Who won f a cup 1992
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Executive summary
Liverpool won the 1992 FA Cup final, beating Sunderland 2–0 at Wembley with goals from Michael Thomas and Ian Rush [1]. The match was notable because Sunderland reached the final as a Second Division side, Liverpool secured their fifth FA Cup title, and Graeme Souness—Liverpool’s manager—was absent from pitch-side duties during the game while recovering from heart surgery [1] [2].
1. The result and the scorers
The decisive facts are straightforward: Liverpool defeated Sunderland 2–0 at Wembley on 9 May 1992, with Michael Thomas opening the scoring and Ian Rush confirming the victory, Rush registering what became his fifth goal in FA Cup finals [1] [2] [3].
2. Context: a heavyweight club versus a Second Division underdog
The final pitched a historically successful Liverpool side—four-time previous FA Cup winners and perennial English heavyweights—against a Sunderland team that had been playing in the Second Division and had finished 17th in that league that season, making Sunderland’s run to the final an underdog story in the classic cup tradition [1] [2] [4].
3. Management, medical drama and who led the team on the day
Graeme Souness was Liverpool’s manager that season but had recently undergone emergency heart surgery, so although he selected the starting line-up he did not take charge on the touchline; assistant Ronnie Moran led the team during the match [1] [2]. Reporting framed the victory as the only major trophy Souness won with Liverpool and later noted his resignation within two years of the success [1] [2].
4. Aftermath, records and oddities from the day
Liverpool’s victory marked their fifth FA Cup triumph and provided a morale boost ahead of the inaugural Premier League season, while Ian Rush’s goal cemented an enduring final-stage scoring record for him [2] [5] [3]. Contemporary accounts and later retrospectives also recall a presentation mix-up in which the winning Liverpool players were momentarily given runners-up medals while Sunderland initially received winners’ medals before the error was corrected [2] [3].
5. Sunderland’s perspective and the narrative of being ‘forgotten’ runners-up
Sunderland’s run to the final is remembered locally as a proud achievement—dubbed “forgotten” by club voices—because the team were second-tier finalists and, despite the disappointment of losing, their cup run stands as the last time Sunderland reached the FA Cup final [4]. Several former players and club insiders have described the experience as bittersweet, noting the unique nature of a final featuring only British Isles-born players in Sunderland’s squad and lamenting the way runners-up memories fade compared with winners [2] [4].
6. How historians and club sources frame the match today
Encyclopedic and club-oriented sources uniformly record Liverpool as the 1992 winners, noting the 2–0 scoreline and scorers, and they place the match within broader narratives about Liverpool’s dominance in previous decades and Sunderland’s unlikely cup run as a Second Division side [1] [5] [6]. Where interpretations diverge is in emphasis: Liverpool-focused accounts highlight the trophy and Rush’s record, while Sunderland-focused pieces stress the rarity and pride of a lower-division final appearance and the long shadow cast over club memory by the loss [3] [4].