⚽ FA Cup final reaction after Semenyo magic secures glory ⚽ Celtic stun Hearts at the last in dramatic final-day finish
Manchester City have won the FA Cup for the eighth time! Antoine Semenyo’s superb goal decided a hard-fought final of few clear chances. Chelsea played a full part and will feel they should have had at least one penalty for a foul by Abdukodir Khusanov. But it was Semenyo’s ingenious flick that won it.
90+2 min Caicedo fouls Semenyo, then sarcastically applauds the assistant referee and is booked.
90+1 min An inswinging cross is headed wide from 12 yards by Delap. A tough chance – his movement was good but he couldn’t guide the header on target.
90 min On 11 November 2018, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City beat Man Utd 3-1 through goals from David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan. A day earlier, 18-year-old Antoine Semenyo made his FA Cup debut for Newport County in a 2-0 win away to Met Police.
Eight years on, Semenyo is a few minutes of injury time away from scoring the winning goal in an FA Cup final.
88 min Excellent game management from City, who are keeping the ball and frustrating Chelsea.
86 min: Chelsea substitution Alejandro Garnacho replaces the weary Joao Pedro.
85 min Cherki addresses a bouncing ball of the edge of the area with a ferocious shot that is beaten away by Sanchez. It was straight enough but that’s still a fine save.
Doku plays a superb pass to release O’Reilly on the left. His low ball across the area towards Haaland is crucically cut out by Caicedo.
Seconds later, Nunes screws a low cross on the run that deflects onto the near post!
83 min “That was a wonderful goal, I actually burst out laughing,” writes Kári Tulinius. “This was like something the Harlem Globetrotters would pull, if they played football.”
Please don’t make Florentino Perez angry again.
82 min: Chelsea substitution Former Manchester City forward Liam Delap comes on for Reece James.
80 min And now it’s over to our resident Quasimodo. “My pre-season prediction of a team in blue or red winning top honours in England and Europe looks like coming true again, Rob,” writes Simon McMahon. “I amend it slightly to include green and white in Scotland. Hoping it holds for the World Cup this year too. Scotland v Spain final. Norway for Eurovision. Democrats or Republicans. Labour or Tories Reform. It’s foolproof, I tell you. Bet the farm on it.”
79 min Darren Cann, assistant referee in the 2010 World Cup final, again thinks it was the correct decision to not award the penalty. I’ll bow to his superior knowledge, but Khusanov took a big risk by leaning quite strongly into Hato.
77 min A big chance for City to clinch it. Doku frees the underlapping O’Reilly on the left side of the area – but he cuts the ball back to nobody instead of trying to score another Wembley goal.
Chelsea break and there’s another penalty appeal for a challenge by Khusanov, this time on Hato (I think). It looked clumsy – he was the wrong side – but it’s been cleared by both the referee and VAR.
76 min “Semenyo did a Zola?” says Giovanni Cafagna.
75 min: Chelsea substiution Pedro Neto replaces Marc Cucurella, which presumably means a switch to 4-2-3-1.
Chelsea almost reply straight away. A long throw from the left is headed on by Colwill and volleyed onto the roof of the net by Enzo. He was only six yards out but had to flick the volley towards goal while wrestling with Guehi, so it wasn’t an easy chance.
Erling Haaland opened the game up with a sharp turn away from Fofana 30 yards from goal. He gave the ball to Bernardo, who played it back to Haaland on the right side of the area. Haaland drove a first-time cross towards the near post, where Semenyo dragged the ball behind his standing leg and into the far corner. That’s an outstanding finish!
Antoine Semenyo puts City ahead with a fabulous goal!
69 min Semenyo runs at Cucurella, who concedes a corner with a well-timed challenge. Semenyo has been a greater than threat than Doku so far.
67 min On that occasion, Khusanov barely touched Joao Pedro. I’m still not sure about the one before half-time though.
66 min Gusto clips an early cross into the box, where Joao Pedro goes down off the ball after some sort of touch from Khusanov. The referee isn’t interested, nor Stockley Park’s finest.
65 min: City substitution Mateo Kovacic replaces Rodri, who isn’t fit enough to go the distance. Phil Foden seemed to be getting ready too but he hasn’t come on yet.
63 min “Cynical Urges (50 min),” says Joe Pearson, “is my next band name.”
Who knew a band with a name like that would drop the first great yacht rock album?
61 min This is Chelsea’s best spell of the match, and Pep Guardiola is about to respond with a double substitution.
59 min James takes a corner on the right, gets the ball back from a near-post clearance and flips a delicious cross that is just too high for Fofana at the far post.
58 min Chelsea have two penalty appeals turned down in the space of 10 seconds. The first was for a challenge by Doku on Caicedo, the second when Enzo’s cross hits the elbow of O’Reilly. His arm was folded into his body so there’s nothing for VAR to see here.
56 min Khusanov is booked for barging Cucurella over. There were, before you mention it, some differences between that and the penalty appeal before half-time. No time for that because it’s all happening…
James’ corner is headed up in the air, with Trafford in no man’s land as he tries to make up for that error. Caicedo heads it back towards the open goal and Rodri nods it away just in front of the goalline. Trafford probably would have made the save as he ran back desperately, but I wouldn’t put the farm on it.
54 min Trafford lets a backpass run under his foot and behind for a Chelsea corner. Could have been worse, a whole lot worse, because he wasn’t far from the goalline.
Originally reported by Guardian Sport.