Manchester

Coordinates: 53°28′N 2°14′W / 53.467°N 2.233°W / 53.467; -2.233

Manchester (/ˈmæntʃɪstər/) is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 514,417 as of 2013. It lies within the United Kingdom's second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million. Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council.

The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium or Mancunium, which was established in about 79 AD on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. It was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated during the 20th century. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city.

Manchester City F.C.

Manchester City Football Club is a football club in Manchester, England. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894. The club moved to the City of Manchester Stadium in 2003, having played at Maine Road since 1923.

The club's most successful period was in the late 1960s and early 1970s when they won the League Championship, FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup under the management team of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. After losing the 1981 FA Cup Final, the club went through a period of decline, culminating in relegation to the third tier of English football for the only time in their history in 1998.

Having regained Premier League status, the club was purchased in 2008 by Abu Dhabi United Group and has become one of the wealthiest in the world. In 2011, Manchester City qualified for the UEFA Champions League and won the FA Cup. The following year, they won the Premier League, their first league title for 44 years. In 2014, they won the League Cup and a second Premier League title.

Pep Guardiola

Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (Catalan pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛb ɡwəɾðiˈɔɫə]; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football coach and former player who is the current manager of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich.

Guardiola played as a defensive midfielder and spent the majority of his career with Barcelona, forming a part of Johan Cruyff's "Dream Team" that won the club's first European Cup in 1992, and four successive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. He later captained the team from 1997 to 2001. He then played for Brescia and Roma in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar, and Dorados de Sinaloa in Mexico while training to be a manager. While playing in Italy, he served a four-month ban for a positive drug test, although he was cleared of wrongdoing twice on appeal in 2009 before the Courts of Justice of the Italian Football Federation and the Federal Anti-Doping Courts of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). Guardiola was capped 47 times for Spain, winning the Olympic Gold Medal in 1992, and appeared at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He also played friendly matches for Catalonia. A deep-lying playmaker, he was highly regarded throughout his career for his vision of the game, ball control, technical ability, passing range, and calm composure.

FC Zorya Luhansk

FC Zorya Luhansk (Ukrainian: ФК «Зоря» Луганськ [zo'rʲɑ lu'ɦɑnsʲk]), formerly known as Zorya Voroshilovgrad and Zorya-MALS, is a Ukrainian football team. Zorya Luhansk is based in the city of Luhansk (formerly known as Voroshilovgrad), Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine. However, because of the war in Eastern Ukraine, the team is currently playing its games at Slavutych-Arena in Zaporizhia.

History

The history of the club takes place at the dawn of the 20th century right after in the city of Luhansk was built the first stadium. The stadium was built in 1922 under the personal order of Vladimir Lenin and later was named after him. The first games that involved participation of the Luhansk's teams first mentioned in 1911 and in 1913 in Kostyantynivka was created the regional football league of Donets basin. During the World War I and the following Soviet and German aggressions the league was suspended until 1920 when the situation in the region had stabilized.

The first Luhansk team was created in the Russian Empire in 1908 when the workers of the Russischen Maschinenbaugesellschaft Hartmann created the "Society of wise recreations". The football section was headed by the Czech specialist Henrich Drževikovski from Prague who was an instructor of gymnastics of the factory's ministerial school. That team played its games and conducted its training on the empty lot near the factory where today is located the sport hall "Zorya".

Manchester United F.C.

Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.

Manchester United have won 20 league titles, the most of any English club, 11 FA Cups, four League Cups and a record 20 FA Community Shields. The club has also won three European Cups, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, one Intercontinental Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup. In 1998–99, the club became the first in the history of English football to achieve the treble of the Premier League, the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League.

The 1958 Munich air disaster claimed the lives of eight players. In 1968, under the management of Matt Busby, Manchester United became the first English football club to win the European Cup. Alex Ferguson won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups and 2 UEFA Champions Leagues, between 1986 and 2013, when he announced his retirement. Louis van Gaal is the club's current manager after Ferguson's successor David Moyes was sacked after only 10 months in charge.