Manchester United won its 11th FA Cup on Saturday with a 3-0 win over first division Millwall at Millennium Stadium off two goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Van Nistelrooy’s 65th minute penalty was his 29th goal for United this season, earned when Ryan Giggs was brought down by Millwall’s David Livermore. His second was a tap-in in the 81st minute.
United’s Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo had made the breakthrough a minute before halftime when he headed home a Gary Neville cross from close range.
It was United’s first FA Cup win since 1999, a season where it also won the European Cup and the Premier League.
The Reds already held the record of the most number of FA Cup wins, and on Saturday it tied Arsenal’s record of 16 finals appearances in the 132 years of the world’s oldest club knockout competition.
Having lost its league title to Arsenal and failed to reach the quarterfinal of the Champions League for the first time in eight seasons, United was desperate to salvage something from a poor season by its standards.
Millwall had never reached the FA Cup final before and was the first finalist outside the top division since 1992. The club’s consolation is a place in the UEFA Cup, Europe’s second tier club competition, next season. – Sapa-AP