In its 155-year history the FA Cup final can rarely have been won by a more audacious goal. Manchester City beat Chelsea 1-0 at Wembley Stadium on Saturday thanks to a moment of magic from Antoine Semenyo.
The forward brought to life a final that had produced little in the way of chances or excitement with a spectacular back-heeled goal in the second half. Running onto a cross from Erling Haaland in the 72nd minute, Semenyo flicked his heel at the ball and directed it low into the far corner past diving Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
“It has happened a couple of times in training, it happened perfectly today. … It came straight to me and I had to improvise myself as quickly as I can,” Semenyo told the BBC. “It is a good finish, I can´t lie.” Chelsea interim coach Calum McFarlane agreed. “For me it´s a one in 100 goal, it´s a really low XG goal,” he said. “For me, no, there´s not much more you can do to defend it.” Victory kept City in the hunt for a domestic trophy treble, having already won the English League Cup. Pep Guardiola´s team is also second in the Premier League, two points behind Arsenal with two rounds to go. This was Guardiola´s 17th major trophy in 10 years at City and his 35th in his career overall. City has won the Cup eight times and moved level with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham as equal third on the all-time winners’ list.
Defeat means Chelsea will end the season trophyless – a year after being crowned Club World Cup champion – in what has been a crisis-ridden campaign. After firing two coaches since the turn of the year, Chelsea went into the final with a novice on the sideline in McFarlane, a former youth coach taking charge of only his seventh first team game.
The turmoil at Chelsea led to supporters staging a protest against its American owners outside the stadium before kickoff. In that sense it was commendable that McFarlane was able to frustrate Guardiola for such long periods. That was until Semenyo’s match-winning moment. The Ghana international joined City from Bournemouth only in January and made an immediate impact – scoring 10 goals and helping the team to two trophies.