Key events
David Hytner’s report from Wembley
It was a day that will live forever in the hearts of everyone connected to Crystal Palace; history made, legends created. The south London club were on a mission to avenge previous Wembley pain, the FA Cup final defeats against Manchester United from 1990 and 2016, to win a first major trophy. They put their supporters through the wringer because it is written that they must suffer. But when the final whistle blew, the joy was boundless. Who knows when it will feel real?
The Palace players all go up to collect their medals. They couldn’t stop smiling if they tried. Eventually the two captains, Marc Guehi and Joel Ward, grab one ear each of the FA Cup and lift it to the sky. With perfect timing, Glad All Over blares over the tannoy.
These are lovely scenes, imbued with a charm that is unique to first-time winners. And all that matters to them is winning a trophy; nobody has yet mentioned that they will be in the Europa League next season as well. In 2025, that’s extremely refreshing.
Dean Henderson’s reaction
It’s incredible, honestly. So tired – the concentration, the lads are out on their feet. I’m so proud of everyone. We deserve this moment, the fans deserve it, the manager deserves it, everyone involved with the club.
It seemed like we were out there defending for about 24 hours but fair play to the boys, they stuck in, they got the blocks in, it was fantastic.
I didn’t know [the VAR check] was for me. I wasn’t sure what they were doing it for. Then I asked Chilly [Ben Chilwell] on the touchline was it for me and he said ‘Yeah’. Who cares, it doesn’t matter.
[Henderson looks confused as Gabriel Clarke presses it] I don’t know. I’m not bothered. I don’t know what you said, sorry.
[On the penalty save] I was confident. Years ago I saved a penalty down there for Shrewsbury and I fancied my chances in that corner. He smashed it hard, I went the right way and thankfully I got the save off.
[On the incident with Pep Guardiola] I went to shake his hand. I think he was disappointed with the [injury] time. I just said, ‘You got the 10 minutes you were wanted.’ No hard feelings.
The fans will remember this forever, like we will.
“Couldn’t be happier for Palace,” says Michael Hayen. “A shame Pep’s first action is to have a whine at Henderson.”
In his defence, one angle made it look like Henderson sledged him first, in which Guardiola’s reaction is at least understandable. But I don’t know for sure. If Guardiola did start it, that’s not great.
“2025 is the new 1994,” says Simon McMahon. “I mean, you know I wouldn’t normally try to shoehorn a Dundee United reference into an FA Cup Final MBM, but today takes me back to when we won the Scottish Cup for the first time in our history in 1994, having lost in six previous finals. They don’t need me to tell them, but enjoy it, Palace fans.”
I think they’ll celebrate well.
The camera cuts to Pep Guardiola, who is busy scrutinising a geographical location precisely 1000 yards away from Wembley. I bet he can’t wait for next season to start. The last time City won nothing, in Guardiola’s first year at the club, they hit 100 points the following season.
Eberechi Eze’s reaction
No words, man. No words. I don’t know what to say. I can only thank god because this is… nah, no words.
This is special. This is what dreams are made of, for me and this club. Who thought we could do it? We’ve made history today.
Tactics were good but I feel like our spirit and energy [got us through].
[On the Henderson handball] Yeah I was concerned [when it went to VAR] because you don’t want to give these guys a chance; they‘re too good.
[ITV’s Gabriel Clarke tells Eze there’s a feeling it was ‘one of the worst decisions in an FA Cup final’] Well… It is what it is. To be honest I don’t care about any of that, I’m just glad we won.
At this point Jean-Philippe Mateta arrives screaming, “HE’S THE MAN! HE’S THE MAN!”
We are glad all over. Please, let me join in now.
Pep Guardiola is furiously wagging his finger at Dean Henderson, although Henderson may have started it. Either way, his noggin has gone and his post-match interview will be interesting. But even if he launches into a breathless 24-minutes score-settler, it shouldn’t be the lead story tomorrow. This, with a respectful nod to the team of 1990-91, is about the greatest team in Crystal Palace’s history.
CRYSTAL PALACE WIN THE 2025 FA CUP
They’ve done it at last. The despair of 1990 and 2016 is all part of the prologue now. Crystal Palace have won the FA Cup thanks to a brilliant goal from the wonderful Ebere Eze, and lots of very hard-faced gentlemen in the Palace end are haemmorhaging tears of joy.
Full time: Crystal Palace 1-0 Manchester City
Crystal Palace have won their first major trophy at the tender age of 119!
90+9 min Palace have given up the pretence of attacking. They’re pretty much playing with a back nine. But they are so close now; 100 seconds away from glory.
