Reds face Blues at Wembley

United will play Manchester City in a mouthwatering FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium on 16 or 17 April.
The draw was made on Sunday afternoon, shortly before the Blues kicked off their quarter-final against Reading at Eastlands. The prospect of playing against the Reds seemed to weigh on the minds of Roberto Mancini's men as they laboured to a 1-0 victory against their visitors from the Championship. It took them until the 74th minute to break the deadlock, Micah Richards heading home from David Silva's corner
United have met City seven times in the FA Cup so far, winning five and losing two. The last Manchester derby in the competition was a fifth-round tie in the year when the Reds last won the trophy, 2004. Ruud van Nistelrooy's double, plus goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes, sealed a 4-2 win on St Valentine's Day for Sir Alex Ferguson's men.
The other semi-final will be between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City. The Trotters won 3-2 away at Birmingham City on Saturday, while the Potters put themselves in the hat by beating West Ham 2-1 in a battle at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Next month's fixture at Wembley will be Sir Alex Ferguson's 10th FA Cup semi-final tie as he bids to win the competition for the sixth time in his tenure, and for a record 12th time in total for the club's illustrious history.

5. Rio Ferdinand

Armed with elegance, pace and an astute ability to read the game, Rio Ferdinand is one of the finest defenders in world football.

The Peckham-born star burst onto the Premiership scene with West Ham United under the guidance of Harry Redknapp before being snapped up by Leeds United for £18million in November 2000. The 2002 World Cup provided Rio the stage to make the transformation from budding talent to accomplished defender, and his performances in Japan convinced Sir Alex to part with £30million.

Although initially hampered by injury, Rio found his feet towards the end of his first season, as United

overtook Arsenal to win a 15th league title. But in September 2003, disaster struck. The defender missed a routine drugs test and, despite appealing, was banned from football for eight months in January 2004.

Since returning from suspension, Rio has consistently justified his tag as a world-class defender. He's also chipped in with valuable goals, perhaps most dramatically with an injury-time winner against Liverpool in January 2006.

4. Owen Hargreaves

In his own words, it was “possibly the longest-running transfer saga” in football. But after a several months of prolonged pursuit, United finally signed Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich in May 2007 for a fee of around £17million.
The Canadian-born, England international midfielder’s stock had risen dramatically in the previous year, and by the time he arrived at Old Trafford, he had become one of European football’s most highly-thought of defensive midfielders, having won four Bundesliga titles with Bayern.

After an injury-disrupted start to his United career, Hargreaves came to the fore in the second half of the

successful 2007/08 campaign with a string of tireless and confident performances in midfield and also, on occasion, at right-back. He capped a satisfying debut season with a superb penalty in the Champions League final shoot-out victory over Chelsea.

But a recurrence of his knee problem – and a subsequent double operation in the USA – forced Owen to miss almost all of the 2008/09 campaign as he made just three appearances.

It was a similar story in 2009/10 as Hargreaves battled his way back to fitness, finally making his return after nearly 20 months out of action in the Reds’ penultimate game of the season at Sunderland.

3. Patrice Evra

United beat off fierce competition from Liverpool, Arsenal and Inter Milan to secure the services of French full-back Patrice Evra on 10 January 2006.
The defender's arrival, just days after Nemanja Vidic’s capture, signalled Sir Alex Ferguson's intention to shore up his defence, which had suffered in the long-term absence of Gabriel Heinze.

Although only 24 when he joined the Reds, Evra had already been capped five times for France. He had been club captain at Monaco, where he established himself as a quick, committed, attack-minded player, also capable of playing at left-midfield.

Evra started his career

in Italy after a scout from Masala spotted him in Les Ulis, the same tough suburb of Paris where Thierry Henry grew up. After one season in Serie C1, he moved up to Serie B by joining Monza. In 2000, Nice brought him home to France and converted him from left-winger to left-back. After two seasons he was snapped up by Monaco.

1. Edwin Van der Sar

There have been plenty of pretenders to Peter Schmeichel’s throne since his abdication in 1999. But few have graced the number 1 jersey with such quality and consistency as Edwin van der Sar.
The two differ in style; Schmeichel was famed for bellowing at his back four as well as his brilliant saves. Edwin, however, uses his experience and calm assurance to great effect.
Edwin has all the wisdom and know-how between the sticks that you would expect of a goalkeeper that is his nation’s most-capped player and a UEFA Cup (1992) and Champions League (1995) winner with his first club Ajax. He also

won four league titles and three domestic cups with the Amsterdam side, before spending two terms in Serie A with Juventus.
Gianlugi Buffon’s arrival at the Stadio delle Alpi resulted in van der Sar's £5million switch to Fulham in 2001 at the outset of the Londoners’ Premier League adventure, but after four seasons at Craven Cottage United came knocking.
Van der Sar was 34 when he arrived at Old Trafford in 2005 but old father time had dulled neither ambition nor influence. In 2007, he won his first league title with the Reds and saved a penalty in the ultimately-decisive league match - the 1-0
derby win at Eastlands. He followed that in 2007/08 by keeping an incredible 24 clean sheets in all competitions as United retained the domestic crown and won the Champions League for the first time since Schmeichel left in 1999. His spot-kick stop from Nicolas Anelka in the 2008 final in Moscow is forever etched in Red history.

The Munich disaster

February 6th will forever be circled on the calendars of everyone connected with Manchester United.

On that day in 1958, the darkest day in United's history, 23 people - including eight players and three members of the club's staff - suffered fatal injuries in the Munich air crash.

Flying back from a European Cup tie against Red Star Belgrade, the team plane stopped in Germany to refuel. The first two attempts to take off from Munich airport were aborted; following a third attempt, the plane crashed.

Twenty-one of the people on board died instantly. Aeroplane captain Kenneth Rayment died a few weeks later from the injuries he sustained while Duncan Edwards - one of the eight victims from the team - passed away 15 days after the crash. The tragedy is an indelible part of United's history, as is Sir Matt Busby overcoming his injuries to build another great team which won the European Cup 10 years later.
Roger Byrne (28), Eddie Colman (21), Mark Jones (24), David Pegg (22), Tommy Taylor (26), Geoff Bent (25), Liam Whelan (22) and Duncan Edwards (21) all died, along with club secretary Walter Crickmer, trainer Tom Curry and coach Bert Whalley.
Eight journalists died - Alf Clarke, Tom Jackson, Don Davies, George Fellows, Archie Ledbrook, Eric Thompson, Henry Rose, and Frank Swift who was a former Manchester City player. Plane captain Ken Rayment perished, as did Sir Matt's friend Willie Satinoff. Travel agent Bela Miklos and crew member Tom Cable also died.

We will never forget.

Manchester United from 1878-1899

Manchester United Football Club was first formed in 1878, under a different name - Newton Heath LYR (Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway).When the Football League was formed in 1888, Newton Heath did not consider themselves good enough to become founder members alongside likes Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End. They waited instead until 1892 to make their entrance.