins United’s interminable injury list, along with Mason Mount and Sofyan Amrabat. So Harry Maguire, himself a doubt until recently, is United’s last centre-back standing. Scott McTominay comes into the starting XI with Casemiro expected to drop back into the back four. Ellis Simms will be licking his lips.
Preamble
Afternoon everyone and welcome to the Mark Robins derby. The FA Cup is all about storylines and this semi-final is all about one of the managers, even if he insists that it’s not.
Robins has gone from suddenly scoring the FA Cup goal that famously bought Alex Ferguson the time to become a legend, back in 1990, to slowly becoming a bit of a legend himself. Seven years into his second stint at Coventry, he’s the longest-serving manager in the land after Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola. In the Championship, where bosses often last five minutes, he’s the longest-serving manager by nearly five years.
He is particularly adept at spotting and developing strikers. Last season it was Victor Gyökeres, bought from Brighton for £1m, sold to Sporting Lisbon for £19m, now valued at £50m and linked with Arsenal. This season it’s been Ellis Simms, bought from Everton for £6m, knocking in the goals ever since – he has 15 in 2024, the same as Cole Palmer. Five of those goals have come in the FA Cup, including the 97th-minute winner in the quarter-final at Wolves.
If Man United had Simms on their staff, Rasmus Højlund would not be starting today. Even more than most strikers, Højlund lurches from helping himself to going hungry, and his plate has been empty since he returned from injury seven games ago. It’s not just that he can’t find the net: he struggles to find the ball. At Bournemouth last weekend he played the full 109 minutes without producing a shot or even a shot-creating action.
United are still firm favourites today, for good reasons. They have more star quality, they’re used to the big occasion, they have the stronger bench, and under Erik ten Hag they’ve been highly efficient in the domestic cups (W15, D1, L2), with a spotless record against clubs from the lower divisions.
Coventry, though, will really fancy this. They have nothing to lose, they’ll get umpteen chances, their manager is in full command of his ship, and their win at Molyneux was every bit as thrilling as United’s against Liverpool. It’s true that they always seem to concede a goal, but then United usually concede two.
The kick-off is at 3.30pm (BST) and I’ll be back soon with the teams.
