Manchester City are going to Wembley, again. City will return here on 16 May to meet either Chelsea or Leeds in what will be their fourth successive FA Cup final. If all goes to plan in these final weeks, in this strange crescendo of a season, it will be the second piece in a treble of trophies for Pep Guardiola’s side.
On a warm, hazy evening in London, City won this semi-final 2-1 but only after coming through an almighty scare against Southampton, who came desperately close to a memorable upset. Saints had soaked up waves of pressure before hitting City with a late suckerpunch when Finn Azaz spun and swept a beautifully arcing shot into the top corner of James Trafford’s goal.
Southampton’s half of the stadium went off, and anything that could be launched into the air went in the air: balloons, hats, scarves, limbs. But the elation didn’t last. Jeremy Doku’s deflected shot brought City level three minutes later, before Nico Gonzalez thundered in City’s winner from long range.
It was the right result on the balance of play and yet Southampton will go away feeling they had a famous win snatched away, in this place, in this year of all years, 50 years after Bobby Stokes’ goal beat Manchester United to win the 1976 FA Cup, the club’s only major trophy in 140 years.
Saints’ rearguard action was immaculate up to those final minutes. The captain Taylor Harwood-Bellis thwarted City with tackles and blocks, Caspar Jander spoiled their midfield patterns, Leo Scienza was excellent down the left and goalkeeper Daniel Peretz made a series of crucial saves.
In those brief moments when the score read 1-0, it felt like they really might make history rhyme half a century later. Southampton pushed this second-string City side right to the brink, so much so that Guardiola sent for Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva from the bench.
Guardiola had taken a risk rotating out many of his best players. Southampton were the country’s in-form team coming into the game, on a 20-game unbeaten run under young German manager Tonda Eckert. They had knocked out Arsenal in the quarter-finals, and this semi-final had a sense of possibility right from the start.
Oddly, Saints stirred to life after 12 minutes when they scored a disallowed goal. Scienza was quite clearly offside, but this was one of those moments when the assistant doesn’t flag until the scorer is celebrating in the corner and fans at the far end of the stadium are embracing strangers around them in delirium.
Yet when they finally came back to Earth, it was as if Southampton – both players and fans – now felt unbridled belief. This is half the battle in these imbalanced games: City should beat a Championship team nine times out of 10, but if you can survive the first 20 minutes, if you can show a little ambition, if you can offer a threat, then slowly a confidence begins to rise to the surface and everyone inside the stadium can feel it.
A set-piece whistles past outstretched Southampton toes and fans gasp. Phil Foden has the ball pinched from his feet and they cheer. Rayan Ait-Nouri can’t keep a heavy pass in play and the south half of Wembley roars like their team have scored the opening goal.
There were naturally some nervy moments to evade. Mateo Kovacic slalomed through Saints’ low block, but then did something a player who has played 13 minutes of Premier League football all season is likely to do when they enter the six-yard box for the first time in nine months, belting the ball as hard as he could without much thought. It blew away for a goal-kick and Kovacic gestured at his teammates like this was somehow their fault.
Omar Marmoush fired a low shot which Peretz repelled with his boots, and Foden wriggled into the area before being shut down as he tried to shoot. Southampton reached half-time all square but City’s pressure turned into an onslaught after the break. Marmoush jabbed over the bar from eight yards, then couldn’t get a touch on a low cross with the goal gaping, the sort of opportunity Haaland would have surely relished. On the touchline, Guardiola went apoplectic with his stand-in striker.
Saints sank deeper and deeper so that all 11 players were regularly inside their own box, which made sporadic attempts to counter-attack all the more difficult. A goal was surely coming, and then it did: Saints strung some passes upfield where Azaz swivelled on the ball, 25 yards out, and bent a shot around Trafford’s diving hand.
But soon Doku was shimmying on the edge of the box and his low shot took a deflection off James Bree’s thigh past Peretz into the far corner. It was a cruel way to concede but a fair reward for City’s relentless pressure through the second half.
City went in for the kill and when the ball rolled out to Gonzalez, 30 yards from goal, he arrowed home a magnificent winner. And perhaps therein lies the difference: Southampton battled gamely all evening, and then a £50m player City barely use smashed the ball into the top corner.