90+6 min: Good save by Henderson! Palace are hanging on desperately. Doku’s low cross is half stopped at the near post and poked towards goal by the lively Echeverri. Henderson makes a smart save to his left and Palace force the ball away. For about two seconds.
Moments later City appeal for handball and a penalty when Echeverri’s snapshot hits a Palace defender. He has certainly made things happen.
90+4 min A daft foul from Echeverri on Eze allows Palace a breather. I wonder how Jack Grealish feels about Echeverri, a teenage debutant, coming on ahead of him.
90+4 min Even Munoz looks tired now. The mental and physical demands of repelling City in a cup final for 100 minutes – even a below-par City – are stratospheric.
90+2 min Palace’s defenders are starting to look a bit weary. A cross is headed away as far as De Bruyne on the edge of the D. He takes a touch and swishes the bouncing ball a couple of yards wide of the right-hand post. Henderson had it covered.
90+1 min Henderson is booked for timewasting. If Palace win we’ll hear plenty about the card he didn’t receive in the first half.
89 min Crystal Palace are 11 minutes away from their first major trophy. Yep, there are going to be 10 added minutes. I guess there are a few reasons for that – the VAR check on Munoz’s goal, Guehi’s injury, Wharton being flattened, the substitutions.
88 min: Man City substitution Ilkay Gundogan comes on for Bernardo Silva. I’ve got a feeling…
87 min: Palace substitution A weary Adam Wharton limps off to be replaced by Will Hughes.
86 min Lerma belts a crossfield pass out to Sarr on the right. He plays a short pass inside to the underlapping Munoz, who arrives on the scene at 1.5x speed and smashes a rising cross-shot that goes wide of the far post. His energy levels are spectacular.
86 min That Echeverri shot was the first on target at either end in the second half.
85 min De Bruyne, who should have been booked in the first half, is booked this time for a tactical foul. This is officially the closest Palace have been to winning a major trophy – although in real terms it probably isn’t because there was less added time in 1990 and 2016.
83 min “Kieran McKintosh’s mention of the Glasner’s Europa League triumph reminded me that Daichi Kamada was on the field that day too, as a brilliant attacking midfielder,” says Kári Tulinius. “His transformation into one of the best defensive midfielders in England is remarkable. He’s marshalled the defence all day, and kept City from building a rhythm in front of goal. If Palace see this out, he’ll be a big reason why.”
Who was the right wing-back Frankfurt had that year, I think on loan from Dortmund? He was absolute dynamite. If only Palace had somebody simil-oh.
83 min Ruben Dias has been booked for something or other.
Big chance for Echeverri!
82 min City work the ball neatly on the edge of the area. Eventually De Bruyne arrives on the scene and slips a lovely first-time pass through to Echeverri, unmarked 10 yards out. He takes a touch and smashes a shot straight at Henderson. It might have taken a slight deflection, hard to be sure, but it was a terrific chance either way.
81 min A very deep corner from the right is headed over the bar by Haaland. Palace look relatively comfortable in the circumstances – but the same was true when they were 3-2 up with seven minutes remaining in 1990.
80 min “Paddy McCarthy has previous with City,” says Justin Kavanagh. “He was signed by them in 2000 from Stella Maris in Dublin but let go after never playing for the first team. And you know what they say about Irish amnesia: we forget everything but the grudge.”
78 min: Crystal Palace substitution Eddie Nketiah replaces Jean-Philippe Mateta, who looks utterly shattered. His part in the goal was majestic.
Echeverri comes on for City debut
77 min: Double substitution for City Phil Foden and Claudio Echeverri – signed from River Plate and in a matchday squad for the first time – replace Savinho and Omar Marmoush. Blimey.
76 min Bernardo Silva fouls Mateta and is booked. Replays show that O’Reilly was too keen to to get the ball on his left foot rather than taking the shot early with his right.
Chance for O’Reilly
75 min De Bruyne plays a superb through pass to O’Reilly, who has been the hero of City’s FA Cup campaign, but he dithers for a crucial split-second and that allows Munoz to block his shot. Fine defending but O’Reilly needed to get the shot away earlier.
74 min “What’s been impressive from Palace today is just how calm they’ve been,” says Niall Mullen. “The stats suggest a backs-to-the-wall affair but the penalty aside there’s not been a desperate tackle of note. That said, as a non-neutral neutral, I’d like them to show maybe 10% more intensity.”
72 min Another De Bruyne shot is blocked by the head of Wharton, knocking him off his feet. The referee stops play and De Bruyne has a brief slanging match with Richards.
There have been no shots on target at either end in the second half, which feels incongruous given the tension and incident: Richards’ header to deny Haaland, Akanji’s block from Eze, the disallowed goal and so on.
