Manchester United And Nottingham Forest To Smash FA Youth Cup Final Record

Manchester United and Nottingham Forest will set an FA Youth Cup final record, when the two sides meet in the game on Wednesday night.

There's not been much to shout about at Old Trafford in recent months, as the season looks to limp to an end for Ralf Rangnick's team, whose chances of a top four finish are over.

Fans of the club are hoping there will be more to celebrate under Erik ten Hag and there are some exciting youngsters at the club, even if interim boss Rangnick wasn't happy with one of them.

On Wednesday night, fans will have a chance to actually enjoy something positive at the club's home, with their under 18s side taking on Nottingham Forest u18s in the FA Youth Cup Final.

That game is set to attract a huge crowd, with National News journalist Andy Mitten saying the match has sold 59,000 tickets, as of noon on Saturday.

Alejandro Garnacho, who has been in the first squad recently, celebrates a goal in the semi final. Image: PA Images

Included in that number is 5,200 tickets which have been sold by Forest, as the two sides are set to absolutely smash the record attendance for the competition.

The previous highest attendance for the Youth Cup was in 2007, when 38,187 attended the first leg of United's semi final with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

With 10,000 of the near 60,000 sold in just the past two days, there's a very good chance that the match will beat the 60k mark by some distance.

Tottenham Hotspur's stadium holds a capacity of 62,850, the second largest in the Premier League, meaning should the game on Wednesday break that mark it would mean no game outside of Old Trafford in the league would have a higher attendance.

Nottingham Forest's Detlef Esapa Osong scores goal that took Forest into the final. Image: PA Images

Tickets have been on sale for just £1, which is no doubt helping the huge sale of tickets, and the proceeds from the game are going United's charitable foundation.

Whilst fans of the Premier League side haven't had much to cheer on in the current campaign, their Championship opponents have had a much more enjoyable season.

Steve Cooper has turned things around at the City Ground and on Saturday they confirmed their fourth place finish in the second tier to earn themselves a play-off semi final with Sheffield United.

Manchester United have won the Youth Cup a record 10 times, with their last win coming against Sheffield United in 2011, in a game that Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard were amongst the starters, with Harry Maguire starting for the opposition.