FA Cup Final — Crystal Palace v Manchester City

I feel just a bit jealous of Crystal Palace. Players like Mateta and Eze who can produce some magic.

It would be nice, I'm thinking, to see Man City knocked back a peg or two...

And I'd love to think I'm watching something special, a great occasion at the Home of Football… Please do something different from what you normally would do in a Premier League game!!!

Is it just my monitor, or does the colour of the City flags look a bit off?

More faded teal than sky blue!

Your right MK, those flags are teal green.

Hate this cat-and-mouse game City play when they are trying to break down the low block or parked bus — whatever it's called. Just put the ball into the box!

Oh, that's better!

Was it my tinnitus impacted hearing or did that young lady sing God Save the Queen rather than King?

Cagey affair so far, but great creation of space and first time delivery from De Bruyne to almost put Haaland on the score sheet

If Palace doesn't stop giving up corners, they're gonna get blown out.

Really poor that Palace can't keep the ball.

Beauty – the 1-0 specialists!

Well, I guess that's why City tried to pen them back.

Brilliant break, unbelievable first-time strike!

But Palace have taken the lead in each of their previous FA Cup Finals....

Wish I had some in investment in the game. I can recall when the FA Cup Final was like Christmas Day. My God, it started at the crack of dawn. Meet the players, It's A Cup Final Knock-Out. The Road to Wembley. Cameras outside the team's hotel. You always wanted one team to win.

Oh, hold on, Palace have just fucking scored!! Unerring accuracy. I've taken MK's job. Against the run of play. The crowd go wild. Jumpers for goalposts.

Excellent counter attack. Eze is a fine player

Get in!

Do it for the Palace Cheerleaders!

Used to love that, Andy.

John Bailey's mum and family on the train.

Keeping the ball is highly overrated!

FA Cup Final day was great TV apart from Freddie Starr's customary appearance

Handball outside the area.

Still should have been called back? Or not because there was no goal or penalty claim?

Man City were in control. Suckered punch.

Handball outside the box by a keeper is an offence and sending off? Apparently the decision was the ball was travelling away from goal.

Very poor decision.

First FA Cup final I ever watched live was ours in '95.

It wasn't live on TV so I had to find a bar near the airport with a satellite dish. A couple hundred Man Utd fans and me.

That's astounding, surely Mitchell does touch the ball.

Not really a penalty, I don't think.

Fantastic!!!!

Absolutely fantastic anticipation to save a very strong penalty kick.

No penalty, only gave it after City players rushed at him, and Mitchell touched the ball, Silva dives.

Hell of a save.

Btw, Bernardo Silva is a snivelling little shite hawk.

1984 at Wembley, Mike. Right behind the goal Graeme Sharp scored in.

I was not long off crutches. My dad trying to scale the fence to get on the pitch at the end. Me thinking if he succeeds, how am I getting home?

When I watch the footage, I can see him. The police physically knocked him back from the top of the fence.

Another hell of a save.

Yep, another brilliant save.

Shearer speculating that Pickford's England spot may be under threat!

Someone is going to have to explain the rule to me.

Just because the player gets a touch on the ball doesn't mean it can't be a foul? Or has it changed?

That's a great story, Danny, and what a video souvenir! Better than my dad's Super 8 vacation movies for sure.

Well, that half just flew by... good game, good game.

Danny, he goes for the ball (not the player), he gets the ball (not the player).

Silva dives as contact is made after the ball is touched… no foul.

I agree with you, Jeff, the penalty should never have been given.

How did VAR fail to see the contact by Mitchell?

Henderson should have been sent off for the handball outside the area, potentially denying Haaland a goal scoring opportunity.

Keeper shouldn't have been on the pitch to save the penalty that shouldn't have been given.

VAR (ie, the operation of) is shite.

Mike (14),

Sometimes it can't be helped when you are playing a team with ten men behind the ball which is Palaces game plan and entitled to play like that and might win them the game but it is still very hard to combat — so City are moving the ball about while trying to find a way to break down that defence and they haven't been too bad at it but Palace's last man is MotM up to now.

More goals in this game… not necessarily by City because they are still very fragile in defence and Palace are good on the break aways.

