FA Cup
Man City edge closer to treble after FA Cup final win over Man Utd
Manchester City moved to within one victory of completing a momentous treble as they deservedly beat arch-rivals Manchester United 2-1 in the FA Cup final thanks to Ilkay Gundogan’s record-breaking double on Saturday.
City captain Gundogan scored the fastest goal in FA Cup final history with a stunning volley after 12 seconds and struck what proved to be the winner seven minutes after halftime.
In doing so the 32-year-old, who is expected to leave City in the summer after seven trophy-laden years, became the oldest player to score an FA Cup final brace since Nat Lofthouse for Bolton Wanderers in 1958, also against United.
United, seeking to win both domestic cups in the same season for the first time in their history and wreck City’s hopes of emulating their own historic 1999 treble, had levelled with a 33rd-minute Bruno Fernandes penalty.
Pep Guardiola’s side resisted some late United pressure to win the trophy for a seventh time.
It is the 13th time the English league and FA Cup double has been achieved. But City now want more and travel to Istanbul to face Inter Milan seeking to be crowned European champions for the first time and to equal United’s 1998-99 Premier League/FA Cup/Champions League sweep under Alex Ferguson.
“Now we can talk about the treble,” Guardiola, who has won 11 trophies since arriving at City in 2016, said.
“Of course we still have to win the Champions League. We performed so well for our city and our fans. It was so important for us today. The FA Cup is so nice.”
BRAGGING RIGHTS
For the first time in 190 meetings the clubs were clashing for silverware, and not just bragging rights, and Wembley was decked in red and sky blue as fans braved rail strikes to descend en masse on the capital.
Smoke from the pre-match pyrotechnics had not even cleared when City took the lead in spectacular fashion.
Keeper Stefan Ortega’s long punt towards Erling Haaland and as the ball bounced into the path of Gundogan who did not hesitate to send a dipping right-foot volley arcing over a transfixed David de Gea.
“The ball just was placed amazingly for me and I just had to hit it,” he said. “Obviously it was quite a good strike and it went in and it was amazing.”
It eclipsed the previous fastest FA Cup final goal scored by Louis Saha after 25 seconds for Everton against Chelsea in 2009 and City threatened to run riot against a stunned United.
Rodri and Jack Grealish both failed to convert good chances in the opening five minutes in which United barely touched the ball while Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne also went close for City before United were handed an unexpected gift.
United right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka headed a diagonal ball harmlessly across the area and as play continued referee Paul Tierney was instructed to check a pitch-side VAR monitor for a possible handball by Grealish.
It was extremely harsh on Grealish, but Tierney pointed to the spot and Fernandes calmly shuffled up to send Ortega the wrong way with his penalty and spark celebrations at the east end of the stadium where United’s fans were packed.
Briefly United looked City’s match and Raphael Varane volleyed over from a corner as halftime approached.
But it proved an illusion. City needed slightly longer in the second half to re-establish their superiority and again it was Gundogan displaying his knack of scoring crucial goals.
This time he was picked out by De Bruyne’s chipped pass and his left-foot volley, not struck anywhere near as perfectly as his earlier effort, bounced its way through a crowded area and crept inside De Gea’s right-hand post.
Gundogan was denied a hat-trick by an offside flag and as the minutes ticked down City looked edgy with United substitute Alejandro Garnacho curling a shot agonisingly wide and a crazy goalmouth scramble in stoppage time ended with the ball bouncing off City’s crossbar.
For United they can console themselves with a League Cup trophy in manager Erik Ten Hag’s encouraging first season and will hope Inter can stop City next Saturday.
-Reuters
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admitted he was surprised that Norwegian striker Erling Haaland declined to take a penalty for his side in Saturday’s FA Cup final against Crystal Palace with the kick subsequently being missed by Omar Marmoush.
Trailing 1-0 to Eberechi Eze’s goal, City were awarded a penalty in the first half when Palace defender Tyrick Mitchell tripped Bernardo Silva who had burst into the area.
Haaland, who had failed to score in his first five Wembley appearances for City, looked poised to break that duck, but handed the ball to Marmoush whose first-ever penalty for City was superbly saved by Dean Henderson.
“I thought he would want to take it but they didn’t speak,” said Guardiola. “That moment for the penalty, it’s the feeling and how they feel. They decided Omar was ready to take it.
“Omar took a lot of time when the ball was stopped, so it put more pressure on him, and Henderson made a good save.”
Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, working as a TV pundit for the BBC, said he felt the occasion might have got to Haaland.
“He’s a world-class forward, but when we are talking about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, there is no way they are giving that ball away,” Rooney said.
