Football writer Alex Keble analyses the FA Cup final as Crystal Palace beat Manchester City at Wembley Stadium to win their first major trophy and secure a place in Europe for the first time since being established in 1861.
The Crystal Palace players collapsed to the turf in unison. Oliver Glasner paced the touchline, almost expressionless, in shock. Fans screamed in disbelief, wept for joy.
We have seen tears at the end of an FA Cup final before, but maybe never quite like this. One hundred and 19 years without a trophy. Scarred by two FA Cup final defeats by Manchester United in 1990 and 2016.
Finally, Crystal Palace get their moment in the sun.
Crystal Palace's FA Cup win in photos
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Palace's victory was richly deserved. Manchester City dominated possession, but the Eagles decisively won the tactical battle, absorbing pressure admirably and scoring a counter-attacking goal that exposed Pep Guardiola’s surprise formation.
It was certainly a fascinating game tactically, but that comes secondary to a brilliant narrative-driven final, chief among them Dean Henderson, controversially avoiding a red card early in the first half before going on to make a string of saves, including one from the penalty spot.
“I lost my dad at the start of the season, and I’ll miss him here today, but he was with me every kick of the ball today,” Henderson told BBC Sport on the pitch. “I dedicate that win to him.”
Eberechi Eze was the matchwinner and impressive here again, scoring for a fifth game running and third in a row in this year’s FA Cup, but so was every other Palace player. They put their bodies on the line, soaked up pressure and gave supporters the greatest day of their lives.
Palace triumph a fairytale moment that could transform the club
The Eagles did not win one of their first eight Premier League games of the season, by which point hopes that Glasner would finally make progress with this club had faded.
Now, he is forever a legend – and the man that has taken Palace to the next level.
Make no mistake, this is a fairytale FA Cup win: a moment that lifts the weight of a century of history and all the near misses that came along the way. Seeing Mark Bright, the Palace legend who was on the losing side in the 1990 final, wipe tears the tears from his face at full-time said it all.
He was given the FA Cup to lift during the celebrations – and he reveled in it. Palace’s win was not just for themselves or the fans. It was for everyone involved in their winding, rocky and often painful journey to this moment.
Another highlight that will live forever in the memory: Joel Ward, who leaves the club at the end of the season after 12 years and over 350 games, was given the trophy lift by his team-mates. He is the last surviving player who was part of the Championship playoff winning team in 2013.
Those days are long gone now. Glasner, now surely the greatest manager in the club’s history, has brought Palace UEFA Europa League football. It could mark a significant step change for the Eagles.
Palace’s winner benefits from Guardiola’s shock 3-5-2
There will be more talk now of Guardiola “over-thinking” a cup final line-up. It is hard not to conclude that Glasner got in his head.
“I said to Pep afterwards, if we meet again you can’t play in this system,” Glasner told reporters after Palace’s 5-2 defeat to City last month, “because we will solve it.”
Perhaps that was why Guardiola decided to change away from the box-midfield formation that had served him so well in recent months, moving instead to a 3-5-2, with Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush up front together.
The idea seemed to be to get the ball wide and cross repeatedly for those two strikers, hoping that two No 9s would confuse the Palace back three. It did not.
Off the ball, Pep’s thinking was that the width of that midfield line, as you can see below, would be able to shut down any Palace counter-attacks, to no avail.
Palace had just seven shots on goal and two on target, almost justifying the Guardiola system, but the winner was scored specifically because of the flaws in Guardiola’s untested 3-5-2.
Throughout the game, Palace bypassed City’s midfield by playing long-balls up to Jean-Philippe Mateta, and when he took it down, as shown below, Palace had time and space to work the ball out to Daniel Munoz because there was no out-and-out No 6 on the pitch for Man City.
They needed Rodri (injured), Nico Gonzalez (on the bench) or Mateo Kovacic (not even in the squad) in this moment, but the ultra-attacking Guardiola system was left too light.
Also, the brilliant Munoz found space behind Nico O’Reilly because the young right-back had too much work to do in midfield.
In short, Guardiola’s system backfired and Palace, outstanding to a man, exploited it perfectly.
Guardiola then changed things far too late, with Man City looking increasingly blunt against a sea of Palace bodies, and even had time for one more wild decision to cap a day of classic over-thinking: 19-year-old Claudio Echeverri was brought on for his Man City debut and, understandably, had almost no impact.
Neither did Haaland or Kevin De Bruyne, again leaving Guardiola with questions to answer ahead of a hugely important game in three days’ time at home to AFC Bournemouth. Another performance like this one and City’s hopes of UEFA Champions League qualification will disappear.
They have now failed to win a trophy for the first time under Guardiola since his debut campaign in 2016/17. But this is not the time to dwell on Man City.
Speaking after the match, Glasner was able to relate what his side's achievement will mean to Palace fans around the world.
"The biggest success we can have is not winning the trophy, it's that is we could give thousands of our fans a moment for their lives," said Glasner. "We can give them great times. Maybe they have some problems, we give them hours and days they can forget all of this, just being happy."
Palace will party long into the night, although what they have achieved today probably won’t hit them for a while yet.
It was the matchwinner Eze – giddy, wide-eyed and overwhelmed as he spoke to BBC Sport at the final whistle – who perhaps best summed up the implausibility of a result Palace won’t come to terms with for quite some time.
“It’s a special moment… I don’t even know what to say. Honestly, I’m just grateful.”
