The Catalan coach bypassed midfield with an ultra-attacking formation at Wembley which under-estimated Oliver Glasner's streetwise Eagles
Pep Guardiola has had a long and passionate love affair with Wembley Stadium, winning the Champions League as a player and manager there with Barcelona, as well as four League Cups and two FA Cups with Manchester City. A third FA Cup really should have followed on Saturday, too.
However, the serial-winning coach underestimated Crystal Palace in the final with a naive starting line up that overlooked the midfield, the area of the pitch Guardiola used to value more than any other. He paid a heavy price for his oversight, losing a second consecutive cup final as Palace edged out City 1-0 to lift their first-ever major trophy. Guardiola is now set to finish a season without lifting major silverware for only the second time in his coaching career, and for the first time since his first year in England back in 2017.
Guardiola was missing Mateo Kovacic and of course Rodri, but he still had Ilkay Gundogan and Nico Gonzalez available, plus Rico Lewis and James McAtee, neither of whom made the bench. Instead he chose to field Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne as holding midfielders, which was no way to treat the legendary playmaker in his last final in a blue shirt.
Ahead of them was a glittering cast of forwards in Omar Marmoush, Savinho, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland, but they all failed to score – and that was despite being awarded a penalty which Haaland mistakenly let Marmoush take before man of the moment Dean Henderson got the better of the Egyptian from the spot to preserve Palace's narrow advantage after Eberechi Eze had given them the lead with their first foray forward.
Henderson also played his role in the most controversial incident of a match that had it all, and likely breathed new life into the sport's oldest competition, showing that hard-working and humble teams can still have their day of glory.
GOAL breaks down the winners and losers from Wembley Stadium…
Getty Images SportWINNER: Eberechi Eze
For the last three rounds, Eze has put the ‘magic’ in the ‘magic of the FA Cup’. He came up with a stunning brace against Fulham in the quarter-finals and got the Eagles soaring with a peach of a volley on their way to romping past Aston Villa in the semis.
So who had the final say in the, well, final? Of course it was Eze. Palace’s tactics meant it was a matter of picking and choosing their moments, taking the sparing chances that would come their way. City’s squad didn’t only cost several times more than the Eagles', but they boasted the wealth of experience having played so many of these grand occasions together before.
But when Daniel Munoz swept a low cross towards Eze after a quarter of an hour, one not too dissimilar to the ball played in for that semi-final corker, the England midfielder made no mistake. It was a move they were used to, a finish completely familiar and in-keeping with the story of Palace’s run.
Truth be told, Eze wasn’t too involved after scoring, but he didn’t need to be. Palace’s objective was to win, and Eze’s own mission was to be additive to that cause. That’s all that mattered.
Wilfried Zaha is widely considered by Eagles fans to be their best player of all time, but he failed to get his hands on the FA Cup when forming part of the 2016 team that lost to Manchester United at Wembley. Eze may have just snatched that championship belt from the Ivorian.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportLOSER: Pep Guardiola
Guardiola had talked up the importance of the FA Cup the day before the final, but his starting line-up almost looked like him showing a lack of respect for the competition as he seemed to think he could win it without a midfield and by playing all his attackers, like an inexperienced Football Manager player.
His formation, which at first glance looked like 4-2-3-1 but at times felt like a 4-0-6, completely stifled Guardiola's players. Yes, City had 78 percent possession and 23 shots to Palace's seven, but their efforts on goal were largely desperate attempts and they never played with fluidity.
De Bruyne was playing far too deep, often looking like a quarter-back, while Haaland was given no decent service. Most managers would have corrected their tactics at half-time, but Guardiola made no changes until the 76th minute and still did not bring on a competent midfielder. Most baffingly, he unleashed 19-year-old Claudio Echeverri, who had never previously even been named as a substitute, for his debut on the biggest stage.
The coach stood by his tactics, explaining: "I think we didn't suffer. I expected the game in that way and wanted Kevin to deliver some balls. but we could not find the positions we wanted. The gameplan didn't work because we didn't win, but I didn't [regret] anything. At Southampton I had a bad feeling, but today we are sad because it's the FA Cup and it's such a beautiful day."
This defeat, however, can now be filed alongside City's 2021 Champions League final loss to Chelsea, another day when Guardiola went into battle with no specialist holding midfielders and paid the price.
Getty Images SportWINNER: Dean Henderson
Oh, how this final could have gone so differently for Henderson. He was embroiled in some early controversy when he swatted a long ball over the top away from Haaland with his hand – only this came outside the penalty area. Referee Stuart Attwell did not punish the Palace goalkeeper, but VAR took an in-depth look at the incident. After several minutes, it was decided that while Henderson did illegally handle the ball outside his own box, it did not deny Haaland an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and so was spared a red card.
That was undoubtedly a turning point. Even when City were awarded a penalty soon after, Henderson stood tall and thwarted Marmoush, diving low to his right to deny the Egyptian. That was one of six saves the England international made, but each of them were vital to ensure Palace left Wembley with the cup.
As a former Manchester United player, Henderson must have enjoyed twisting the knife in to City and Guardiola, who, he got into afters with following the full-time whistle. Once a Red Devil, always a Red Devil, eh?
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Getty Images SportLOSER: Erling Haaland
Haaland has now played six matches at Wembley and still hasn't scored under the arch, while he has just two winners' medals to show for his five appearances in finals.
The Norwegian returned from his six-week injury lay off just in time for this year's showpiece, and last week's match at Southampton was his tune-up game. But when it came to it, Haaland was rusty, as he failed to beat Henderson from close range early in the game and then missed the target with his later opportunities.
But worst of all, he did not want to take City's penalty. True, he had missed his last attempt from the spot against Bournemouth, but he should have backed himself to score. That was certainly what ex-England captain Wayne Rooney thought.
"Erling Haaland is a world-class forward, but when we're talking about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, there's no way they're giving that ball away," Rooney said on . "That's what separates them two players from Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe and these players. They are selfish and they want to score every game. When he misses chances, I think you can see it gets to him and it does affect him. Maybe the thought of taking a penalty at Wembley might have been too much for him."