Agreed, both calls were missed by the ref and not properly overruled by VAR.

Dave, there was a stretch during this season when our results were better the less possession we had!

Touch on the ball or not by Mitchell, Silva was going down before he was touched. Stupid to slide tackle there though.

Keeper should have been sent off. VAR is shite. Still, glad he wasn't and game is still alive

Brilliant there from the Yank, Chris Richards.

The USA has major problems in central defense and seeing this guy finally develop is a good sign.

Pep must get fed up of Uncle-Know-It-All sitting next to him on the bench.

Every time he sits down he gets it nonstop

Pity VAR got it right that time.

I thought Palace deserved to keep that… but apparently that's not the way it works!

I don't understand the thinking behind corners like that — which we have become masters of — ballooned beyond the far post.

The definitive quintessential corner was delivered by Andy Hinchcliffe, head-height but hard to the near post, with Matt Jackson glancing it in.

Man City piss about to much; instead of shooting they pass.

I find it mind numbing to watch.

Second time the offside flag has gone up in a timely fashion.

Has PGMOL finally seen sense (after the Aywioni injury) and changed the instructions to linesmen?

De Bruyne's big chance!

Man City, despite having strength in depth, somehow lost their way when Rodri got injured quite while back.

They lost a World class holding midfielder and it shows every time opposition teams counter attack. City have lost a lot of points in so many games since Rodri got injured.

Regarding the penalty miss why did they allow Mahmoush to take it. He looked a very poor player up to that point.

Having said all that, City just do too much passing that many teams now just get everyone behind the ball and do exactly what Palace did: Dare.

Mick, exactly. Peps style bores me. Preferred the Mancini City.

Foden… almost as good as Harrison!

Agreed Joe, If I was Haaland I'd be gutted, he needs the ball slinging in… but no, they pass it to death and get nowhere.

Boring, Pep tika-taka shite found out. I'm made up for Palace and their fans.

Excellent result.

Sean Dyche would be proud.

Is there a bigger prick in football than Guardiola?

Lessons to be learnt.

Anyone can win a trophy if you believe you can, have a plan and give 100%.

Good for Palace.

Delighted for Palace, and Silva is a serial diver.

Take your beating, Pep!

Andrew agreed.

I hope they miss out on Champions League as well.

At one time Man City were exciting to watch.

Now, they are just boring with no imagination. Congratulations to Palace.

We could have done well this season with the top teams, even Liverpool, being fairly poor. We were a bit busy avoiding relegation though, I suppose?

Great win for Palace though, they have had a good season.

So the moral of the story is:

Either Spurs or Man Utd will have a better season than Arsenal or Man City!

21.7% possession, 2 shots on target.

Sometimes KITAP1 works against the big boys. Assume no one is going to knock Glasner for that, and parking the bus.

Got lucky with the handball.

Hard to say Palace deserved to win, but they did…..deserve to win.

They defended resolutely in that second half, barely giving Man City a sniff. As has been said, City were trying to find the perfect goal with pass, pass, pass, instead of either lofting the ball into the area, or, a bit like us last week, if you don't shoot you don't score. Haaland didn't get a look in the whole game, his only chance coming early on in the game.

Football is all about attack and defence, City's attack was garbage whilst the Palace defence was superb. So yes, Palace did deserve to win.

Pep's obviously confused with the “Glad All Over” song.

I think he thinks they're taking the piss out of him!

Congratulations to a battling Palace display. Man City are done now, I believe their era is over.

So, when is It our turn? 30 years without a pot needs to be addressed ASAP.

It is a deliberate hand ball outside of the box. Red card all day long.

The state of officiating in this country is a joke. "Going away from goal"? What a load of shit.

VAR has now ruined the FA Cup final.

Looks like they didn't want City to win it.

What next?

Oh well, another team added to the list that has picked up a trophy since our 1995 success, whilst our drought continues depressingly.

I never thought I'd see Newcastle Utd or Crystal Palace win a trophy before we did. If someone had told me that about 10 years ago, I wouldn't have believed it.

It's high time this club joined the party and gave the new generation of Evertonians something to be proud of.

