How to watch the FA Cup Final: Watch Manchester City versus Watford live this evening
Manchester City can win the domestic treble if they defeat Watford today
The FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Watford starts live at 5pm in the UK and 12pm ET in the US.
City last won the oldest national football competition in the world in 2011. Watford, meanwhile, has never won the coveted tournament, having last competed in the FA Cup Final 35 years ago.
After winning the Premier League earlier this week, Manchester City will look to add the domestic treble to their envious trophy cabinet. In February, they won the EFL (Carabao) Cup after defeating Chelsea in the Final at Wembley.
The odds for Saturday are clearly against Watford because no team in the bottom half of the Premier League table has ever beaten the side that won in an FA Cup Final. Javier Garcia’s side has also lost their last 10 matches against Pep Guardiola’s Blues in all competitions, conceding 32 goals in those games.
However, The Hornets can take plenty of inspiration from their semi-final against the Wolves, where they launched a spectacular comeback to win the game 3-2 after going 2-0 down.
Manchester City displayed why they are one of the best sides in world football by winning their final Premier League game of the tournament to retain the trophy they won last year and deny Liverpool (who finished a point behind them) their first title win in 29 years.
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How to watch Manchester City versus Watford in the UK: BBC One and BT Sport 2
Coverage of the 138th FA Cup Final will be broadcast live from Wembley on both BBC One and BT Sport 2.
Coverage begins live on Saturday, 18 May at 3:55pm on BBC One, and at 4pm on BT Sport 2 HD, with kickoff an hour later at 5pm.
The game will also be available to stream live on the BBC iPlayer website and the BBC iPlayer app (Android, iOS). Alternatively, you can follow live radio commentary of the game on BBC Radio Five Live. Of course, to access any BBC content, you’ll need to have a valid TV license and a BBC login.
You can watch highlights of the FA Cup Final at midnight on BBC One. It’s broadcast at a later time than usual because BBC One is hosting the Grand Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest at 8pm on Saturday evening.
There’s a huge number of packages to choose from when signing up to BT Sport, and we’ve created a guide to help you navigate them. If you have BT TV, then BT Sport is included in the company’s TV bundles. If you’re only a broadband customer, though, then it’ll be between £10-£15 per month, although you can make the most of a three-month free trial. For Sky TV customers, you can sign up to BT Sport from £25 per month. The same pricing structure applies to TalkTalk TV customers.
How to watch Manchester City versus Watford in the US: ESPN+
The best way to watch the FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Watford in the US to sign up for ESPN+, the new streaming service from ESPN.
Kickoff of the FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Watford will be broadcast live from 12pm ET onwards on Saturday, 18 May.
ESPN+ costs $4.99 per month, but comes with a 7-day trial. Apart from the FA Cup Final, you can watch a selection of live games from Serie A, MLB, MLS and NHL and your favourite college sports like football, basketball, lacrosse and more.
ESPN+ also gives you access to original shows like Detail where former Lakers legend Kobe Bryant analyses players in the current NBA Conference Finals. Current NBA Legend LeBron James’ More Than An Athlete series is also available on the channel.
A monthly subscription will let you watch the FA Cup Final and all other ESPN content on all your devices, including Android, iOS, Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire Stick and even gaming consoles like PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
How to watch the FA Cup Final wherever you are: use a VPN
If you’re away from the UK or US this weekend and want to watch the FA Cup Final on BBC iPlayer or ESPN+, then your only way to watch Manchester City and Watford is to use a VPN. You will first need to purchase one of the VPNs (see below link), then change the location to your home country. A VPN helps you geoshift your location so that websites think that you’re browsing from the country you select within the VPN, even though you can be based anywhere in the world.
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ExpressVPN: To stream any live sports content using a VPN, speed is the main criteria and ExpressVPN is far and away the leader of the pack in that regard. It costs about £77 for 15 months but it’s absolutely worth it for its speeds, 24/7 customer support and useful tutorials. You can even install it on your router to cover all the devices on your home network.
NordVPN: Our second-favourite is NordVPN. Even though it’s not as fast, it works with a wide range of devices and you can use it on six devices simultaneously. It costs £82 for a three-year plan and also has 24/7 customer support to assist you should you need help at any given time