- Manchester City's appearance in the Cup final comes exactly 30 years to the day since they were beaten by Tottenham Hotspur in 1981 in the first final to be replayed at Wembley.
- The original game ended in a 1-1 draw with City's Tommy Hutchison scoring for both teams. City led the replay 2-1 with 20 minutes to go but lost 3-2 after Argentine Ricky Villa's famous winning goal for Spurs.
- Stoke City, the second oldest professional club in England formed in 1863, have never previously reached the final.
- They reached the semi-finals in 1899, 1971 and 1972.
- Stoke's 5-0 win over Bolton Wanderers in this year's semi-final was the biggest winning margin at that stage of the competition since Wolverhampton Wanderers beat Grimsby Town by the same score in 1939.
- Manchester City will be taking part in their ninth final, having won four and lost four..
- Manchester City are one of only five teams to reach the FA Cup final and be relegated in the same season, a fate they suffered in 1926.
- A crowd of 84,569 watched an FA Cup sixth-round match between Manchester City and Stoke at Maine Road in 1934, the highest attendance for a game in England outside London. Manchester City won 1-0.
- The two clubs have met seven times in the FA Cup with both winning three matches and one ending in a draw.
- Their most recent FA Cup meeting was last season when Stoke beat Manchester City 3-1 after extra time in a fifth-round replay.
- They have only met once this season, drawing 1-1 at Stoke on November 27. They are due to meet again in the Premier League at Eastlands three days after the final.
- With City qualifying for a berth in the Champions League next season, Stoke have secured a berth in the Europa League for the first time.
- Stoke's Tony Pulis is the first Welshman to manage a team in the FA Cup final as a fulltime manager. The only other Welshman to lead a side into the final was Jimmy Murphy who took Manchester United there in 1958 but he was caretaker-manager while Matt Busby was recuperating from the injuries he suffered in the Munich Air Crash.
- City's Roberto Mancini is bidding to become the third Italian to manage an FA Cup-winning team and the second in successive seasons following Chelsea's triumph under Carlo Ancelotti. The first Italian manager to win the FA Cup was Gianluca Vialli, who took Chelsea to victory in 2000.
- One of the teams will end a long barren spell without a major honour. Stoke's only trophy came in 1972 when they won the League Cup. City's last success was in 1976 when they won the same trophy.作者: huhut6432gj 時間: 2011-5-14 09:35 PM
MANCHESTER CITY: Hart; Richards Kompany Lescott Kolarov; De Jong Barry; Silva Yaya Balotelli; Tevez
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