The vast majority of European leagues have finished their schedules. Champions have been crowned and teams have begun preparations for next year. But there are several teams with one final chance at silverware. Several domestic cup competitions conclude this weekend, allowing the participants a chance to put a positive spin on what may have been otherwise disappointing seasons. We’ll take a look at England’s FA Cup, Italy’s Coppa Italia, Germany’s DFB Pokal, France’s Coupe de France, and Spain’s Copa del Rey with what a win would mean to certain participants in each contest.
FA CUP- MANCHESTER UNITED VS CRYSTAL PALACE
It has been two different tales of regret meeting in England’s FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium. It was a season of unseized opportunities for Manchester United. Louis Van Gaal continued to spend massively as his club returned to Champions League football and felt primed for a return into the title picture. Instead, the Red Devils bowed out of the Champions League meekly and were ousted from the Europa League subsequently by bitter rivals Liverpool. Domestically LVG and his men didn’t do themselves any favors either. They squandered numerous chances to procure a vaunted top four spot in the table, only to see them have to win on the final day (after a mess of a totally different kind) to secure an anticlimactic fifth place finish.
For Crystal Palace, this was looking early on to be the season they pushed themselves into the upper crust of English football. The London club made some shrewd signings in the summer and Alan Pardew continued to have the Eagles playing very pretty football in the capital city. But once the calendar turned from 2015 to 2016, Palace went from vying for European football to fighting for Premier League survival. They won just twice in the league in the new year and lost to Aston Villa in what may go down as one of the hardest to watch football matches in the history of the beautiful game.
Will a FA Cup victory save Louis Van Gaal’s job or gloss over a putrid second half for Palace? Probably not. But for United it would give them their first trophy since Sir Alex Ferguson hung up his managerial boots at Old Trafford. For Palace, it would give them a second opportunity at European football (the FA Cup winner enters the Europa League at the group stage) they so brutally pissed away and their first major trophy in their 110 year history.
COPPA ITALIA- AC MILAN VS JUVENTUS
Once giants of the European game, AC Milan have seen their profile shrink in recent years both on the world stage as well as in Serie A. Their owner, chairman, and grand overlord Silvio Berlusconi does things on the regular that even the late Al Davis and George Steinbrenner would think were more than a few steps over the line. But they have a chance to make up for another drab season at the San Siro in the Coppa Italia final. They just have to get past the team that has supplanted them as the elite in Italy, Juventus.
Juve had their own struggles to start the Italian season. However, they turned it around and then some. They shot up to the top of the Serie A table on the back of fifteen straight wins and only one Serie A loss overall in 2016. They’ve found little resistance in their cup run as well, even though they faced three top flight sides on their road to the final. They have their fifth straight Scudetto, but after bowing out of the Champions League, they’ll want to add a bit more to their trophy case.
This game means more to Milan from the outside looking in, but they are a team in such turmoil that I don’t even think European football will quell the fire. Juventus is in their best shape since Calciopoli, but have many assets coveted by teams with exponentially more resources than them. Both teams are going to face exoduses this summer, so they’ll take a trophy to help lure in a new crop of players to their respective folds. At the very least, the Coppa Italia will bring a fitting end to Juve’s season or an uplifting one for Milan.
DFB POKAL- BAYERN MUNICH VS BORUSSIA DORTMUND
Germany’s finale is of no surprise to anybody. #1 faces off with #2 in the DFB Pokal final as Bayern Munich squares off with Borussia Dortmund. The game marks the final chapter of the Pep Guardiola era at Bayern. It has been a tumultuous time for the Barca legend in his first sojourn outside of his comfort zone, but he could end it with a bang before he makes his way to Manchester City. His tenure at the club has brought home many a trophy, including the German Cup in 2013-14, but his inability to replicate his predecessor’s Champions League glory have many seeing Pep as a failure at Germany’s biggest club.
While Pep is ending his time in Germany, Thomas Tuchel is just starting to carve out his own legacy at Borussia Dortmund. He’s had a tough time shedding the shadow of his predecessor Jurgen Klopp. Klopp’s new team, Liverpool, knocked BVB out of the Europa League in historic fashion. He’s having just as many problems as Klopp in putting to bed the notion of Dortmund being a feeder club for Bayern. But a win in the DFB Pokal final could give him his first piece of silverware in yellow and black, and let the door hit Pep in the rear on his way out of the country.
Germany is continuing to grow stronger and stronger as a league, but these two are still the class of it. The gap between these two is only going to get wider though if the likes of players like Mats Hummels continue to trade the BVB strip for a Bayern one. The power structure in the Bundesliga may not change, but a cup win for Dortmund could give them respite before they start to climb up the steep hill in the league again.
COUPE DE FRANCE- PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN VS OLYMPIQUE MARSEILLE
France has been a one horse race all season long as PSG has ruled with an iron fist. They’ve won everything there is to win in France thus far and made it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. They’ll be looking to add a second domestic cup to their cupboard in Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s swansong with the club. It would give PSG an unprecedented second consecutive treble in France.
While the Parisians continue their ascent into the hierarchy of European football, Marseille kept steady on their descent. The first winners of the UEFA Champions League and regular participants in European competition finished 13th in Ligue 1 this season. Their manager Marcelo Bielsa resigned after just one game. Players couldn’t get out of the Stade Velodrome fast enough. But here they are in a cup final, looking to play spoilers against the new giants of France. It may just be the plug in Marseille’s sinking ship.
It’s history versus survival at this point in France. So many other teams have passed Marseille in the Ligue 1 pecking order that they need something to put themselves back on the map. PSG doesn’t need anything of the sort to help in recruitment both in France and abroad. But two straight trebles (potentially quadruples) would be a hell of a going away present for their striker since they aren’t going to go and erect that statue of him in place of the Eiffel Tower anytime soon.
COPA DEL REY- BARCELONA vs SEVILLA
When the stage was set for the Copa Del Rey final in Spain, there was a good chance that both participants were going to be hauling other silverware in beforehand. Barcelona weren’t able to become the first repeat UCL champions, but were able to fend off Atletico and Real Madrid to win La Liga. Sevilla was successful in their “three-peat” attempt, besting Liverpool in the Europa League final. Which team is going to add the King’s Cup to their resume?
MSN (Messi, Suarez, Neymar) have been the preeminent strike force in Spain the past two seasons. Suarez has taken home the European Golden Shoe as top scorer across all European competitions. He is also joint top scorer in the Copa Del Rey along with Messi and fellow Barca teammate Munir El Haddadi. They’ll need at least one of that triumvirate, or Neymar per chance, to score to beat a Sevilla team flying high after their mid-week Europa League victory.
But will Sevilla be tired with two such massive affairs in short succession? The Copa Del Rey is the only of these cup finals to be on Sunday, but that gives little interlude for the only team of the ten to have already played this week. But with both teams guaranteed Champions League football next year, this one could be a battle of reserves anyhow. If it isn’t, you needn’t look further than the UEFA Super Cup that started this season for a preview of what we may have in store.
Follow along with all the cup action on Gameview here on Sports From The Basement, where all five of these finals will feature over the next two days.