Most Memorable FA Cup Finals
Whittling down the list of best FA Cup finals isn’t easy. The shocks, the goals, the controversies… even the hair dos! The FA Cup is the oldest football tournament on the planet and more than 140 finals have been played down the decades.
Figuring out what constitutes the most memorable FA Cup finals – rather than just the best – is the tricky part. Manchester City's 6-0 victory over Watford in 2019 is arguably the best all-round performance in an FA Cup final. But few of us – especially not Watford fans – would call it a memorable game watching on the TV.
Memorable FA Cup finals are those that shaped football fandom, catapulted players to superstardom, upset the football odds, and rewrote history.
Why the FA Cup Final Is So Special
The FA Cup holds a special place in English football thanks to its history and ability to produce against-the-odds upsets. The biggest FA Cup shocks stay in the minds of fans – for better or for worse – for decades. Most shocks come in the third round but the really big ones occur in the final.
Wembley is famous for its giant killings, last-minute winners, and stunning comebacks. Below are six of the greatest FA Cup matches that have stuck in English football’s collective memory down the years.
What Are the Most Memorable FA Cup Finals?
Here’s our list of the most memorable FA Cup finals. We’ve omitted finals such as Blackpool’s 4-3 win over Bolton – the Stanley Matthews Final – because, well, they’re not that memorable anymore. Instead, here are six finals that still stick in the mind of modern-day supporters.
1973: Sunderland 1-0 Leeds United
Perhaps the first major FA Cup final upset. Second-tier Sunderland seemingly had no right to challenge reigning FA Cup holders Leeds. This was the team of Billy Bremner, Peter Lorimer, Eddie Gray and Norman Hunter. Yet Sunderland had other ideas. Outnumbered on the terraces but not in spirit, Ian Porterfield put the Black Cats in front midway through the first half.
Leeds still looked likely to win and grew more and more frantic as the match wore on. Jimmy Montgomery produced a remarkable double save to deny Trevor Cherry and Lorimer as Sunderland held on.
This upset was particularly memorable because millions of football fans didn't want Leeds to win. Having risen to the top of the English game over the past few seasons, Leeds were on the pedestal and Sunderland knocked them off!
1981: Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 Manchester City
The FA Cup final went to a replay in each year between 1981 and 1983. Such as the frustration from fans that the FA decided to scrap final replays after that. Had they done that in 1981 then we'd be deprived of the biggest FA Cup final moments in history.
Ricky Villa's solo effort to win the 1981 replay for Tottenham was voted the Wembley Goal of the Century. Spurs and Manchester City had already drawn the first match 1-1, and were locked at 2-2 with 15 minutes on the clock.
Then out popped Villa. He collected a pass from Tony Galvin on the left, jinked past two players, dummied a shot to evade a third, and then squirmed his effort past Joe Corrigan. It was one of the first big 'emphatic' goals broadcast for an FA Cup final that resonated down the years.
1988: Wimbledon 1-0 Liverpool
It took 15 years for another FA Cup final shock the size of Sunderland’s to rock Wembley once again. It came in 1988 when Wimbledon – affectionately dubbed the “Crazy Gang” – beat Liverpool (the “Culture Club”).
Wimbledon were an effective, well-drilled unit who liked to shake things up and force 'silkier' opponents into a scrap. Liverpool fell into the trap at Wembley for the 1988 FA Cup final, when the league champions came up against Dave Beasant, Vinnie Jones, Dennis Wise and John Fashanu.
Lawrie Sanchez scored on 37 minutes. Even then, most people expected Liverpool to turn the tide. But John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and Ray Houghton just couldn't find a way through. The match is remembered all the more fondly for Wimbledon's 11-year rise from the Fourth Division to Wembley, and their subsequent demise in the early 2000s.
2001: Liverpool 2-1 Arsenal
The FA Cup final moved to the Millennium Stadium in 2001 as Wembley was knocked down and rebuilt – and what a match to commemorate the move to Wales. Arsenal had come up short in the Premier League title race with Manchester United. Liverpool had already won the League Cup in Cardiff earlier in the season and had their eyes on the UEFA Cup too.
It remains one of the most famous FA Cup finals purely for the all-action style of both teams. Arsenal were in their prime, while Liverpool were finding it easy to live up to these occasions. Freddie Ljungberg thought he had the winner when scoring on 72 minutes, only for England's wonderkid Michael Owen to pop up.
