Manchester City kept alive their hopes of winning a domestic treble as Antoine Semenyo’s sensational second-half finish broke Chelsea’s resolve to settle the FA Cup final 1-0 at Wembley.
It took a moment of breathtaking improvisation to unpick a Chelsea side that had set up to defend and did so with great discipline and resolve, only to be downed 18 minutes from time by what was surely the goal of the City winger’s career so far.
Bernardo Silva fed Erling Haaland into a channel down the right and he looked up to see Semenyo being tightly marshalled by Levi Colwill. In a flash of brilliance, marrying quick thinking with deftness of touch, Semenyo allowed the ball through his legs, hung a deliberate right boot behind him and diverted a finish across the dive of Robert Sanchez into the corner.
Chelsea had chances to hand interim boss Calum McFarlane a moment by which to remember his brief spell in caretaker charge, most glaringly when Enzo Fernandez flicked inches over from inside the six yard box.
City’s attentions now turn to the Premier League title race and Bournemouth away on Tuesday. If this is to be Pep Guardiola’s final season in charge, he will bow out with at least two trophies following the Carabao Cup win here in March.
Chelsea succeeded in making the first half one of little spectacle, their back five stifling City and robbing them of space in which to play.
Indeed there were almost no chances in the opening period. One came when Chelsea passed themselves into a mess in the right-back position. Reece James, receiving the ball under pressure, was barged off it by Haaland, who carried it into the box and fizzed across goal to no one.
Haaland then put the ball in the net from a cross by Matheus Nunes who had strayed offside before delivering.
Guardiola was unhappy that Fernandez escaped with a yellow card for what looked a two-footed challenge on Silva before Haaland finally had the game’s first serious attempt in the 43rd minute, getting in behind Wesley Fofana and firing straight at Sanchez.
It was not a surprise to see the ineffective Omar Marmoush withdrawn at half-time, with Rayan Cherki on to try and finally punch a hole in Chelsea’s rearguard.
Semenyo ought to have put City in front two minutes after the break but headed Nico O’Reilly’s excellent cross inches over.
A stolid final looked increasingly like an individual moment would decide it and from nothing one arrived in the 72nd minute. Haaland’s cross was perfectly pitched and Semenyo’s flick finally breached Chelsea’s defence.
Fernandez almost replied instantly, flicking Colwill’s header on to the roof of James Trafford’s goal. It was a glorious chance to level the final and Chelsea would not get another.
Cherki was denied by a flying save from Sanchez after Chelsea gave the ball away again in their own third. A second goal would have more fairly reflected City’s superiority.