Along with the obvious candidates, Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, other clubs that have won trophies of some kind since 1995 as follows.

Middlesbrough
Wigan
Birmingham
Blackburn
Tottenham
Crystal Palace
Leicester
Swansea
Portsmouth
Aston Villa
Newcastle
West Ham

Many clubs have disappeared into the abyss but, at the end of the day, a trophy success will forever be etched into their history books.

I find it mind-boggling that a club the size of Everton has been to only one Cup Final of any sort since 1995, that being of course the 2009 loss to Chelsea.

Absolutely mind-boggling.

Palace won that because of a disgraceful inexplicable decision not to give Henderson a red. Don't get me wrong, I wanted Palace to win. But Attwell should be fucking ashamed of himself. Pep has every right in the world to go on and on about that for a couple of days.

Dougie Freedman should also get a medal.

'Citeh are done now, I believe their era is over'.

You couldn't be more wrong Mr Shears.

Jim, since 1995, Everton are the only one of the 92 not to win either a trophy or a promotion.

That makes no sense, Andrew.

What does 'only one of the 92' mean?

Andrew, to gain a promotion we'd have had to have been relegated, and I don't want that on our CV either.

Only one of what 92?

Andrew @65,

Sadly, we have become a very nondescript club.

I get that many puff chests out in pride of this long unbroken top flight run without relegation. But for me, it should be about more than that now.

Everton Football Club shouldn't be going 30 years with just one Cup Final appearance, such is the past history, the fervent fanbase that follows it, craves such big occasions.

We've well and truly been starved of excitement over the last two decades and, sooner rather than later, that must change… it simply has to before we become even less relevant.

Does anyone have any idea what he means by 'one of the 92'?

I think he might be referring to the 92 clubs that once constituted all the teams in all tiers of English football.

In that context, the only 92 I can think of are the current teams in the Football League. So EFL plus Premier League.

He's saying each team, except Everton, has won a trophy or been promoted (or both?) in that time.

Where is AI when you need it?

The 92 PL and EFL clubs

Who's Al? 🤣

I don't understand the question, Paul. It would be the 92 League teams in England.

But I suspect you're asking because you have a rebuttal prepared.

As of 2024, there have been 145 clubs in the Football League. I assume that means old first division / Premier League, and all the subsequent divisions.

Seems an awful lot, 47 clubs have been promoted from the National league, or whatever it's been called down the years.

I think the main reason Palace won the cup was because their ‘keeper was MotM— if Everton won the cup playing like that I would be made up but I'd have the grace to admit we were second best on the day.

While having much less possession might get better results, it is just as boring to watch as the team who are creating many chances but being thwarted by good goalkeeping.

Foden is going through a bad spell and he was a passenger when he came on. City miss Rodri a great deal, but I think they also miss the attacking play of Kyle-Walker –
they certainly missed both of them today – but I don't think we have seen the last of City.

Not really, Ernie! Best I can do is that I don't believe it and that there have never been 92 consistent teams since 1995. Does he mean of the 92 we have this day, today?

By the way ,Andrew, how many of this 92 however assembled have never been relegated since 1995?

Whatever the source or what it covers, can you give us the source for that stat, Andrew, please. If true, it's a gooden.

I was only just discussing that earlier Dave. Foden doesn't look right and didn't when he came on.

I don't have a grudge against Manchester City, but I think it is good for football that Palace demonstrated that you can win trophies if you believe.

I always will. Wait until the summer when I'm predicting us winning that bleeding League Cup that plays havoc with me as we've never won it. And qualifying for Europe, either through that, or both.

I do that every year though!!

I think Andrew is making the point that we have not won anything unlike the other 92 clubs. As Jeff #67 points out we haven't needed to win promotion unlike a lot of the other 92.

I mean how sad must you be to spin a positive as a negative.

Oh... since the Premier League was formed.

I'm merely speculating BTW if Sherrif Steve is on patrol.

That lass from Malta was not very pretty. I want Iceland to win so far. It's getting exciting.

This Danish lass needs to eat ryvita and nimble bread

So do a lot of the City squad Paul.

Haaahaaaa based on today yes!