Owen scored in the 83rd and 88th minute to complete an epic final. His match winner gave TV viewers something they had never seen at Wembley – scenes of utter jubilation in the stands right behind the goal. There was no running track here, so we all got to see the pandemonium in the Liverpool end. Owen cartwheeled off in celebration and the cameras shook as Liverpool supporters basked in his mastery.
2006: Liverpool 3-3 West Ham (3-1 pens.)
Another Liverpool final, another England sensation with the memorable moment. Very few players get to write FA Cup history like Porterfield, Villa and Owen. Steven Gerrard joins this list. His thunderbolt equaliser in the last minute to deny West Ham glory at the Millennium Stadium was an emphatic moment.
Remember, 2006 was when Youtube was beginning to spread. Gerrard's was one of the first big goals to go beyond Match of the Day and be played over and over again online. Amazingly, it wasn't even the match winner.
Liverpool beat West Ham 3-1 on penalties after a drab half-hour of extra time. No one remembers that part, just the Gerrard thunderbolt.
2013: Wigan Athletic 1-0 Manchester City
Wigan suffered relegation from the Premier League in 2013 but not before delivering perhaps the biggest FA Cup final shock of all time. By 2013 Manchester City had already won the league and FA Cup under their new super-rich owners. Another Wembley triumph was surely in the bag, with City having beaten Wigan home and away to nil that season.
Roberto Martinez's men were not to be overlooked this time. They held their own for 90 gruelling minutes during which time Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure battered the Wigan goal. Joel Robles had a stunning game between the sticks.
Then came the moment that arguably beats Sanchez and Porterfield's 'underdog' goals – coming as it did in the first minute of stoppage time. Shaun Maloney whipped in a corner and Ben Watson glanced the ball past Joe Hart to send the Wigan faithful into ecstasy. That single moment means Wigan 1-0 Manchester City tops most peoples’ list of most dramatic FA Cup finals.
What Makes a Great FA Cup Final?
Classic FA Cup finals don’t come around too often. Giant killings are rare and finals are usually tense affairs. Scorelines have been close in recent years; only one final between 2016 and 2024 resulted in a team winning by a two-goal margin or more.
While the score is usually close these days, the finals themselves don’t always prove to be memorable. The FA Cup has to compete with the Premier League and Champions League these days. Sometimes finals slip under the radar even when ‘Big Six’ teams reach Wembley.
Here’s what actually makes the most memorable FA Cup finals stand out:
- Last-minute goals and dramatic comebacks: Michael Owen’s late double for Liverpool in 2001 and Steven Gerrard’s equaliser against West Ham in 2006 are perfect examples of classic FA Cup final moments. Last-minute goals trigger pandemonium in the stands and create the Youtube clips that will be played for decades to come.
- Iconic individual performances: A single performance can rewrite history. Stanley Matthews’ display in 1953 is a great example of this, as is Ricky Villa’s outstanding game for Tottenham in 1981.
- Giant-killings and underdog stories: These are the most memorable FA Cup finals of all. Sunderland beating Leeds, Wimbledon edging Liverpool and Wigan stunning Manchester City are the three biggest shocks in FA Cup final history. Giant-killings in the final provide a link to the third-round upsets that the FA Cup is built on. It’s proof that any team can dream, even when their FA Cup odds are astronomically high.
- Unforgettable celebrations: Winning the FA Cup is still a big deal and often it’s the celebrations that make the moment. Ricky Villa's celebration after scoring the winner in 1981 and the pandemonium in Cardiff following Michael Owen’s late double in 2001 are perfect examples of celebrations that help make a final memorable.
How to Bet on the FA Cup Final
Betting on the FA Cup final is really easy at BetMGM. All you need to do is download the BetMGM app or head to our sign-up page to get started. Enter your details and pass ID verification to create your account, and then make a deposit. Make sure to trigger a welcome offer too! Remember, you must be aged 18 or over in the UK to bet on sport.
Once your account is active, head to our FA Cup odds and take a look at the latest markets. You’ll see outright odds on markets such as ‘FA Cup winner’ and ‘FA Cup finalist’. You can also see the upcoming FA Cup fixtures for the next round, all the way up to the final.
Here at BetMGM, we supercharge the odds for those betting on the FA Cup final with scores of pre-match bets and in-play odds. Keep an eye out for odds boosts and special accas.
And, because it’s the final, you can bet on the match result, how the final will end (at 90 minutes, after extra time, on penalties), and who will lift the trophy.
Once you’ve found a bet you like, hit the odds to open the bet slip. Enter your stake and double check your potential payout, before hitting ‘Place Bet’ to complete the process.
Make the next FA Cup final your most memorable yet by betting with BetMGM today!