72 min Flippity flip this is tense. De Bruyne whacks an impatient shot from 20 yards that is blocked on the edge of the area, I think by Lacroix. Palace’s defensive shape is so good.
69 min City’s main attacking options on the bench include Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and, perhaps most importantly, Ilkay Gundogan. This feels like a Gundogan kind of game, same as the title decider against Aston Villa in 2022. He’s so good at finding space in a crowded penalty area.
68 min A Palace corner is half cleared to Kamada, whose chest-volley from distance flashes over the bar. Lovely effort though.
67 min Crystal Palace are 23 minutes away from their first major trophy. But that’s an ocean of time compared to 1990 and 2016.
66 min O’Reilly is booked for a cynical foul on Munoz, who has arguably been the best player on the pitch. I’d love to nick his Fitbit and pass it off as my own.
64 min ITV are reporting that Palace’s Paddy McCarthy, who was just involved in a full and frank exchange of views with a member of the City backroom staff, also had a head-to-head Hegelian dialectic* with Pep Guardiola in the tunnel at half-time. And why not, it’s an FA Cup final FFS>
* ™ Scott Murray
63 min Losing Guehi is a big blow, and Palace fans will note with alarm that he was suspended when they lost 5-2 at the Etihad last month.
61 min: Crystal Palace substitution It’s kicking off between the two benches. My word. Meanwhile Marc Guehi has been replaced by Jefferson Lerma – that may well be concussion after the ball smacked him in the face.
NO GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-0 Manchester City
That’s a fairly simple decision. Sarr knew nothing about it but he was clearly offside when the ball hit him and ricocheted towards goal. Another twist in this compelling game.
VAR check for offside! I think this will be disallowed. Munoz’s first shot deflected off Haaland and onto Sarr, who was in an offside position.
Richards’ long throw from the right was only half cleared at the near post. Lacroix allowed the ball to run to Munoz, whose shot from 10 yards took a deflection and was very well saved by Orteta. But the ball ran loose and Munoz – still on the move, when isn’t he on the move – put it in from a tight angle.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 2-0 Man City (Munoz 58)
Daniel Munoz may just have gone into Crystal Palace folklore!
58 min Sarr’s dipping cross from the right is muffed by Akanji, who is relieved to see the ball run to Dias rather than Mateta.
57 min “I can tell from the names of Giovanni Cafagna’s cats, Ozzy and Lemmy, that he’s an easy listening fan,” says Simon McMahon. “Maybe he’ll like this?”
56 min Doku plays a clever pass into the area to find Bernardo Silva, who runs off Wharton and slides a low cross-shot that is brilliantly blocked by the sliding Kamada. It’s all City just now.
54 min Guehi is back on and blink-free. Okay, not blink free, we all need to blink, but he’s no longer doing it furiously.
53 min There’s a break in play while Guehi receives treatment. He was smacked in the face and is blinking furiously, prompting the ITV commentator Sam Matterface to wonder whether he wears contact lenses.
I don’t like to bring up the name of Jim Leighton during an FA Cup final involving Crystal Palace but this story needs to be shared at every opportunity.
52 min “I’m not a fan of either team and would love to see Crystal Palace win their first major trophy, but the non-red decision is baffling,” says Ted Graves. “If Henderson doesn’t swat the ball outside his box then Haaland is into the box and either lobs him or charges the goal. ‘Direction of play? Very odd decision based on the rules, the only explanation I can find is VAR didn’t want to send a player off with 3/4 of the game to go.”
That’s definitely the consensus. I’m still not sure whether it was clear and obvious, purely because of the doubt over the weight of Haaland’s touch and the potential of the covering defender to block any shot. But I’m going to shut up about it before I start receiving abusive emails.
Great block by Akanji
50 min A long throw from the right bounces across to Eze, who twists his body to smack a shot that is crucially blocked by Akanji. That was going right in the bottom corner, and another demonstration of Eze’s superb technique.
50 min “Fact that often flies under the radar: Glasner has already won the Europa League,” says Kiearn McKintosh. “So if Palace were to hold on, and go to that land, you wouldn’t bet against them giving it a good go…
“Big if though.”
Yeah, long way to go – they were seven minutes away in 1990 and nine in 2016 – but I agree with you. Their style feels suited to Europe. And just imagine the atmosphere for the home games.
49 min A cross from the right finds its way to Doku on the far side, 15 yards out. He tries to use Lacroix as a screen but curls over the bar.
48 min: Brilliant defending Richards strains every sinew to take a cross off the head of Haaland in the six-yard box. After Guehi’s in the first half, we just need a goal-saving header from Lacroix to complete the hat-trick.
46 min And they’re off.
One thing we can all agree on: next goal’s a big goal!
