Manchester City shakes off and goes to the FA Cup final after beating Chelsea

City recovered with difficulty from the hard blow suffered on Wednesday at the Etihad. Still digesting the frustration, the hard way of falling from overwhelming dominance to the rival. Close to suffering the second elimination from a tournament in three days. Visibly tired. Very fair physically and without Erling Haaland at the top due to a muscle problem.

City survived since Chelsea's mistake, as irregular and unpredictable as their entire season. He was in the boots of Nico Jackson, who forgave up to three clear chances to knock down the champion, leaving Pochettino's brave approach without a reward. He went out for his rival, aware of his physical superiority.

He reduced his possession, caused the error in the pass, reflected in Rodri's unusual losses. But the image of the coach ended up associated with frustration due to the lack of precision in the final meters of his players. Chelsea's insecurity at the beginning of the play, with Cucurella about to shoot himself in the foot in a pass to Julián Álvarez that was saved by Thiago Silva, was corrected by putting speed into each action.

With Enzo Fernández prevailing in the midfield and Palmer showing brilliance with passes into space. This is where Jackson's speed was damaged, and after seven minutes he was testing Ortega's firmness in his return to the eleven.

The occasions were London. With Palmer plenty of confidence to seek surprise from 40 meters, running every time he stole to install doubt in an imprecise City. But with De Bruyne, capable of pulling an action out of the hat to decide the match. He did it before reaching the quarter-hour mark, with a magnificent pass between three rivals to the movement of Foden, who ran out of space after dribbling past the goalkeeper.

He repeated it in the play that decided the game. Chelsea forgave earlier when Enzo left Jackson alone, with time to run and think about the definition in the one-on-one match against Ortega. He cut back, too long towards his left foot and lacked the confidence to shoot when three City players had come to the rescue between the posts. He invented a pass to nothing that undermined his confidence. He had let Pochettino's team miss two mistakes by Walker, the kind that takes their toll against a great team.

The second was avoided by Stones diving to prevent Madueke from scoring. It is not usual to see Guardiola's team falter and Chelsea forgave him. He punished the space but did not define. Not even in a three-for-two counterattack invented by Cucurella that, again, was thrown down by Jackson with poor control. And when there was a good shot, Stefan Ortega appeared. With a firm hand down to Palmer's dry shot. It took 53 minutes for City to shoot on goal.

After a similar start to the first act, with Madueke forgiving a bad transfer from Rodri to his goalkeeper and Ortega saving a double chance in seconds. He propelled Jackson into his worst nightmares with a great save on his best shot. He also took his header at will at the far post in the following action to the lateral center. It's what big teams have. They cannot be forgiven, especially on several occasions. Foden, with a dry shot after a pass from Grealish, left the first warning in the good intervention of Petrovic.

City wanted to get up from possession but did not block the rival's speed, the good readings of Palmer who cried out asking for a hand inside Grealish's area, with which he deflected a free kick. Jackson was joined by Caicedo in the example of how not to finish a counterattack with everything in favor to score and the entry of Doku suddenly changed the panorama. City began to create imbalance with the Belgian and create chances. His left foot after a great dribbling action.

A race on the wing in which he connected with Foden and ended with a right hand from De Bruyne, which was the one who decided the semifinal. His action ended in a rebound at the far post that found the calm of Bernardo Silva in the definition. Chelsea tried with more heart than head until the last moment of added time. The last action was a reflection of his game. In a final transition by Chilwell in which he had one more touch on the ball, with Sterling unmarked to send the game to extra time, and precision in the pass. City won in adversity and has it in its power to be the first to retain the Premier and FA Cup crowns.
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EFE