“That is what separates them two players from Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe and these players. They are selfish and they want to score every game.
“When (Haaland) misses chances I think you can see it gets to him and it does affect him. Maybe the thought of taking a penalty at Wembley might have been too much for him. You never know, he is a human being.”
Haaland has scored 30 goals for City this season in all competitions but has missed three of his seven penalties.
-Reuters
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Crystal Palace face Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday hoping to lift the FA Cup for the first time and it is guaranteed that high on the pre-match agenda will be the club’s extraordinary and eventually heartbreaking 1990 campaign.
The semi-finals and final(s) that year were arguably the most dramatic in the competition’s long and storied history and remain the emotional high and low point of every Palace fan who watched them.
Palace were struggling in the top flight after promotion and had been humiliated 9-0 by Liverpool early in the season.
In the Cup they were hardly pulling up trees either, beating lower league Portsmouth, Huddersfield Town, Rochdale and Cambridge United to reach the semi-finals for the first time since they lost to Southampton as a third division team in 1976.
Facing runaway champions-elect and FA Cup holders Liverpool again in the semis look an insurmountable barrier and an Ian Rush goal had the Reds ahead at halftime at Villa Park.
Things then went crazy as Mark Bright and Gary O’Reilly gave Palace a shock lead. Two goals in two minutes put Liverpool back in front, only for Andy Gray to stun the odds-on favourites in the 88th minute to force extra time.
Amazingly, it was Palace who snatched victory in the 109th minute via Alan Pardew, who would later manage the club.
It was the first year that both semi-finals were live on TV and barely had the excitement abated when similarly unfancied Oldham ran out to face Manchester United at Maine Road.
The second division team had not beaten top-flight opposition in 66 years but accounted for four that season in a double cup run that caught the nation’s imagination.
Playing vibrant, attacking football under Joe Royle, Oldham twice came from behind to draw 3-3 after extra time – meaning a remarkable 13 goals had been scored on a day of unimaginable drama. United ended Oldham’s dream when they snatched a 2-1 victory six minutes from the end of extra time in the replay.
ALL-ENGLISH TEAM
The Palace side who lined up at Wembley were the last all-English team to play in the final while United’s were the last all-UK lineup to win it.
United manager Alex Ferguson was under huge pressure to deliver a trophy four years after arriving at Old Trafford, but Palace struck first through O’Reilly.
Bryan Robson and Mark Hughes turned it round and United seemed on course for victory, only for Ian Wright to come off the bench for the most wonderful 20 minutes of his life.
The former non-league striker had been sidelined for much of the season with a twice-broken leg, but exploded into action to equalise with virtually his first touch and then put the Londoners ahead early in extra time.
“It’s still the greatest moment I’ve had in my career – easily – simply because of everything that it had entailed up to that point,” Wright told the Palace website on Friday.
“My emergence at Palace, and to reach the biggest stage in English football, and all of a sudden I’m on the Wembley pitch.
“And then what happened after that was the stuff of fairytales. It really, really was.”
However, as the Palace fans sang in dreamland, Hughes broke their hearts with a late equaliser.
The replay five days later could not live up to everything that had gone before and though Palace battled gamely, United won it 1-0 with a goal by Lee Martin.
It was a victory that launched Ferguson and United on their dizzying journey of success – that included another extra-time FA Cup final win over Palace in 2016 after the Scot had retired – but one that left a gaping hole in the hearts of the losers.
“I would have loved to have won that FA Cup, and we were only seven minutes away,” said Wright, who went on to win multiple trophies, including two FA Cups with Arsenal. “Seven minutes. Honestly, I still can’t take it.”
-Reuters
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The first weekend of semi-automated offside decisions in English soccer descended into confusion on Saturday as Bournemouth had a goal ruled out after a record eight-minute VAR check.
Bournemouth, who eventually beat Premier League rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers on penalties in the FA Cup fifth round after a 1-1 draw, thought they had doubled their lead when defender Milos Kerkez scored in the 35th-minute goal.
However, new technology could not be used because the six-yard area was too crowded and VAR officials had to revert to manually drawing lines before disallowing the goal.
Fellow defender Dean Huijsen was adjudged to have been in an offside position as Kerkez’s effort brushed his shoulder before going in to the net.
The VAR check was further complicated as VAR officials Timothy Wood and Darren England also had to also examine the possibility of hand balls prior to the tight offside call.
Both sets of fans voiced their disapproval at the interminable wait, chanting “it’s not football any more” and “this is embarrassing”.
Referee Sam Barrott, who eventually announced the decision to the crowd via a microphone, had to explain to the respective managers and players what was happening during the delay.
-Reuters
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