sport news JACK GAUGHAN: It is not a surprise Man City No 2 Stefan Ortega will start in ... trends now
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To the outside world there will be surprise when Manchester City’s No 18 stands next to Ilkay Gundogan as Jasmine Faulkner belts out the national anthem at Wembley today.
Yet around City on Friday, when Pep Guardiola confirmed Stefan Ortega would be thrown the gloves for the FA Cup final, there was a collective shrug of the shoulders.
In all his years at this club, and all the silverware, Ederson has only played two domestic cup finals — both of them in 2019, when Claudio Bravo’s achilles tendon injury ruled him out for the season.
City’s players nicknamed the Carabao Cup the ‘Claudio Bravo Cup’ given his heroics over various campaigns and Ederson happily sat them out.
Bravo was a decent understudy and Ortega is good. Not Ederson good, but a significant upgrade on Zack Steffen, whose mistakes contributed to a pair of FA Cup semi-final defeats by Chelsea and Liverpool in the previous two seasons.
Stefan Ortega will start against Manchester United in the FA Cup final on Saturday afternoon
Former City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was rated for his heroics in Carabao Cup finals
One of Steffen’s last acts in a City shirt was to miscontrol a back-pass on his line and allow Sadio Mane to tackle him into the net as Liverpool raced into a three-goal lead. He spent this term on loan at Middlesbrough.
Although he was mildly questioned after a defeat at Southampton, there have been no such calamities with Ortega, 30, snapped up on a free transfer from relegated Bundesliga side Arminia Bielefeld last summer as they
