Pep Guardiola made a huge tactical blunder as Manchester City fell to a shock defeat in the FA Cup final by a resilient Crystal Palace. The Catalan over-thought it to an absurd agree and fielded no natural holding midfielders in a move reminiscent of the 2021 Champions League final defeat by Chelsea.
Eberechi Eze, a transfer target for City in the last two years, struck the only goal of the game but the final will be overshadowed for the decision not to send Dean Henderson off for handling outside his area. But City only have themselves to blame for losing a second cup final in a row, as Omar Marmoush saw his penalty saved by Henderson and Guardiola made yet more bizarre moves from the sidelines.
Before kick-off City's fans paid homage to Kevin De Bruyne in his last final for the club in an impressive tifo funded by fans with the help of Erling Haaland. But De Bruyne was the victim of Guardiola's outlandishly attacking formation, which meant he and Bernardo Silva had to act as holding midfielders to accomodate Marmoush, Savinho, Haaland and Jeremy Doku.
The tactics led to City dominating the early stages of the game and hemming Palace into their own area, only for the Eagles to swoop and score with their first attack. Munoz came down the right in a sweeping move and curled a low cross into Eze, who met it first time to beat Ortega.
Palace could and perhaps should have been reduced to 10 men when Henderson used his hand outside of the area to beat the ball away from Haaland's grasp. City did get a decision in their favour when Silva was fouled by Tyrick Mitchell but Marmoush took the kick ahead of Haaland and his low shot was pushed away by Henderson.
The goalkeeper repelled a dangerous effort from Doku and De Bruyne should have done much better on the rebound. The second half followed a similar pattern as City did most of the talking but Palace held firm. The Eagles thought they had doubled their lead when Daniel Munoz struck at the near post but the goal was ruled out for offside against Ismaila Sarr in the build-up.
Haaland skied an effort down the other end and then headed over the bar. The ball then fell to De Bruyne on the edge of the box but he shot wide. Moments later the final whistle went, rounding off an infuriating day for Guardiola and his side.
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