Manchester City licked their wounds from the Champions League in the FA Cup. The team led by Guardiola sealed their ticket to the grand final by beating Chelsea 1-0 thanks to a goal from Bernardo Silva in the final stretch of the match. The Portuguese's goal allowed the 'Cityzen' to tiptoe on an afternoon in which the brilliance of previous events was missing and in which their legs were heavy after the effort against Real Madrid, but in which Pep's team recovered smile.
In shock. This is how Manchester City jumped onto the Wembley grass. The team led by Pep Guardiola, with all its starters except for the injured Haaland and Ruben Dias, started hesitantly, making constant inaccuracies and showing signs of not having overcome the trauma of elimination in the Champions League. Chelsea took advantage of that anxiety to, who knew, take control of the ball and move into the opposite field. Enzo Fernández and Caicedo became protagonists and guided Pochettino's men to a peaceful start to the match and in which they even had the opportunity to shake the European champion. Cole Palmer, the new 'blue' star, had room to turn and Nico Jackson generated danger with each of his runs.
It was the ideal scenario, but the former Villarreal player is an example of what is happening to Chelsea this season. He promises and promises, but it is a sea of doubts at the moment of truth, in his case when he steps into the area. In his boots he had the clearest chance of the entire first half, but he got so involved in a one-on-one with Stefan Ortega that he ended up not even shooting on goal. It was the great opportunity for Pochettino's team, which dominated without fruit while the Argentine coach looked at the scoreboard, cursing his luck and hoping that the beast in front of him would not wake up. And Manchester City was going to emerge from its lethargy sooner or later.
Manchester City
Ortega Moreno, Walker, Stones (Ruben Dias, min. 46), Akanji, Aké, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden, Grealish (Doku, min. 66) and Julián Álvarez (Bobb, min. 89).
1
–
0
Chelsea
Petrovic, Gusto (Disasi, min. 80), Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Cucurella (Chilwell, min. 89), Caicedo, Enzo (Sterling, min. 89), Gallagher, Madueke (Mudryk, min. 79), Palmer and Jackson .
-
Goal:
1-0: min. 84, Bernardo Silva. -
Referee:
Michael Oliver. He cautioned Caicedo, Julián Álvarez, Petrovic, De Bruyne and Enzo Fernández. -
Incidents:
FA Cup semi-final played at Wembley in front of 90,000 spectators.
After the restart, Nico Jackson was still determined to revive City. His team also came out better in the second half and gave him two Ballon d'Ors ahead of Stefan Ortega. In the first the German goalkeeper saved a one-on-one with a stretch and in the second the striker finished weakly to the desperation of Pochettino, who couldn't believe it. By then the match was already in Guardiola's favor. Chelsea was an I want and I can't and the one from Sampedor had the key for everything to blow up with the changes.
Pep introduced Doku and the story began to change. The Belgian winger is not technically the best of players, but he has one more gear and that, when City gets stuck, is saying a lot. Three of his overflows made Chelsea's legs tremble and that's when the 'cityzen' reaction began. In one of those, he enabled De Bruyne, who gained the baseline and put a ball back so that Bernardo Silva, unmarked, opened the scoring and opened wide the doors to the FA Cup final. It was not the best day of Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva or Foden, but it was enough to defeat a Chelsea that, many millions later, still cannot find the recipe to compete with the best teams in England.
#City #licks #wounds #Cup #truth
